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Newsletter No. 25 | Term 4 Week 7 | Friday 17th November 2023

Prayer

God of Peace,

May we always choose peace.

In our words.

In our actions.

In our attitudes.

Amen

Principal's Message

Dear Families and Friends,

We just love Mission Day at St. Brendan's and yesterday was no exception!

Mission Day is always a fun day, but it is also a day when our children are reminded of those less fortunate than them and take action to make a difference in our world. The day began with a liturgy, with each child sharing very thoughtful and heartfelt statements about what Mission day means to them. I would like to thank the teachers for preparing the children so well, developing in them a sense of care and empathy for others.

Each year the money we raise is donated to Caritas Australia, an organisation that supports some of the most needy in our world. This year we raised a total of $2151.00 for the people in the rural region of Timor Leste. The funds will go towards helping them to provide adequate health care services for the Timorese people.

It was wonderful to welcome Catholic Education Ballarat employees Kate Lawry, Justin McInereny and Sarah Page to our Mission Day. We really appreciated them coming down from Ballarat to support us. It was good to see them all heading home with lots of bargains!

Mission Day Cake Auction

The infamous St. Brendan’s Cake Auction was a huge success. The year 6 auctioneers did a great job, ensuring that the cakes went for top price! The cake auction alone raised $1098.

This year we introduced new categories to the cake auction and the competition was definitely on! Congratulations to the following winners:

Best Student Cake: Teddy Phillips (Prep) for his chocolate dinosaur cake

Best Mum Cake: Tracey Bayne for her yogurt, blackberry, almond and olive oil loaf

Best Dad Cake: Ken Coates for his chocolate smores cake

Best Grandparent Cake: Nancy Abrahams for her beautifully decorated hummingbird cake

Best Staff Cake: Gracesyn Watts for her carrot cake

Best Baked Goods: Sophie Alliband for her raspberry slice

Thank you to our families, friends, parish community and wider community who contributed in some way to making the day a success, either by being there on the day, helping your children to organise their stalls, or baking for the cake auction. Special thanks to Jared for adding to the festive atmosphere by supplying the music and allowing the children to play the instruments and sing on the microphone, Alice for bringing her horses (and saving the day with the bbq stand), Janet for helping the Year 6s to make the haunted house VERY spooky and Rod & Louise Kluver (Allira’s parents) for taking on the bbq duties.

Lastly, an extra special thanks and congratulations to our students. They threw themselves wholeheartedly into the task of raising money for the missions. The stalls were diverse, creative and very well organised. We are very proud of you all!

Leanne Eastman
leastman@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

Remembrance Day - A Story of Past Present and Future

On Saturday, November 11th, it was Remembrance Day. It is a day for us as a community to remember and reflect upon the sacrifices that those who have gone before us have made and to think of those who are currently serving in the defence forces.

We commemorated Remembrance Day on Monday with a short ceremony at the flagpole. The children demonstrated a great deal of respect for the occasion and carried on the tradition of placing poppies, made by St.Brendan’s students 7 years ago, at the foot of the flagpole.

School Advisory Council

Next Meeting: Wednesday 22nd May, 7pm.

PLEASE NOTE: We will have 3-4 parent positions being vacated on the School Advisory Council for 2024/25. These are 2 year positions with one meeting per term and an AGM in Term 4. We welcome parents who would like to be involved in the structures and policies of the school to send an email to principal@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au to register their interest prior to November 23rd.

Pre Prep Program

Our Pre-Prep program kicked off next Friday, 10th November. The children already seem really comfortable with the school and we can tell that they are going to be an amazing class. We are extremely proud of our current students who were so welcoming and caring towards the Pre-preps. They were treated like little rock stars!

Excursion: Making a Scene at Christmas

Our school has been invited to attend an amazing display of 300 Nativity scenes from around the world. The exhibition visited Colac some years back and was spoken of really highly. This year the nativity scenes will be displayed in the Uniting Church Hall and our school will be attending on Thursday 30th November from 1.30 -2.30pm.

The children will all have the opportunity to see and smell frankincense and myrrh, hold a Roman coin minted around the time Jesus was born, in the region that he was born, and an oil lamp that also dates to the time of the birth of Jesus.

There will be Nativities from Africa ( Berkino FaJo, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia - this ismade of builet shells - Malawi, Mozambique, south Africa, Tanzania,zambia, and Uganda), TheAmericas ( canada, cuba, El salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico' United states'Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil,Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela)' A"11 (Bangladesh' Cambodia'China, lndia, lndonesia, lsrael, Japan, Kyrzakstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Palestine, philippines, Sri Lanka, thaitanO, Turkey, Vietnam), Europe (Austria' Bulgaria' CzechRepublic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece' lceland' lreland' ltaly' Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia' Slovakia' Spain' Sweden' Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine) and Australiana (Australia, New Zealand)

The session will take about 60 minutes. If you would like to join us please feel free to come along.

The Wizard of Oz

In order to prepare for our 2024 Wizard of Oz production, we will be watching the movie on Friday. We will be identifying the main characters and encouraging children to think about auditioning for a main part.

