Newsletter No. 10 | Term 2 Week 1 | Thursday 28th April 2022
Prayer
Lord,
We bring our thanks this day for the peace and security we enjoy, which was won for us through the courage and devotion of those who gave their lives in times of war.
We pray that their labour and sacrifice may not be in vain, but that their spirit may live on in us and in generations to come. That the liberty, truth and justice which they sought to preserve may be seen and known in all nations upon the earth.
This we pray in the name of the one who gave his life for the sake of the world, Jesus Christ.
Amen
Principal's Message
Dear Families and Friends,
Welcome back to school. I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Easter break. The beautiful weather we had over Easter was certainly a great way to kick off the holidays. I hope you had the opportunity to make the most of it.
We look forward to an exciting Term ahead with our School concert, Mother’s Day celebrations, NAPLAN, St. Brendan’s Feast Day celebrations, Catholic Education Week, Year 5/6 Camp and lots of other valuable and exciting learning opportunities for our students.
It is going to be busy!
On Tuesday our Year 5/6 students joined students from other schools in the Colac and surrounding areas to attend the ANZAC Day Service at Colac Memorial Square. Attending these ceremonies teaches our students the importance of having respect and a sense of gratitude for those who sacrificed their lives for our country. It also reminds us to be thankful that we live in such a wonderful part of the world. I would like to commend our students for the respect they demonstrated throughout the service. They were a credit to themselves, their families and our school.
We are very happy to welcome back Kate Parker. Kate has returned from Maternity Leave and, as mentioned previously, will be teaching Sport as well as taking on the role of Learning Diversity Leader. The children were very excited to see Kate back at school and Kate was equally excited to be back! It was also great to see Miss Alice back as she missed the last few weeks of Term Two. All staff are really looking forward to the Term ahead and hoping that both staff and students are able to move into a good routine with high attendance by all. It is really great to see so many children at school this week, almost full attendance each day. Fingers crossed that this will continue.
On behalf of the school I would like to extend our sympathy to Bridget Newcombe who lost her sister at the beginning of the holidays. Bridget had been a great support to her sister through a long battle with illness. We keep Bridget and her family in our prayers.
I would like to remind you all that this Friday, 29th April and Monday, 2nd May are pupil free days. Staff will be working on the next stage of our School Review process. We understand that it is not ideal to have two school closure days so early in the Term, but the Review process requires us to work through a number of steps before we complete the process, and we need to begin the process early in the year. We hope you all enjoy the long weekends with their families.
Finally, I would like to commend the students on the way they have returned to school, enthusiastic, positive and ready to learn. We look forward to the Term ahead with a sense of excitement and optimism.
Leanne Eastman
PRINCIPAL
principal@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au
MOTHER'S DAY
We invite all mothers, grandmothers, aunties and significant women in your lives to join us for our Mother’s Day celebration and Morning Tea on Friday, 6th May at 9am.
The children will be preparing something special for you and would love for you to be there on the day. Hopefully you can make it!
ST BRENDAN'S FEAST DAY
St. Brendan’s Feast Day will be celebrated on 20th May.
The date coincides with National Walk to School day, so like St. Brendan, we will set off on a journey, and will walk to school together in the morning. The day will also include a Mass and a special lunch. Other activities for the day are still to be finalised so stay tuned for more details.
NAPLAN
The testing window for NAPLAN assessments this year will be between Tuesday 10th May - Friday 20th May. Students in Years 3 and 5 are assessed on Reading Writing, Conventions of Language and Numeracy.
This year St. Brendan’s students will be completing the assessments online for the first time. (This excludes the Year 3 Writing test which will be done on paper). Students have undertaken some online practice tests already so they are very familiar with the process.We will let you know the specific days for the tests in the coming two weeks.
