Newsletter No. 36 | Term 4 Week 9 | Thursday 1st December 2022

Prayer

Principal's Message

Dear Parents/Carers,

In the second week of Advent we light the candle of Peace. In the lead up to Christmas, we are often very busy and can be overwhelmed by how much we have to prepare for Christmas. It is important to take the time to breathe and be calm. Taking a few moments to feel the peace within, will help us in how we deal with the demands all around us and help us to focus on the true meaning of the Christmas season.

Learning Conversations

Learning Conversations will be held on 13th and 14th December. Research has shown that the value of parents and teachers working together improves results and is also beneficial to the wellbeing of the child. The Learning Conversations are a wonderful opportunity for students to share their achievements with their parents and carers, and I know it is valued and appreciated by students, parents and staff. 

Please be sure to return your booking form as soon as possible so we are best placed to accomodate your preferred time. Alternitively you can contact the office on (03) 5233 1464 and secure an appoitment over the phone.

End of Year Mass / Graduation / Carols

The end of year Mass, Graduation and Carols will look a little different this year. They will all be held on the same night, and it will be on a weeknight rather than a Sunday. The Mass will include the presentation of candles to our 2023 Prep students, a presentation to our Year Six students and a farewell to families who will have finished their time at St. Brendan’s.

After the carols, the Year 6 students will be going to La Porchetta for a celebratory dinner. Parents/families are welcome to join us. We have booked for the Year 6 students only. If parents/families wish to join us, please call La Porchetta to make a booking.

Please note the following details:

Date: Friday 9th December. 

Mass Time: 5.15pm

Carols: Immediately after Mass

Year 6 Dinner: 7.00 at La Porchettta

Student Dress: Year 6s may wear smart casual dress to Mass 

It is requested that all other students wear their school uniform.

Class Structures 2023

The class structures and teachers for 2022 are listed below:

Please note: Due to balancing the class sizes, the Year Four students will be split into two groups. There will still be many opportunities for them to come together, including on Wednesdays when it will revert back to the Prep/1; 2/3/4; 5/6 class combinations. 

All of the Year 4 children seem really excited about a change to the usual structure in the year ahead.

I would like to inform you that Clare Jehu, our School Chaplin will not be returning to St. Brendan’s in 2023. Clare has been a wonderful addition to our school and we are very grateful for all of the support she has given to students, families and staff in her time at our school.

We wish Clare all the best for the future. Good luck Clare!

We will be seeking to employ a new school chaplain for 2023.

Orientation Day

Next Tuesday is Orientation Day. Year 6 students will spend the day at their new secondary schools and all other students will spend time in their new classes from 9am - 1pm. 

This is always an exciting day and we also look forward to welcoming back our new Preps for 2023.

Senior Leadership Group

The Year 6 environment group decided that they would like to do a mini ‘Clean -Up Coragualc’ Excursion. The five students and myself headed down the bike track toward Cororooke to pick up rubbish. This was a great initiative by our students. We commend them for wanting to make an active difference to keeping our town clean. 

Welcome to Our New Queen Bee!

Thank you to our resident bee expert Graham McNabb! Graham picked up a new queen bee in Geelong and took some students along to take out our old queen bee and replace her with the new one. Apparently queen bees have a shelf life, it’s a tough gig!

Four lucky students - Jasmine, Audrey, Brianna and Archie (and Gracesyn), learnt how to spot the old queen bee in the hive. They then took her out with their hands and put the new queen bee into the hive. The new queen bee brought about 5 - 6 worker bees from her old hive with her. These worker bees put the word out to the other worker bees that there is a new queen bee in the house. Absolutely fascinating!

School Advisory Council

The Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday 12th December. At the AGM we will be farewelling our Chairperson, Gayle McNabb. I would like to thank Gayle for the many contributions she has made to our school. Gayle  has done an absolute  power of work for our school  and her  efforts are very much appreciated.

We will be looking to elect a new member  to join us on the Council. If you would like to fill the vacant position or if you would like to nominate someone for the position, please contact myself or someone from the Advisory Council. 

This year the AGM will be held at the Beeac Hotel at 7pm. If you would like to join us for the AGM please let Gracesyn know by Friday 9th December so that we can add you to the booking. 

ALL WELCOME

Maintenance

Last week, Joel Theodore spent a day doing some gardening maintenance for us. We are pleased to say that Joel will be out a couple of times a Term to maintain the gardens. The children enjoyed having a chat to Joel throughout the day and Joel thought the children were very friendly and welcoming. 

