St Brendan's Catholic Primary School Coragulac eNewsletter

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 Sophie Alliband CHILD SAFETY OFFICER: Mrs Leanne Eastman

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.

Prayer

Last Sunday we celebrated the feast of Australia’s first saint, Mary MacKillop. In 1866, together with Father Tenison Woods, Mary established the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites), the first religious order to be founded by an Australian. She showed compassion for anyone in need, regardless of race, colour or faith and had reverence for the dignity of others, especially those most neglected from society.

Dear God,

You inspired Saint Mary Mackillop to live her life faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and constant in bringing hope and encouragement to those who were disheartened, lonely or needy. We ask that our faith and hope be fired afresh by the Holy Spirit so that we too, like Mary Mackillop, may live with courage, trust and openness. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Amen.

AMEN

Principal's Message

Dear Families and Friends,

I have always loved to ride roller coasters but I have to admit that the Covid roller coaster that we are on is not a whole lot of fun! There is a lot of stopping and starting, a lot of ups and downs and plenty of adjusting of mindsets and plans at short notice. Once again, I would sincerely like to thank you all for your support.

As mentioned in my Remote Learning email last week, the staff have had some concerns about the detrimental effect that continual lockdowns could have on the wellbeing and learning of our students. Possible effects could be lack of connection to school, reduced learning due to lack of face-to-face teaching time and lack of motivation from being out of routine. We attempted to address this with Google Meet check-ins each morning and online teaching of guided reading groups. Thank you for helping your children to be online when needed. The feedback has been very positive and the children have once again demonstrated their resilience and optimism. Fortunately, we only needed to implement the new process for one day, but we now have it in place if needed in the future.

I would like to commend our teachers who are working very hard to provide quality learning for our students in difficult circumstances. Our teachers are outstanding in their commitment, expertise and professionalism, and have a genuine desire to provide the best education they can for our students. I have full trust in them that they will do a wonderful job of navigating our children through whatever comes along.

I would also like to commend all families. We know that this is not easy for you. We all want the best for our children and it can be really hard when we are confronted with situations out of our control which affect our children. Thank you for your sense of calm and the support you give the school. Keep at it and know that we will support you however we can.

We continue to pray for people in lockdown acoss our country, and be thankful that the roller coaster ride is currrently a smooth one for regional Victorians. I am quite happy to forgo the anticipation of the slow crawl upwards, followed by the thrill of going downhill, for the stability and reprieve that comes with a smooth, level ride. Let's enjoy it while we can!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Leanne Eastman
leastman@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

GARDEN AND MAINTENACE

The indigenous garden is taking shape beautifully. We would like to extend a BIG thank you to Jared Wolter for continuing to delight us all with his work on the garden. Jared recently planted dwarf eucalypts and they already look fantastic. We are looking forward to seeing them grow.

Thank you also to Anthony Campbell who has completed work on the car park area. We all appreciate the lack of pot holes!

The McGuane family has also been hard at work, Steph has spent countless hours restoring our train which is now ready for a fresh, bright coat of paint, and Liz has created this music station for outdoor play. How lucky we are to have this talented family amoungst us!

CATHOLIC CULTURE

In last week’s School Newsletter we included a link to the new online format of the Catholic Diocesan magazine. Check out the article on page 29 featuring Outdoor Learning and Sustainability at St. Brendan’s. The magazine begins with a very poignant Covid reflection by Bishop Paul Bird and there are lots of interesting articles on the Catholic schools around the Diocese.

https://www.ballarat.catholic.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ODC-July-2021-web-hr.pdf

OUR PARISH

A major strength of St. Brendan’s is the connection that our school has with the St Brendan's Parish. The Parish is made up of many past and present families of St. Brendan's School with many of them working actively supporting our school in many ways.

Official positions within the Parish are listed below:

Moderator: Maureen Finn 0428329231

Supervising Priest: Fr Michael O’Toole

Parish Secretary: Gracesyn Perrett 52331464

Child Safety Officer: Leanne Eastman

There are many people in the Parish community who do not hold official positions but work tirelessly and quietly in the background to support our school and parish. We thank them for all that they do.

