St Brendan's Catholic Primary School Coragulac eNewsletter

Prayer

St. Brendan's School Prayer

At our school closure day, one focus was to work on developing a new school prayer. The new school prayer can be seen below.

Loving God

We give thanks for our past and present school community

We give thanks for the chance to explore and share our talents

We pray for the courage to face new challenges with faith and resilience

We pray to be mindful of the needs of others and respond with open hearts

May we kindly welcome and include others in our work and play.

May we always be thankful for one another and our beautiful environment

In the Spirit of Saint Brendan we pray.

Amen

Principal's Message

Dear Families and Friends,

I hope you are all going well and enjoying the fact that winter is on the way out. How good is it to see blossoms on the trees? Spring is in the air!

With Spring, comes footy finals. Thank you to the people who have volunteered to take on footy gate duties, week one is fully covered. This event raises $2000 for the school so it is really worth the effort. If you are a little hesitant to take it on because you are unsure about what is involved, please come and ask and we will fill you in. The more people who chip in to help, the easier it will be for everyone.

Have a great week,

Leanne Eastman
leastman@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

End of School Year Change of Date

As we move to the latter weeks of Term 3 and approach Spring, we wanted to confirm some important date changes for our school community so that you can plan ahead as needed.

The last day of school for students in 2023 will be Friday 15th December.
Staff conclude on Monday 18th December. This is a staff meeting day and no student supervision is available.

If this causes any inconvenience for anyone, please contact me.

Father’s Day & School Disco

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Annual Father’s Day Archery Competition date will now take place on Wednesday 6th September and will be combined with a School Disco.

A school disco has been requested for some time now and it was suggested that it would be best to do it before daylight savings kicks in.

5.00pm - 5.45pm: Archery Competition

5.45pm - 6.45pm: Disco

We would like to invite all fathers, or grandfathers, or uncles or significant others to join us for a special Father’s Day celebration.

Come along and join us for pizza and family fun. Pizza will be $10 per family. All are welcome to come along and cheer on our amazing bowmen! Who will be St. Brendan’s number one archer this year?

Let It Grow Project - Whole School Project

Due Date: Monday 28th August.

We will celebrate our Let it Grow Projects at a special Assembly on Thursday 14th September at 2pm. ALL WELCOME.

If you need a reminder about the Project read below:

What is the Let it Grow project?

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.

Don’t forget that this project is open to all students, staff and parents/carers.

Book Week

Guest Author: SUE LAWSON

To kick off Book Week our students were treated to some fun-filled and inspirational reading and writing sessions from award winning author Sue Lawson. Sue has had over 20 books published and has sold them in both Australia and overseas.

Our Year 3-6 students participated in an engaging writer's workshop which encouraged them to build ideas for stories and develop detailed main characters. During discussions children shared their own creative ideas for stories. We may have some budding authors in our midst!

What did the students think about Sue?

"When Sue Lawson came to our school I liked how she told us that it doesn't matter what you write or if you make mistakes when you are writing. One of the things that I learnt is lots of different ways to brainstorm, or think of ideas to write about." - Audrey Rock

"I really liked when Sue Lawson was making little writing challenges to write little stories. It was really fun meeting her and I hope I could meet her again one day." - Lexie Johnson

"I learnt about making a good narrative story by using words about an object. I love that Sue Lawson was funny and kind but most of all how she simply gives a good way to say it." - Brianna D'Altera

"I enjoyed when Sue helped us make the stories. I learnt that when you think you have done everything, keep thinking and you will get even more ideas. You need to have a few good characters in your story. You should describe them and use fantastic and brilliant adjectives." - Claire Beardsley

"I really enjoyed when Sue came. She was great! I learnt that it doesn't matter what your story is about and the problem is the main part of the story." - Matilda Carlon

"I liked seeing Sue's books." - Theodore Phillips

"I liked it when Sue read the parrot book. Their different colours were cool." - Lexie D'Altera

"My favourite part was the exercises and making sounds like an ambulance." - Ruby Wilson

Over the last week we have been very fortunate to have school visits from people who use Auslan in their everyday lives.