We have appreciated the work that parents have put into maintaining the school gardens over the years. They really do look beautiful.  We understand that in today’s world we are more time poor than we have ever been, so hopefully this will help to ease the burden on the school community.

One focus in 2023 will be to put edging around the playground before we add new softfall. This will help to keep those dreaded weeds at bay. Welcome to Joel!

End of Year Excursion

This year, the end of year excursion will be on the last day of school for students, Friday 16th December.  We will all be heading down to Camperdown for the day and taking in sights such as the Botanic Gardens & Arboretum, Mt Leura, Bullen Merri Lakes, Lake Gnotuk and of course the playground in town!

The excursion will complement our Integrated Studies unit which has been focused on Geography. It should be a valuable and fun experience for our students. 

More details to follow soon.

Leanne Eastman
principal@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

Vinnies Appeal

Last year we collected household goods/food items for our Vinnie’s Christmas Appeal. It was a huge success and Vinnie’s were very appreciative of our contributions.

Next week we will begin collecting for this year’s Appeal. There will be a basket at the front office where you are invited to drop off any non-perishable food items that you wish to donate. Check out the list below for ideas: 

• Tins and fruits, vegetables, canned meats.
• Soups, beans, noodles, pasta, pasta sauce.
• Christmas cakes, puddings, biscuits, lollies.
• Baby foods, formula, cereals, muesli bars, school lunchbox items.
• Hygiene products, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soaps, shampoo, deodorant, sanitary items, cleaning products.

Bread Tags

Trinity College is collecting bread tags to support the funding of wheelchairs for the needy. (see details below). This is a great initiative and we thought we would help them out. There will be a box in the front entrance of the school where the children can drop bread tags.

Plastic Lids

We are collecting bottle lids again. This time we will be recycling them to create a piece of Art in the school. There will be a box for this in the hallway. There are going to be a lot of collection boxes in the hall  so be sure to choose the right one!

Prep/1 Classroom News

Welcome to week 9. It is advent! We are beginning to think about Christmas this week which is an unbelievable thought. Today we had a very exciting little visitor in our classroom; an elf on the shelf. Excitement levels are high this week.

Literacy: Students have continued practising expanding sentences in writing this week. They have answered questions such as when? why? and how? to give the reader more information. 

The Grade 1’s are flying along with their spelling work and are focusing on words containing the sound /l/. There are seven common spellings: <l> <ll> <le> <el> <al> <il> and <ol>

The Preps are working on the sound /ng/ like in hang. 

Maths: Students explored the concepts of volume and capacity this week with a hands-on opportunity to fill containers in the sandpit and decide which container would hold more. They then applied their learning to filling containers with water and chose the container with the larger volume to fill up.

RE: To celebrate the beginning of advent, Mrs.McGuane taught us all about the Jesse tree this week. Each day, one student has been choosing a symbol of the Jesse tree for our class prayer. It has been a wonderful way to learn about the stories relating to the birth of Christ. We have also been considering sacred symbols within the Catholic Church such as the bread and wine, and adding them to our ‘sacred’ boxes.

Geography: Maps have been on the agenda this week for Geography! Students have been learning about what a map is, and it uses. They then had the opportunity to create their own treasure map.

Prep/1 night: Next Monday 5th Dec is the Prep/1 afternoon at school. All Prep/1 students are invited to stay at school until 5pm for pizzas and cubby building. Please pack a change of clothes because we will probably get a bit muddy.

Christmas KKs: KKs are being sent home today. Students are invited to spend $5 on their selected student. On the card, write: “To KK, from (your child’s name).” This way, we will keep it a secret!

Keep up the home reading!

Allira Kluver
akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

Morning Tea with the Chickens in Prep/1

2/3/4 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 9!

Next Thursday the 2/3/4’s are having their night out bowling and dinner at La Porchetta.

I am excited to see how many strikes we can tally up together!

I look forward to catching up with you for the Learning Conversations where we can discuss your child’s learning journey.

Our K.K. names have been drawn out this week. K.K. is when we draw out a name and we buy a gift for that person. The gift is to the value of $5 and will be handed out on the last day of school. Label it to K.K. from(your child’s name) then no one will know who it is for.

The idea is to keep your K.K. secret until the day when you give out the gift. Please don’t spoil it for others by telling people who you have.

