Newsletter No. 12 | Term 2 Week 3 | Thursday 12th May 2022
Prayer
A PRAYER FOR COMMUNITY
Lord,
Please help us to build a sense of community in our area and in our world.
Help us to recognise that we are all brothers and sisters, made in your image.
May our duty to participate see our communities thrive,
enabling us to create a fairer world,
where everyone's voices can be heard.
Amen.
Principal's Message
Dear Families and Friends,
It was lovely to see so many mothers, grandmothers and fathers at the Mother’s Day celebration last Friday. It was easy to see the love that the children had for their mums and significant women in their lives. Once again, the photo booth was also a hit and the ‘food artworks’ that the children created of their mums were so creative and funny!! Thank you to those who were lucky enough to be able to attend and thanks to the staff who assisted the children with making it a special day for their mums. The Mother’s Day celebration has been a beautiful tradition at St. Brendan’s. We hope you all felt extra special.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
We would like to acknowledge and thank Phil Boyd and Steve Lang from Coragulac Quarry who made a significant contribution of materials towards the building of our bike track. We really appreciate their generosity.
Thank you to all families who encouraged their children to complete the homework task of writing cards and drawing pictures of appreciation to Peter for painting the train, looking after the chooks and doing lots of odd jobs around the place. The cards and drawings were just beautiful and I know that they were very much appreciated.
NAPLAN
Naplan testing began this week and it has all gone really well. Whilst the children know that the test is important, and we want them to show us what they know by trying their best, there is no pressure on them to achieve high results. The message is to relax about it and just do the best that you can.
We are really proud of the effort that our students have put into the tests.
COMMUNICATION WITH FAMILIES
There are a number of ways in which the school communicates with our families and the wider community. Sometimes it can be overwhelming for parents to think about what they should be looking at.
Question: Where should we look first? Is there a one stop shop?
Answer: The School Website is the place to go. The website has links to all other communication platforms.
Below is a list of school communication platforms and the purpose of each one:
- The school website: To communicate what is happening in the school and to allow parents, to see deeper into what is happening in the school they are sending their child to everyday.
- Parent Facebook page: Quick messages and reminders to parents.
- School Community Facebook page: Sharing and promoting school happenings to the school community and wider community.
- PAM: Permission Notes and School Attendance.
- Calendar: Upcoming events.
- Seesaw: classroom communication (the link can be found on the website in the Learning and Teaching Overview)
Leanne Eastman
PRINCIPAL
principal@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au
Prep/1 Classroom News
Welcome to week 3!
SCHOOL PHOTOS Next Tuesday, school photos will be taking place. A friendly reminder for all students to be wearing full, correct winter uniform for the occasion.
LITERACY We had a very mysterious visitor in our classroom this week. On Monday morning, the students were astounded to discover a trail of sparkly hoof prints and some half eaten vegetables. Upon inspecting the scene, they decided a unicorn had been traipsing around the room! This very exciting event was the beginning of our unit on information report writing. Our model text, “Unicorns” will guide us as we learn how to craft an information report.
MATHS We have continued learning about place value this week! The Preps are focusing on numbers 10-20 while the Grade 1’s are tackling numbers to 100. We’ve also been attempting a ‘Maths Challenge’ each day which challenges the children to think creatively about a problem and use their initiative in solving it. For example, “Noah saw 12 legs walk past him onto the ark. What animals might have walked past him?” Using playdough and toothpicks, the students created little animals in an attempt to work it out.
RELIGION We have continued exploring the concept of love this week. Students were invited to imagine a world in which love underpinned everything. What would this world look like? What sorts of things would be happening? It was exciting to observe their thinking.
INTEGRATED CURRICULUM Our Digital Technology unit is underway and has been a hit so far! Students have begun creating their own virtual realities. This involves working on an app called CoSpaces to design and produce a virtual world.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK Milly Carlon has completed her “Let Grow Project.” Milly cooked waffles for her family… all by herself. She turned on the oven, put the waffles in, took them out when they were ready and even served them up with maple syrup and cream. Congratulations Milly - what a spectacular achievement. I hope everyone else’s projects are coming along nicely. Let me know if you have any questions!