MAINTENANCE
There has been a lot of hard work put into the school over the last few weeks and the school is looking fabulous. Thank you to the following people:
Peter, an amazing neighbour and friend to St Brendan's, has been busy painting the train over the last fortnight and it is looking so bright and fresh. Peter also comes up to school in his own time to make sure the chooks are fed and watered, does a bit of gardening and other small jobs around the place. We are very grateful for all that Peter does.
The Sutherland family for picking up the artificial grass for the gaga pit.
Anthony Campbell for continuing to work on the bike track and helping to put on new backboards for the basketball rings.
Anyone I have missed! I am aware that people just drop in and little jobs around the school when we are not here to see them. Thank you to all of you.
COVID UPDATE
It is recommended that families continue to test children twice weekly and monitor for symptoms. If you require more rapid tests please visit the school office.
A reminder that household contacts of a positive case are no longer required to isolate, but are required to wear N95 masks when at school and test on five out of the seven days.
Student News
Kaitlyn, Grace and Nellie have been busy working with the new 'Mini Bricks' in their classroom to create this amazing pony, who they have named Fernie.
We might have some future engineers amoungst us! Well done girls.
Catholic Culture
ALLELUIA DAY
Today we celebrated Alleluia Day with a whole school liturgy.
Alleluia means ‘God be praised’ and is associated with joy. As Christians and Catholics Easter Sunday signifies the resurrection of Jesus.
As a school we show our joy in prayer and ritual as we acknowledge the holiest day in Catholic tradition.
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
On Good Friday the annual Stations of the Cross is held at the Botanical Gardens. Each year St. Brendan's School is asked to represent one of the stations. This year Maverick Lenehan did a wonderful job reading clearly, accurately and at the perfect pace. Thank you for representing our school Mav.
OUR DIOCESAN COMMUNITY MAGAZINE
Please find below the link for the April 2022 edition of “Our Diocesan Community”. The magazine is an excellent platform to continue to share the good news stories of our schools, parishes and agencies across the diocese.
If you have a good news story that you would like to share the Pastoral Ministry Office welcome articles and photos for publication in ODC and the diocesan e-News. Please forward to odc@ballarat.catholic.org.au .
Prep/1 Classroom News
Welcome to Term 2. I hope everyone had a loving, relaxing holiday! It was so great to see everyone’s smiling faces back at school on Monday. Over the break, we must have had a visit from the Easter Bunny - upon arriving at the classroom on Monday morning, the students were excited to find chocolate eggs in their handmade Easter baskets.
Literacy: We have jumped straight back into learning. Preps are continuing to work on the letters b,c,g,h. They are reading and writing small words containing these focus letters. The Grade 1’s are consolidating their knowledge of consonant digraphs i.e. two consonants in a row which represent a sound eg. /ng/ like in “ring.”
Home Project: Students have also been sent home with some ‘homework!’ Inspired by the program “Let Grow,” over the next few weeks, the children are invited to undertake a project at home. The only requirement of this project is that they must complete it independently. Some ideas for home projects include: making their own lunch, walking the dog or climbing a tree. Have a chat with your child and help them decide what their project will be. They may need a tiny bit of assistance to set themselves up eg. buying ingredients to bake a cake. However, once they are good to go, take a step back and let them flourish. In week 4, students will be invited to talk about their project during class. I am excited to see what they come up with!
Maths: Our first learning cycle for Term 2 in “Place Value.” The Grade 1’s are consolidating their understanding of numbers to 100 whilst the preps are working on those tricky teen numbers. On Monday, the children were challenging to make their name using 20 matchsticks. It was inspiring to see their problem-solving skills on display!
Religion: Our overarching concept for RE this term is “Love.” To kick start our unit, students are exploring what love looks like and feels like. They will draw upon their own experiences and knowledge as we investigate and explore.
Integrated Curriculum: In IC this Term, we will be learning about Digital Technology! This is a very exciting topic with lots of potential for creativity and design. This week, we brainstormed all the different types of digital technology that we know and use.
Parent catch-ups: Over the next few weeks, I am hoping to catch up with all parents and have a very informal chat about how your child is going at school. I will provide you with more information about this soon.