MASS TIMES

For those of you who are unsure, a reminder that Services and Masses are celebrated weekly at the following times:

The first three Sundays of the month: Lay-led Service at 9.30

The last Sunday of the month: Mass at 5pm

ALL WELCOME.

SPORT

Thank you to Tim Ryan and Chris Ambros who generously gave up their time to teach our students how to play carpet bowls. The children and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Both Tim and Chris were patient and did a great job of teaching our students the skills required to master the sport of carpet bowls.

It was a cold, wet day outside so I would also like to thank Jen Bush for scheduling this sports lessons for me whilst she was away. It was nice to be indoors!

MOBILE LIBRARY

Reading is highly valued at St. Brendan's and we endeavour to develop enjoyment for reading in a variety of ways. We are fortunate that the Mobile Library visits our school once a fortnight. Children enjoy going out to the van to choose a book and borrow it for their classroom. Children are able to borrow books to take home from our own school library, and they also have the fun of borrowing books for their classrooms from the mobile library.

BOOK WEEK

Why Book Week is Important

Each year since 1945, the Children's Book Counceil of Australia has brought children and books together acoss Australia through CBCA Book Week. During this time schools and public libraries spend a glorious week celebrating books and Australian authors and illlustrators.

Book Week 2021 runs fom 21 - 27 August and this year asks your child to embrace the theme: "Old worlds, new worlds and other worlds". This is an opportunity for your child to escape and be anything they want to be.

At St. Brendan's we love a good dress up and encourage families to take part in our annual Book Week Parade. The parade will held on Friday, 27th August at 9.15am. We will be discussing the final details for Book Week and the parade at our School Advisory meeting on Tuesday night. Details will be provided in next week's Newsletter.

If you are looking for ideas, click on the link below:

https://www.familiesmagazine.com.au/childrens-book-week-costume-ideas/

ARTICLES AND READINGS FOR PARENTS/CARERS

Check out the attached parenting tips form John Marsden. You may recall that Alice and I saw John speak at the Outdoor Education Conference last Term. We were inspired by what he had to say about children's education. Whether you agree or disagree, he provides us with food for thought.

FYI: John Marsden is an Australian writer and school principal. Marsden's books have been translated into eleven languages. While working as a teacher, Marsden began writing for children, and had his first book, So Much to Tell You, published in 1987. John Marsden is Principal of two schools: Candlebark and Alice Miller.

Parenting Tips from John Marsden

MELBOURNE CUP

At this stage, the Melbourne Cup visit is still going ahead. We are keeping our fingers crossed!

In Art lessons last Term, the children used clay to create their own miniature Melbourne Cups which can be seen below. The Cups will be judged on the day and prizes awarded.

We recently had a visit from Rita Winter who generously donated displays and other items of interest, for us to use on the day. Her display of past Melbourne Cup winners can be seen below. We are extremely grateful to Rita for her generosity and for taking such an interest in our school fundraiser.

COWS CREATE CAREERS

Just before lockdown, our Year 5/6 students had a visit from Nadine Markham from Reid's Stockfeeds to inform them of the variety of careers that can stem from the humble cow. We are all very excited to be part of the program and look forward to being involved in such a rich, hands-on learning experience.

In our Wednesday outdoor Learning sessions, students undertook the task of building the pen for the two calves who we will be looking after through the duration of the program. They used pellets for the frame and they did an excellent job of putting it all together. We sometimes underestimate how much our children know and what they can do. Our students are extremely capable and thrive when taking on new challenges. Hopefully, the calves will arrive this Monday. We are excited!

CELEBRATING FAMILY WEEK

Family Week will be celebrated from 8-14 August in Catholic school communities. We are very grateful for the families that make up St. Brendan's school. You all contribute to making it a warm, friendly, nurturing enviornment for us all.

To celebrate family week we ask each family to decorate a calico square in a way that represents your family. Please include your family name in the design. Once all squares are returned we will sew them together to form a display. Allow a 1cm border around your design for sewing. If you are struggling for ideas, check out the examples below.