Allira Kluver
akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au
2/3/4 Classroom News
Welcome to Week 3!
Thank you to all the mums who attended our Mother’s Day celebrations on Friday. It was lovely to see you all and the children adored having you there.
ST BRENDANS FEAST DAY Next Friday on the 20th May we will be celebrating St. Brendan’s Feast Day and it will look different to our usual celebration. The students have the opportunity to walk to school with staff then head into Colac to participate in the 10.00am Mass at St. Mary’s. We extend a warm welcome to all to come along and join us at St. Mary’s in prayer and song. After that we will make our way to the Botanical Gardens for a play and activities. Lunch will be provided for the whole school. On the way home we will drop off pictures drawn by the children to the local nursing homes.
LITERACY This week in Literacy we are still working on persuasive texts. Our text focus is writing a persuasive piece about the best pet.
SPELLING Our spelling focus for Year 2 is ‘a-e ’ and for the Year 3’s and 4’s ‘silent k, b and t’.
READING Our EPIC reading total is at 582 books. A fabulous effort 2/3/4’s!
INTEGRATED CURRICULUM This week in Integrated Curriculum the children have started designing their own virtual worlds. We are working together with the P/1 class and everyone is excited to be involved in the activity.
HOMEWORK Homework this week is practising times tables: Year 2’s the 5 and 10 times, Year 3’s the 2, 3 and 4 times and Year 4’s the 4, 8 and 12 times.
NAPLAN testing for Year 3’s and Year 5’s has started with the Writing and Reading components completed so far. On Friday Language Conventions will be administered, and next Tuesday the Numeracy testing.
Star of the Week award goes to Kaitlyn Bourk. Congratulations on your excellent work and effort!
Cheers,
Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au
5/6 Classroom News
Welcome to Week 3 of Term 2!
SCHOOL PHOTOS Just a reminder that school photos are now next Tuesday. Students are to wear correct winter uniform and Year 6 students can wear their hoodies if they wish.
COWS CREATE CAREERS On Tuesday we had a visit from Nadine and Emily from Webber and Chivell Fertilisers. We learnt about the importance of having healthy levels of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium and Sulfur in grass. Nadine and Emily explained that they can do soil tests to check the levels of these minerals, and if one of the minerals is low, the grass won’t grow very much. Nadine and Emily then took us outside to inspect the soil on our back oval. We used gardening tools to search for insects in the soil. We found lots of slugs, spiders and worms!
WRITING This week we have been working on our persuasive unit. Our focus text is ‘Let’s Save Antarctica’ by Catherine Barr. We have been unpacking some sentences in this text and discussing what makes it persuasive to the reader.
MATHS We have been working on our Fractions, Decimals and Percentages unit. This week the Year 5’s have been comparing decimals up to thousandths and the Year 6’s have been adding and subtracting decimals up to thousandths.
RELIGION This term our concept for Religion is ‘Gratitude’. This week we have been reflecting critically about what gratitude means and what it looks, sounds and feels like. We have also been discussing how being grateful is a way of expressing thank you.
INTEGRATED CURRICULUM In our Digital Technology unit we have been learning how to use the website ‘CoSpaces’ to create our own virtual worlds. This week students have been working on their setting and their characters in their virtual world.
HOMEWORK From now on students will have 2 weeks to complete their homework. Homework was sent home on Monday this week and is due back on Friday 20th May. Students are also expected to be reading 20 minutes each night and writing this in their diaries.
NAPLAN Good luck to our Year 5 students who are completing NAPLAN this week. 1 down, 3 to go!
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
Birthday Corner
We would like to wish a very big Happy Birthday to everyone who has or will celebrated their special day this week, including:
May 15th - Ayla-Maree Saunders (11)
Important Dates
MAY
20th - St Brendan's Feast Day (Mass at St Mary's Colac 10am - ALL WELCOME)
20th - Walk to School Day / World Bee Day
25th - Celebrating Catholic Education Week (Mass at St Mary's Colac 10am)
27th - Little Learners Program Begins
JUNE
3rd - Little Learners Program
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
SEPTEMBER
11th - Thomas Carr Open Day
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