Georgie Leerson (Director and Producer) and Courtney Barrow (Choreographer and Creative Consultant) from Act and Imagine, will be at school on Wednesday 6th December for the Workshop - Audition Day. The children will not need to do anything before then but if they are keen, they may like to familiarise themselves with the songs and perhaps do some practise. This is not essential though, as the workshop will be an opportunity for this to happen.

This is an exciting opportunity for our school and all children will be part of the production.

Upcoming School Events

End of Year Excursion: This year, the end of year excursion will be on the last day of school for students, Friday15th December. We will winding up the year with a bit of fun in the surf, with children receiving surfing lessons from Go Ride A Wave. There will be a change of venue for the surfing this year, it will be at Lorne which is a bit closer for everyone.

All families are welcome to join us for the day to cheer on our surfers and enjoy a picnic lunch on the beach.

Parents and carers will need to provide their own transport to Lorne.

End of Year Celebrations

Year 6 Graduation: Graduation Mass will be held on Thursday, 7th December at 5pm. Carols will follow the graduation and the Year 6 students have chosen to have a whole school celebration after carols, with a pizza dinner.

We hope you will all be able to join us for this special event, celebrating our year 6s, Christmas and the wonderful year we have had at school.

Prep/1 Fun Night: Monday 4th December (More details to follow)

Year 2/3/4 Fun Night: Tuesday 5th December (More details to follow)

Catholic Culture

Caritas Australia is Compassion in Action

As the Catholic Church's international aid and development agency, Caritas Australia works hand in hand with the most marginalised communities in Australia and overseas, to confront the challenges of poverty. Through locally-led programs, we work with all people, with shared hope and compassion, towards a world where all can thrive and reach their full potential.

Through partnerships with local organisations and Church networks, and as a member of Caritas Internationalis, one of the largest humanitarian networks in the world, we are able to reach where the need is greatest and work together for a just future.

Working together for justice and dignity. Building together a thriving future for all.

Vinnie's Christmas Appeal

Our Year 6 Social Justice group are once again running our Vinnie’s Christmas Appeal. Vinnie’s were very appreciative of our contributions which help out some of the most needy families in our community during the Christmas season.

We have begun collecting for this year’s Appeal and appreciate the donations we have received so far. 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.

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

2/3/4 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 7!

We are celebrating our annual Mission Day today and we look forward to raising money for the Health Clinic in Timor Leste. The children have been excitedly planning their stalls, and creating posters for it. We appreciate all the support our parents give to this day, including purchasing what the children want and attending the event when they can.

Religious Education: This week we have been thinking about what mission means and preparing statements to share at our Mission Day Liturgy. The students have also designed posters advertising their stalls.

Literacy: Our class has been reviewing their Morphology Books, and exploring the suffix ‘ness’. We are currently working with ‘ar’ graphemes in spelling and reading, and unpacking the meaning of the words. We are also learning about different syllable types.

In Writing, we have been creating acrostic kindness poems. Some children have started presenting their research to the class, whilst the rest are completing their investigations of their chosen topic.

Numeracy: We have completed a pre-test for Measurement and started learning about length. We measured the height of our class members and are comparing units of length. We have been using the ruler and tape measure to find the length of a variety of objects.

Integrated Curriculum: This week we created an imaginary community and had to decide on three laws that would show inclusiveness and fairness for all. The three rules are:

Treat others how you want to be treated and don’t make fun of anyone.

Be kind and loving to everyone.

Always help everybody and value them.

Homework: Homework this week includes learning our current spelling words – the /ar/ phoneme and choosing 5 acts of kindness that you can do for your family. This aligns with World Kindness Day which was on Monday 13^th November.

The Star of the Week award goes to Issy Coates. Congratulations on your excellent effort!

Cheers,

Mandy Sutherland
msutherland@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au

4/5/6 Classroom News

Welcome to Week 7 of Term 4!

Homework: A reminder that homework is due back next Friday 24th November. Some students are working on their pictures for their stories, these need to be returned to school by Monday 20th November, thank you!

Writing: In Writing we have continued to work on character descriptions. We have been building on our sentences of 3 and have been expanding on some of these features and describing what our characters are doing.

Spelling: This week we have been focusing on the spellings for the sound /ar/. Year 4 students have been looking at words such as draught, almond and partner. Year 5/6 students have been looking at words such as parliament, hierarchy and pharmacy.

Maths: In Maths Year 4 students have been working on Length. They have been converting between different units of measurement and practising estimating and measuring lengths. Year 5/6 students have been working on Chance and Probability. They have been writing the outcomes of events happening in fraction, decimal and percentage form.

Religion: In Religion we have been focusing on Mission Day. We have been reflecting on what Mission means to us and writing our Mission Day statements which we will read at the Mission Day liturgy.

Integrated Curriculum: In Integrated Curriculum we have continued to work on our storyboard. In our groups (Sanitation, Malnutrition, Poverty or Illiteracy), we have been creating a family that is affected by one of these problems and researching information about the problem and how others can help.

Tahlia Whytcross
twhytcross@sbcoragulac.catholic.edu.au