Newsletter No. 2 | Term 1 Week 2 | Thursday 9th February 2023

Prayer

A Blessing for the New School Year...

With gratitude for the gift of a fresh new year

we ask blessing on our whole community,

May every classroom be a place of respect and possibility,

May every staffroom and playground be a place of friendship and laughter.

May every hall and assembly be a place of connection.

May every library be a place of discovery.

May every tree and plant call us to care for creation.

May every snack and lunch remind us of those who are hungry.

May every student grow in confidence and love of life.

May every teacher find daily vision and hope.

May every support worker help to create a sense of belonging.

May every leader find openness and patience.

May every parent grow in wisdom.

May every name in our school be blessed, because each person is precious,

and only together can we learn and grow.      (Michael McGirr)

Principal's Message

Dear Families,

Today we celebrated our beginning of year School Mass. It was very special to see the Year Six students walk into church with their buddies and then to see them presented with their badges at the end of Mass. I would like to thank Liz McGuane and Mandy Sutherland for organising such a lovely Mass and Fr. Michael for celebrating Mass with us. 

Fr. Michael brought a relay baton in with him and talked to the children about how the Year 6s are passing the baton onto their Prep buddies, to welcome them to our school team, a team that works and plays together and follows the example of Jesus. 

I congratulate the children for being so respectful and prayerful during Mass. There were many comments after Mass about how beautifully behaved they were. We were very proud of them, they are a credit to you all.

We were really pleased that two very special former St. Brendan’s students at Mass today. They were Good Samaritan Sisters; Sr. Margaret Carmody and Sr. Geraldine Boyland. They are both former students of St. Brendan’s School with Sr. Marg Carmody also being a Parish Administrator at St. Brendan’s. We extend a warm welcome back to Sr. Margaret Malone who has returned to the area to live. The Good Samaritan sisters have a rich history with the St. Brendan's school and community, and still play an active role in supporting our school. Thank you also to the members of our Parish community who were able to attend Mass. Your continued support of our school is very much appreciated. 

Warm Regards,

Leanne Eastman
principal@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

SENIOR LEADERS LUNCH

I have invited the Year 6 leaders to join me for a party pie lunch tomorrow. I am looking forward to listening to their ideas, hopes and dreams for the year ahead.

SWIMMING

Unfortunately Bluewater have again had to reschedule one of our swimming lessons, this time due to the Coastal Swim Carnival for Secondary Schools clashing with the session we had booked on 24th February. As a result there will be no swimming lesson on this date.

This session has been re-booked for Friday 17th March. Please remember to pack a swimming bag for your child on this day. Apologies for any inconvenience.

WELLBEING

School Wide Positive Behaviours 

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support is: A multi-tiered framework for establishing the social culture and behavioural supports needed for a school to achieve behavioural and academic outcomes for all students. At school we are working with our students on the following: 

We show RESPECT

We are SAFE

We are LEARNERS

The Matrix below is taught explicitly to the students so that they have a very good understanding of what is meant by being safe, being respectful and being a learner.

PARENT INFORMATION NIGHT

Thursday 23rd February - Save the Date!

There will be a Parent Information Night on Thursday 23rd February. The time is to be confirmed. 

We will let you know as soon as possible.

LUNCH ORDERS

In keeping with government policy guidelines for promoting healthy eating at school, we will be making a change to the Wednesday lunch order menu.  The new menu will be coming out shortly, until then the old menu will be available. We will let you know when we will be moving to the new menu. 

The major changes will be that we will be limiting the selection of not so healthy food choices and there will be no fried foods or Powerade. However, there will be pies and sausage rolls on the menu.

SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL

I would like to advise you all that Mark Robb has accepted the nomination to be the Chairperson. A big thank you to Mark for taking this on. I am sure we will all support Mark in whatever way we can.

We also welcome Lynda Newcombe to the Council. It is good to have you on board Lynda. Thank you for accepting the nomination. 

Please feel free to approach anyone on the School Advisory if there is something that you would like us to address or consider at a meeting.

School Council Members

Chairperson: Mark Robb

Principal: Leanne Eastman

Secretary: Mandy Sutherland

Maintenance: Jared Wolter

Julie Baker 

Hayley Beardsley

Kara Carlon

Lynda Newcombe

Next Meeting: Monday 27th March at 7pm.

CHILD SAFETY

Child Safety is something that our school takes very seriously. The new Child Safe Standards are listed below. Throughout the year we will have information from the students or links to Child Safety information here in the newsletter. The updated Child Safe Standards (eleven in total) came into effect in July last year and are a vital part of what we do here at St Brendan’s. More information about these standards can be found here:   CCYP | Child Safe Standards

SCHOOL ASSEMBLIES

School Assemblies are held every Thursday afternoon. They usually start at 2.50 but this can sometimes vary, especially if we have a liturgy and an assembly together. We will let you know in advance if there is a time change.

At Assemblies we make an Acknowledgement to Country, sing the National Anthem, discuss school news, present class awards and birthday certificates, sing the school song and celebrate our learning. It is a wonderful time for the whole school to come together and celebrate. We would love to see you there.

KANA

The annual Colac KANA Festival will be held on Saturday 18th March. The theme of the day is CIRCUS. We are hoping to enter a float in the parade which will require a truck. We will also be calling on families to take part in the parade with us. The children love being part of it. 

It should be lots of fun so start digging out those old circus costumes. You know how we love to dress up at St. Brendan’s!

Wanted: Do you know anyone who may be able to lend us a truck for the day? It needs to be big enough to hold 20-30 children and some hay bales for them to sit on.

If you can help out with hay bales or the truck please call the office. 

