Newsletter No. 17 | Term 3 Week 1 | Thursday 13th July 2023

Principal's Message

Dear Families and Friends,

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Winter break. The children have certainly returned to school refreshed and energised. It has been lovely to see them so happy to be back at school.

We look forward to a wonderful Term ahead.

Leanne Eastman
leastman@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

Let It Grow Project - Whole School Project

We are excited to announce that the whole school will be taking part in a ‘Let it Grow’ Project.

This project is open to all students, staff and parents/carers. 

In short, each person takes on a new challenge with the idea being that it is when we step outside of our comfort zone and take on challenges, that we truly grow. We are never too young, or too old, to grow!

You may remember last year that the Prep/1 class took on the challenge.

Children did things such as doing the family shopping, making waffles for the family, learning to saddle a horse and even driving a tractor! It will be fun to see what everyone chooses to do. 

I have always wanted to play the piano so I think I am going to try to teach myself how to play a few tunes. It will be a challenge because I have started to do this before but have not followed through with it. Fingers crossed! 

What will everyone in your family do? It should be lots of fun trying to decide!

There will be a note going home to each family which will fill you in on all of the details and give you some ideas as to what you might like to do. 

The end date for the challenges is Friday 25th August. 

We will be in touch with you in regards to the presentation of each child / teacher / parent/carer’s ‘Let It Grow’ project. We are planning to celebrate it with an EXPO or some sort of community event. Stay tuned!

SCHOOL FUNDRAISERS

Each year our school receives approximately 85% of funding toward the overall cost of running our school for the year from the Federal and State Governments. Consequently, our school community is required to raise the remaining 15% each year to provide the tuition, programs and resources our children need to ensure the best education. This 15% is raised through School Fees, Student Levies, donations and fundraising.

Some schools choose to raise the fees, rather than fundraising.  At St. Brendan’s we choose to include fundraising to keep fees down, and to also provide opportunities to build community. When school communities work together towards a common goal, they build relationships and develop connection and pride in their child’s school. There is always a buzz around the school when we are all working together to organise a special event. This good feeling trickles down to the children, they love to see their parents involved and it really enhances their sense of belonging to the school community.

Fundraising events coming up in the next two Terms  include the School Trivia Night, Footy Gate and the Warrion Flower Show. It would be great if every family could pitch in to help out at one or more of these events. Many hands make light work.

ST. BRENDAN’S SCHOOL TRIVIA NIGHT

We have had a number of responses to help out with the School Trivia Night on Saturday August 5th. Thank you to all who have volunteered to help in some way. 

Our aim is to raise approximately $1800 towards our $6000 fundraising target. We hope to do this through ticket sales, a Raffle and a Silent Auction. 

If each family could donate something for the Silent Auction or the Raffle it would be appreciated. It doesn’t have to be an item, you may want to donate some gardening time, trade skills etc. 

You have about three weeks to get a table together. If you would like us to allocate you to a table just contact the office. Tickets will be available next week.

We will let you know the details for the night as soon as they have been finalised. 

Welcome to Claudia

This Term we welcome Claudia McLaren to our school. Claudia is in her final year of teacher training and will complete her placement in the Year 2/3/4 room. Claudia will be at school from 31st July until 15th September. The children met Claudia this week as she was required to complete three ‘lead in days’.  It will be lovely to have Claudia with us, I am sure that you will all make her feel welcome at our school.

Winter Sports

The Year 5/6 students will be participating in Winter Sports every second Friday in Term Three. Their first session is this Friday at Sacred Heart PS. 

The Winter Sports is an important part of transition from primary school to secondary school. Students have the opportunity to meet and mix with many other students over the Term, enhancing their confidence and providing them with familiar faces when they move on.

We wish our students all the best for the Term. Have fun everyone!

Learning and Teaching

You may have seen the Facebook posts on our school page of the storyboards that each class created last Term.  The story boards are used  as a tool to support inquiry learning and enhance engagement in learning. Storyboards help to:

• build prior knowledge
• anchor new knowledge
• prompt thinking, dialogue and problem solving
• generate interest
• build vocabulary
• enhance collaboration and teamwork
• offer new perspectives
• promote student voice

I would like to congratulate the teachers for diving in so readily to embrace a new way of engaging our students in learning. The students have responded enthusiastically and it has been wonderful to hear them sharing their thoughts and ideas. 

There will be more storyboards this Term. Stay tuned!

Grandparents Day

World Grandparents day is coming up and we are excited to celebrate and acknowledge the grandparents in our lives. 

We invite all grandparents and significant others to join us at school to participate in a special celebration on: 

Thursday 27th July: 11.30 - 1.30

More details to follow next week.

Congratulations to Tahlia

There was some exciting news over the holidays with Tahlia becoming engaged to her partner Jesse. We wish Tahlia and Jesse all the best as they plan for their upcoming wedding. Exciting times ahead!

Wellbeing News

The Resilience Project

The video below was recommended by the team at The Resilience project. It is focused on phone / technology use and the need to ‘look up’. It is worth a look.