On Monday, Mrs McGuane very generously gave up her time to share with us, the story of Advent. The children placed the symbols they created onto the Jesse Tree in the foyer. If you get a chance come and have a look at the tree.

In Literacy we have been writing narratives about Christmas. Everyone created a fantastic Sizzling Start and are excited to keep working on them.

In Maths we have been learning about length-including millimetres, centimetres and metres and kilometres.

On Tuesday Clare visited our classroom and shared with us what tapping is, and the ways it can help us with stress and anxiety. Please have a look yourself at the links below.

Homework this week was a fun activity where the students had to make a paper aeroplane and measure the distance it flew in metres and/or centimetres. This coincides with our work this week on length and units used to measure it.

There will be no homework for the rest of the year.

In Integrated Curriculum we are researching facts about countries in Africa. We will be investigating countries in South America next week.

We are researching more facts about the countries within this continent.

Fun Fact: Africa’s population is 877 million people!

The Star of the Week award goes to Brennan Robb. Congratulations on your excellent work and effort!

Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

5/6 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 9 of Term 4! We are nearly there! I hope the Year 6 students who attended Trinity College for the country transition day on Tuesday had a wonderful time.

Graduation: Year 6 Graduation is coming up quickly! Can all Year 6 parents please send their child’s Prep and Year 6 school photo to school for our slideshow, thank you.

Christmas: Our K.K. names have been drawn out this week. K.K. is when we draw out a name and we buy a gift for that person. The gift is to the value of $5 and will be handed out on the last day of school. Label it to K.K. from (your child’s name) then no one will know who it is for.

The idea is to keep your K.K. secret until the day when you give out the gift. Please don’t spoil it for others by telling people who you have.

Leadership: Last week the Earth Heroes environment group walked down the road to pick up rubbish. The students were amazed with how much rubbish they found, well done guys!

Additionally, on Monday Lindon displayed initiative and organised to teach some of the Prep/1 students how to make different animals using pipe cleaners, great work, Lindon!

Homework: A reminder that homework is due back this Friday 2nd December.

Spelling: In Spelling this week we have been reviewing homophones. Students have been exploring words such as ‘principle and principal’ and ‘accept and except’.

Writing: This week in Writing students have been finishing off their narrative stories. They are doing a fantastic job.

Maths: In Maths this week we have been working on Chance and Data. Year 5 students have been using data to create graphs and Year 6 students have been calculating the expected probability of different outcomes.

Religion: This week in Religion we have been finishing our ‘Simple Daily Gestures’ powerpoints. In our powerpoints we have been adding photos that show what we do at school to care for the environment.

Geography: This week in Geography we have been finishing our paper mache world globes. Students are labelling lots of different places on their globes and are also adding facts that they have learned over the term.

Economics & Business: In Economics and Business we have been learning about businesses. We have been exploring different types of businesses and discussing whether certain businesses are goods or services.

Have a great week and please don’t hesitate to email me if you have any questions or concerns.

Tahlia Whytcross
twhytcross@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

Birthday Corner

Wishing a very big Happy Birthday to everyone who has celebrated their special day recently! Especially...

15th November   -   Samiyah McLeod (10)

21st November   -   Tilly Scott (12)

22nd November   -   Tallow Wolter (11)

1st December   -   Levi Armstrong (12)

Important Dates

Big Summer Read

The Big Summer Read is taking place at Colac Library and Apollo Bay Library these summer holidays! The Big Summer Read aims to combat the ‘summer reading slide’. The 'Summer Reading Slide' is a known trend where students reading naturally regresses slightly over the Summer holiday period. The program encourages children to keep reading by supporting them with reading logs, a user-friendly website, milestone incentives and we can't forget to mention... a statewide prize!

The Big Summer Read runs from 1 December 2022 until 31 January 2023. To register and for terms and conditions please see https://www.grlc.vic.gov.au/big-summer-read Or https://www.plv.org.au/projects/big-summer-read/

Christmas by the Lake

Mixx FM and Red Door Dance and Theatre Co are joining forces for Colac's inaugural Christmas by the Lake to fundraise for Colac Area Healt Foundation's new Wellbeing Centre Long Road Appeal. On Saturday 3rd December from 6pm until 9.30pm Mixx FM is running a CHRISTMAS BONANZA on Colac Lake's Foreshore. Live music, performances, food vendors, fireworks and of course... Santa will be there!

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