STUDENT ATTENDANCE

Student Attendance It is a legal requirement for schools to contact parents if students are absent from school without an explanation – ‘on the day of the absence, as soon as is practical’. As a result, our office staff are required to contact you at 9.30am if your child is absent from school and you have not let us know already. 

Please contact the school via PAM or by phone. Class teachers do not have the opportunity to check their emails during class time so please contact the office if needed.

BELL TIMES

Please be aware of the following information regarding bell times and supervision...

8.30am: Students can arrive at school and will be supervised in the yard.

8.52am: Line up for announcements

8.55am: Classes begin

10.00am: FRUIT BREAK

11.00am: Playtime

11.20am: Playlunch is eaten inside

11.30am: Classes begin

1.30pm: Lunch is eaten inside

1.40pm:  Lunch Play

2.15pm: Class time

3.20pm: Hometime

Please Note: Students should not arrive at school before 8.30am. 

Parents must inform the school if they wish to take their child out early. They are also required to be signed out using the Ipad at the Office. Thank you for your support in all these school matters.

PUPIL FREE DAYS IN 2023

Schools are allocated six pupil free days per year. Two of these days are used as the first and last day of the school year. The other four are determined by the school to address professional learning priorities for staff. At least one of these days must be dedicated to learning in the area of Religious Education, staff formation etc. 

Please Note: Schools can make a special application for an extra day. St. Brendan’s has been granted an extra day so that all of our staff can attend a professional learning day on AusLan. It is important that we all attend, as the ‘Teachers as Co-Learners Program’ requires us all to play an active role in implementing the AusLan at our school.

MEET PETER AND BENJAMIN RABBIT

There was great excitement today as the children arrived to see two beautiful new additions to our school, velveteen rabbits, Peter (light brown) and Benjamin (dark brown). They have the softest fur, come in and see for yourself. They already won our hearts! Thank you to the Carlon family for kindly donating them to the school.

Stay tuned for our new guinea pigs which will be arriving soon!

PLUMS

The fruit trees that were planted a few years ago are doing really well. We have plenty of plums at school that have dropped to the ground. 

Please feel free to take them from the gathering area at the front of the school. You can’t beat stewed plums!

Catholic Culture

SACRAMENTS

Baptism: Are you interested in having your child baptised? The parish will be offering any interested families the opportunity to have their child baptised in 2023. 

Other Sacraments: We are currently deciding whether we will run the sacramental program for Reconciliation, First Eucharist and Confirmation this year or 2024, this decision will partly be based on numbers so please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested. 

If you are interested in finding out more about Baptism or completing sacraments and have any questions please contact Liz McGuane on 0427041072. 

Prep/1 Classroom News

Welcome back to school!

We have had a wonderful start to the school year. The Prep/1's have begun the year with enthusiasm and vigor. It's been great seeing the Grade 1's step up and become responsible members of our class.

The Preps are doing an exceptional job of settling into their new classroom and getting to know their new classmates.

I've sent home reader folders containing word lists and books for home practise. Don't hesitate to ask me if you have any questions abouts these.

It would be fantastic if reader folders could be sent back into school each day so we can change readers and add notes.

Allira Kluver
akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

2/3/4 Classroom News

Hello everybody and welcome back to beautiful St. Brendan’s! I hope everyone enjoyed a refreshing and lovely break.

We are excited to get back into it and have another productive and exciting year. I have been impressed with the whole class settling into their new grade levels.

Over the past two weeks we have been engaged in Learning to Learn activities and are focused on setting up our classrooms and team building.

The children are encouraged to work together and refine their social skills and abilities. Some of the class have had the opportunity to build Lego and were very mindful of others when creating the scene. They did a great job!

This year our theme is the jungle, and the children have been researching animals in this habitat and designing dioramas. It has been a lot of fun! The dioramas will be displayed on the lockers for you to have a look soon.

We have started teaching lessons about The Resilience Project. We have had 2 lessons so far and the content and the children’s participation has been fantastic.  We have investigated Gratitude and Empathy. The children have an individual book that they work through alongside the lessons.

I look forward to delivering the rest of the program.

Homework will be sent out next week and will be centred around concepts being taught in class.

The Star of the Week award goes to Claire Beardsley. Congratulations on your excellent effort!

If you have any concerns please contact me via email.

Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

4/5/6 Classroom News

Welcome back to school for 2023! It has been wonderful to see everyone and hear about their holidays, it sounds like everyone has had a relaxing break. The past two weeks have been a great chance for us all to catch up and slowly get back into a routine.

SeeSaw: Last week invitations to join our new SeeSaw class were sent home. Just a reminder to scan the QR code on the invitation so that you can see your child’s work that will be posted throughout the year.

Reading at home: Students are expected to read each night for a least 20 minutes and this needs to be written in students’ diaries and signed by a parent or guardian. There are a wide variety of books to choose from in the library and in the classroom, please let me know if your child needs help finding an appropriate book.

Character Strengths: This week each student undertook a character strengths survey. This survey is a self-assessment tool that provides information on your best qualities. Some top qualities that were in our classroom were love, gratitude and forgiveness. Throughout the year we will be utilising our strengths in different ways.

Maths: This week we started our Place Value unit for Maths. Year 4 students have been reading and writing 5 digit numbers in words and numbers, Year 5 students have been working with 6 digit numbers and Year 6 students have been working with 7 digit numbers.

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

Prev

Showing images 1 - 8 of 13

Next

Birthday Corner

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

12th January   -   Aden Coates (9)

12th January   -   Lexie Johnson (11)

17th January   -   Charli Lettieri (5)

20th January   -   Kaitlyn Bourk (10)

30th January   -   Melody Baker (11)

8th February   -   Nellie Armistead (10)

Important Dates

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: TBC          CHILD SAFETY OFFICER: Mrs Leanne Eastman