A big thank you to Sofia and the Gray family who cared for the guinea pigs over the holidays! She did a wonderful job babysitting Peaches and Coco.
Allira Kluver
akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au
2/3/4 Classroom News
Welcome to Term 2!
I hope you all enjoyed your ANZAC Day holiday. On Tuesday we watched a short clip and discussed why this annual holiday is important to us and our country.
We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful country and have the lifestyle that we do.
In Maths we are revisiting Place Value and focusing on 10 more, 10 less, 100 more and 100 less of 3 and 4 digit numbers.
This term in Literacy we are working on persuasive and information texts.
Our EPIC reading total is at 461 books. Super effort 2/3/4’s!
In R.E. our concept is ‘Love’ and our Integrated Curriculum theme is ‘Digital Technology’ and will be great fun for everyone.
NAPLAN testing for Year 3’s and Year 5’s will begin in Week 3. On Tuesday the Writing component will be administered, on Wednesday the Reading and Language Conventions, and on Thursday the Numeracy testing.
If you have any queries please contact me at school.
Cheers,
Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au
5/6 Classroom News
Welcome to Week 1 of Term 2! I hope everyone had a safe and relaxing Easter break. I’m looking forward to the term ahead, we have lots of exciting activities coming up!
Cows Create Careers: This term the 5/6‘s will be participating in the Cows Create Careers program. Halfway through the term we will be taking care of 2 calves, Bright and Future for 2 weeks. We will be feeding them, measuring their growth and cleaning their pen every day. Throughout the program we will also learn about different aspects of the dairy industry.
Writing: This week we introduced our new writing focus, persuasive texts. We looked at a persuasive online article and identified the techniques used by the author to persuade us.
Maths: We have begun our new unit, ‘fractions, decimals and percentages’. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at the connection between these 3 areas.
Integrated Curriculum: This week we started our Digital Technology unit. We brainstormed different types of digital technologies and discussed how they help us in our lives.
I hope you all have a great week, please don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions or concerns.
Tahlia Whytcross
twhytcross@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au
Sustainability & Outdoor Education
This week in sustainability and outdoor education students erected the steel frame and dug the footings for the shade house. Our aim is to grow seedlings and pot up plants inside the shade house. Watch this space!
Birthday Corner
We would like to wish a very big Happy Birthday to everyone who has celebrated their special day this week and during the school holidays, including:
April 22nd - Jordon Price (8)
Important Dates
APRIL
29th - Pupil Free Day (School Review)
MAY
2nd - Pupil Free Day (School Review)
6th - Mothers Day Celebration 9am in the Hall - ALL WELCOME
10th - NAPLAN Writing
11th - School Concert Practice 9am - 10.30am
13th - School Photo Day
18th - School Concert Practice 9am - 10.30am
20th - St Brendan's Feast Day
20th - Walk to School Day / World Bee Day
27th - Little Learners Program Begins
31st - School Concert Practice 9am - 10.30am
JUNE
1st - School Concert Practice 9am - 10.30am
3rd - Little Learners Program
8th - School Concert Practice 9am - 10.30am
8th - School Concert
10th - Little Learners Program
13th - Public Holiday - NO SCHOOL
15th until 17th - Year 5/6 Melbourne Urban Camp
24th - Last Day of Term 2
Acknowledgement of Country
At St. Brendan’s Primary School we pay our respects to the traditional owners of the land, the Gulidjan people and pay our respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.
We will respect the land, animals and waterways, from the roots of the earth to the tops of the trees. Through the example of our first Australians, we understand that if we look after the country, then the country will look after us.
About Us
School Vision: 'For you I have a destiny and a hope.'
PARISH PRIEST: Fr Michael O’Toole PRINCIPAL: Mrs Leanne Eastman
SAC CHAIRPERSON: Ms Gayle McNabb CHILD SAFETY OFFICER: Mrs Leanne Eastman