Prep/1 Classroom News

Welcome to Term 3. It has been fabulous to see everyone back at school this week. It seems everyone is refreshed and ready to go! I’d enjoyed the energy and enthusiasm from all students this week.

Literacy: Students have been enjoying an introduction to poetry this week! After reading the very entertaining poem, “Anyong seen my dragon?,” we had a great discussion and then jumped into some sentence work. The engagement from students was incredible.

Word work: The Preps are now learning to read and write 4-letter words containing all sounds of the alphabet. The Grade 1’s are working on the sound /oo/ like in moon. There are five common spellings: <oo> <ue> <u-e> <o> and <ew>.

Maths: We have begun learning about fractions this week, and been discussing the terms; “whole” and “part.” Over the next few weeks we will practice chopping shapes into halves and quarters as well as dividing collections of objects into equal groups. Our game of the week is “Sleeping Ooshies.” Students appeared to really enjoy this game. To play, collect 10 items (we used ooshies). Player 1 closes their eyes while player 2 hides some of the items under a container. Player 1 then has to work out how many items are hiding. This is a great way for students to practice their number bonds to 10. I.e. 1+9 2+8 3+7 4+6 5+5

Religion: Our overarching concept for RE is “story.” We’ve been making little storybooks in class this week and discussing all kinds of different stories. I’ve sent home a sheet to be filled out with your child. Think of a funny or interesting story that your child would like to share with the class, write it down and send it back into school. We’ll be sharing these stories over the next couple of weeks.

Integrated Curriculum: Creativity is high on the agenda this term. We will be making lots of crafts and even doing some creative storytelling. It's sure to be a fun term.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Allira Kluver
akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

2/3/4 Classroom News

Welcome to Term 4!

We have started the term refreshed and ready to learn! There was a lovely vibe on Monday as everyone reconnected after the break.

This week we welcome Claudia McLaren into our class. She is a 4^th Year student and we are her last placement before she graduates to become a qualified teacher. Claudia will have 5 ‘lead in’ days to familiarise herself with our school and begins her round full time on the 31^st July and completes it on the 15^th September. We look forward to her contribution and having her in our room and school.

Religious Education: Our concept for this term is Hospitality. Hospitality is the virtue of kindness and generosity toward guests. It is characterized by the spirit of welcome to visitors and strangers. This week we have looked at the story ‘Grandpa’s Soup’ by Eiko Kadono and unpacked the events in the text. We also reflected on what hospitality looks and feels like.

Literacy: During the holidays NAIDOC Week was celebrated and we explored what it represents and means for us today.

In morphology we are investigating the suffix ‘ful’ which means ‘full of or having’.

Our new spelling words are graphemes that represent the /oo/ sound as in book. As a group we have been reading decodable readers to practice our fluency. This week our book was Attack at Nightfall. In Writing, we are looking at poems and how rhyming can be used in poetry.

Numeracy: In Maths we are revisiting division and revising division facts and working with remainders. We are focusing on using our multiplication facts to work out division problems. We are also practising counting patterns.

Integrated Curriculum: Our unit this term is Creativity – Frame by Frame. The children will be learning about the different ways that people can be creative, and how we can see opportunities to be creative in our day-to-day lives. This week we brainstormed how different careers show creativity, identified people we know who are creative and examples of their creativity and what being creative looks like and sounds like.

The Resilience Project: This week our activities centred around bucket filling. We explored what being a bucket filler is and examples of being one. Each child drew a name out of a container, thought about the person chosen, and wrote a positive comment or compliment about them. We shared them with the class and everyone agreed it made them feel good to hear nice things about themselves. It was a really powerful activity.

Homework: Homework has been sent out and we are working on our times tables. New spelling words have been included and are /oo/ (as in book) graphemes.

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

Cheers,

Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

4/5/6 Classroom News

Welcome back to school! I can’t believe we are already at Term 3! I hope everyone had a rested break.

Reading: This week we got back into our novel studies. Group 1 are reading Fantastic Mr Fox, Group 2 are reading the BFG, Group 3 are reading Toad Rage and Group 4 are reading Toad Heaven.

Writing: In Writing we have started our unit on Poetry. We have been looking at different types of poems and had a great time testing our knowledge through a quiz on Kahoot.

Maths: In Maths we have been revising how to solve different multiplication problems and we have started working on division.

The Resilience Project: In the Resilience Project this week we reflected on our happiest memories. Some of our happiest memories are: 

“Kicking my first goal in under 12’s” - Brennan.

“When Greta was born and when we got Bob or the ducks” - Audrey.

“Staying at grandma and grandpa’s with my favourite cousin” - Caleb

Religion: In Religion we have been discussing NAIDOC week. We have been learning about the Uluru statement and what it would mean for Indigenous people if they were voted to have a voice in parliament. 

Integrated Curriculum: In Integrated Curriculum we have begun our learning cycle on Creativity. We have been working on our questioning skills and have been discussing what questions may have been asked that led to the invention of different products. 

Homework: There is no homework this week, it will be sent home next Monday. Although, students are expected to be reading for 20 minutes a night and this is to be recorded in their diaries.

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

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: Mark Robb          CHILD SAFETY OFFICER: Mrs Leanne Eastman