At the Assumption Mass last Thursday, we were joined by students from Thomas Carr. They currently have two deaf students onsite so their teachers were up the front signing the Mass for them.

Each Friday, our Auslan support teacher, Nicole comes into each class to support students and teachers with their signing. Nicole learnt to be fluent in signing in order to communicate with her mother Rosemary, who is deaf. Last Friday, Rosemary came in with Nicole. The children signed questions to Rosemary and also told her a bit about themselves. It was really interesting to hear about Rosemary’s challenges as a deaf person and we were also really impressed with how competent the children are with their signing.

Today, Simon from Thomas Carr brought a deaf student, Ewan, in to meet the children. Children observed Simon and Ewan communicating with one another through signing, and also signed their own questions to the pair. We appreciated Simon organising this session and thank Ewan for being willing to share his experiences in order to enhance our knowledge of Auslan and the deaf community.

These were all wonderful, authentic experiences for our students. To see Auslan in action really brought home how vital the language of Auslan is, enabling deaf people to communicate with one another and the wider community.

It is not only the deaf and hard of hearing communities that need to learn Auslan. In order to promote inclusion, the more people who know the language the better. By providing the opportunity for our students to learn Auslan, we are not only enhancing their communication skills, but also teaching them the importance of inclusion.

Structured literacy

On Tuesday Allira, Tahlia, Mandy and myself attended a Structured Literacy Professional Development day at St. Pius School in Warrnambool. We gathered with educators from various parts of the Ballarat Diocese to learn more about the Structured Literacy approach to teaching Reading and Writing.

The Structured Literacy Approach is based on the evidence-based Science of Reading approach to teaching Reading and Writing. The day was extremely informative. We currently use aspects of The Science of Reading in our teaching of Reading, and will use the learnings from this day to refine and enhance our processes.

Catholic Culture

St Brendan's Coragulac & St Joseph's Pirron Yallock Mass Times

St Brendan’s Coragulac: 9.30am Sunday / 5pm 4th Sunday of each month
St Joseph’s Pirron Yallock: 10:30am Lay-led / Mass 1st Sunday of each month

Our Diocesan Community Magazine

The Our Diocesan Community Magazine shares the good news stories of our schools, parishes and agencies across the Ballarat Diocese. If you have a good news story to share with others in the Diocese, the magazine welcomes articles and photos for publication in ODC and the Diocesan e-News. Please forward submissions to odc@ballarat.catholic.org.au .

Our Diocesan Community Magazine - Read Here

Sustainability at St Brendan's

Bird Boxes

For World Environment Day, the whole school participated in a conservation effort. We painted and constructed three nesting boxes designed specifically for native animals.

Students learnt about the various animals that might use these boxes and why it is so important to provide habitat in this way. In the wild, really old trees form hollows which birds and small mammals live in. Due to a lack of old growth trees, there aren't many hollows in our area, which is why nesting boxes are so valuable.

The team from Colac Trees came out to school to install the nesting boxes. This was a very exciting event - the arborists climbed the trees using ropes and pulleys and fixed the boxes to the trees. They also drilled a hollow in one tree using some special machinery.

We have installed a wildlife camera alongside one of the boxes and hope to capture some photos of anything that might be using the box. In this way, we will monitor the project and be able to participate in some citizen science!oxes.

Book week is here! This week has been an exciting one. Already we have had a visit from Sue Lawson who is an author of many children’s books and novels. She spent an hour with the Prep-Grade 2 students, exploring the books she has written and answering questions about her work. During class time, we’ve been reading several of the CBCA shortlisted books and completing activities relating to them. On Friday, we look forward to dressing up for the highly anticipated Book Week parade.

Literacy: Students have completed their spine poems this week and they are all sounding great! Full of descriptive language, the poems have showcased all that students have been learning over the past few weeks.