Please return your square by Friday 13^thAugust . (TOMORROW)

ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING

The next School Advisory Meeting has been rescheduled once again for Monday 16th August. at 7pm. We look forward to seeing you then.

Prep/1 Classroom News

What a rollercoaster of a week! Well done to all students and families for showing resilience and adaptability considering the circumstances!

SPELLING: This week, Grade 1s spelling words will contain the focus sound for the week. This week we are thinking about words that contain the /ee/ sound (like in feet).

LITERACY: We’ve been working on poetry again this week! The Prep/1s are doing a fabulous job of writing their own version of the poem, “Anyone seen my dragon?” I’ve been very impressed with the descriptive language and creative ideas students have been coming up with!

Liam’s poem is off to a flying start:

“Anybody seen my ducks?

Noisy, fluffy

Cute and scruffy”

(Shared with permission from Liam).

MATHEMATICS: Money has been a very exciting topic for the Prep/1s. This week we have been matching price tags, coins, and the written words for each Australian coin. Students have also been practising identifying each coin based on its features – these include Australian animal picture, size, shape, and colour. We learnt some very interesting facts about the lyrebird (which features on the 10c piece). If you have the time this week, ask your child about the mimicking lyrebird and what sounds it can produce!

RELIGION: For RE, we have continued thinking about what life might have been like in Jesus’ time. The students were excited (and a bit nervous) to taste some flatbread, dates, figs and even olives. We discussed that for Jesus, a supermarket would not have been available to buy these things. Food would have been grown and sourced from the region. There were some very insightful comments and questions – I was delighted with the curiosity and engagement levels shown.

It’s been fantastic having everyone back at school this week.

Allira Kluver
akluver@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

2/3/4 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 5! How exciting to be back at school after our Snap Lockdown. It is a joy to see everyone back on board and ready to resume face to face learning.

LITERACY: In Literacy we have been investigating different types of poems including shape, acrostic, cinquain, alliteration and free verse. The poetry books we are creating will be included in the Portfolios.

Speaking of Portfolios, we have a few that have not made their way back to school yet. I would appreciate their return as soon as possible please.

MATHEMATICS: In Maths we are finishing Fractions and Decimals this week and will begin Time next week.

READING: We have been consistently using the EPIC site and we are up to 1,611 books read so far. You are legends 2/3/4!!

RELIGION: In R.E. we are investigating the books in the Bible and looking at Old Testament psalms.

During Remote Learning one of the activities was Animal Yoga. The children had to strike poses that represent animals. Jackson sent in the photos below. A great effort Jackson! Another activity was to find 5 facts about Mary McKillop who is Australia’s first saint.

Kaitlyn did an excellent job finding information about Mary McKillop. See her work below.

If you have any remnants of material you do not want, please send them along to me for an activity we will be doing. Thank you.

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

If you have any concerns or queries please contact me at school or by email.

Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

5/6 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 5 of Term 3! I hope everyone has recovered from our camp, it was great to be able to fit it in between two lockdowns! We are very lucky!

Next Monday our calves for the Cows Create Careers program are arriving, and will be here for two weeks. We are all looking forward to meeting them, taking care of them and seeing how much they grow!

WRITING: This week in Writing we have been busy publishing our Shape and Diamante poems. We have also been learning about Haiku poems.

MATHEMATICS: In Maths we have been learning about the different types of angles and how to measure angles with a protractor. On Tuesday we went outside to search for different angles, look below to see what we found.

RELIGION: In Religion we have been looking at the Bible. We have been talking about the Old and New Testament and we have been practicing how to find certain stories in the Bible.

READING: A reminder to be encouraging your child to be reading for 20 minutes each night and students need to bring their diary to school every day.

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

This week our students used spinach from our garden and eggs from the chooks to create some interesting muffin pizzas for their lunch. Thank you to Deb Monaco who once again took on the head chef role and shared her culinary skills with us.

Art News

This week in art students have been working on entries for the Otway Fly 'National Schools Tree Day' competition. Students were asked to show why trees are important to them by writing a poem, drawing a picture, painting, making sculptures or however they could best express their thoughts. All entries have been submitted and the winner will be announced on August 20th 2021.