Word work: The Prep students are now learning about the sounds /sh/ and /ch/ like in shop and chip. They have been reading and writing words containing these spellings. The Grade 1’s are working on the sound /oo/ like in book. There are three common spellings: <oo> <u> and <oul>.

Maths: We have begun learning about time. Students have been quick to grasp telling ‘on the hour’ times on an analogue clock. The created their own paper plate clocks and practised showing the times: 9 o’clock, 1 o’clock and 4 o’clock etc.

Religion: We have continued creating our own Bibles in class and are now adding symbols to them. This week we have been learning that the symbol of the dove represents hope and peace, just like in the story “Noah and the Flood.”

Integrated Curriculum: This week we have explored the fairy tale, “Little Red Riding Hood.” Over the next few days, we will creatively twist this story and come up with new characters or a novel setting.

Allira Kluver
akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

2/3/4 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 7.

We were very lucky this week to have Sue Lawson, a local author, work with our students.

Sue shared some of her strategies for story writing, and engaged the children with a variety of activities to enhance their writing abilities. It was wonderful to see and hear such great ideas!

Book Week is tomorrow and we look forward to seeing the creativity and joy around reading and dressing up!

Religious Education: We have been investigating other religions and how they show hospitality to others. The children worked in small groups and presented their research to the class. We are also looking at the Catholic social teaching principle of The Common Good.

When our school participates in any activities to help others, it does this because of Catholic social teaching. One of the principles of Catholic social teaching is The Common Good.

Literacy: We have been learning about conjunctions(joining words). The class have been unpacking FANBOYS – for, and, nor, but, or, yet and so. These words are common co-ordinating conjunctions that we use in compound sentence structure. In Writing, we have been finalising our individual poems and are moving into constructing narratives.

Numeracy: The Year Two and Three children are identifying and placing fractions on a number line, and exploring whole numbers, for example 4/4 = 1 whole. The Year 4’s are learning about decimal fractions including tenths and hundredths.

Integrated Curriculum: The Year 2’s and 3’s are devising their own sets related to the stories they created. They will be working on a stop motion animation using the settings and characters they have devised.

The Resilience Project: This week we have been learning about strong emotions. The children brainstormed and created a list of strong emotions. They then shared times that they experienced these emotions in their own lives.

Homework: Homework this week is to create a character with your family and complete a character profile about them. A proforma has been sent home to complete.

Auslan: Last Friday we had a much-awaited visitor to our school! Nicole brought along her mother, Rosemary Johnson, to meet the children. Rosemary lives in Melbourne and has been deaf all her life. The children were respectful and enjoyed showing her their Auslan skills.

The Star of the Week award goes to Sophie Carlon. Congratulations on your excellent effort!

Cheers,

Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

4/5/6 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 7 of Term 3 and happy Book Week! I can’t wait to see what everyone dresses up as for our Book Week parade on Friday morning. The Year 5/6 students will also have Winter Sports so please pack their sports uniforms in their bags so that they can get changed before we go, thank you!

Homework: A reminder that homework is due back to school this Friday 25th August.

Writing: The students are all very excited to be writing and creating their own picture story books. We have begun the process and are currently planning our characters, setting, conflict and resolutions. It was also fantastic to have author Sue Lawson in to give us some tips and tricks with our writing. Hopefully we will use this knowledge when we are writing our picture story books.

Maths: In Maths Year 4 students have been learning about decimals. Students have been learning how to read, write and order decimals. Year 5 and 6 students have been learning about Location. Students have been learning about the Cartesian Plane and are locating and plotting coordinates in the quadrants.

Religion: In Religion we have been learning about encyclicals (letters) that Pope Francis writes. We have been focusing on Laudato Si’ and have been doing pictorial responses on the Pope’s message in this encyclical.

Integrated Curriculum: In Integrated Curriculum we have designed and created our products for our market stalls. Students have been working extremely well in their groups to create their products. They will now focus on creating various types of advertisements for their products.

Tahlia Whytcross
twhytcross@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au