Newsletter Term 4, 2023. Week 4

Principal's Update

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Welcome to Week 4!  We acknowledge All Saint’s Day on Wednesday just gone and All Soul’s Day on Thursday just gone.  We are sending our love and support to all who have lost loved ones in their lives. 

Term 4 is quickly gaining momentum which means we need to be on the front foot!  We would appreciate all parent and carer help in all events including our swimming carnival Year 2-6 on February 2nd, 2024!  Please be ready to volunteer your time when you receive details on Compass. 

Our Kindergarten 2024 orientation is underway focusing on a smooth transition to school for both children and families.  Our Year 4 buddies are very excited to take on their leadership roles supporting our Kindergarten 2024 children and their families.  Thank you Year 4. Thank you all who have been involved in our Ready, Set, Go program for children with additional needs.  Our parents even got involved in our transition – great teamwork, collaboration, resilience, and problem-solving – well done parents and carers!  See you all next week! 

Our Year 5 children had a great time at the Year 5 camp last week.  It was damp underfoot and they experienced a little rain but still showed resilience and perseverance continuing to enjoy their camp activities including BMX riding, archery, giant swing, and flying fox plus many leadership activities.  The children will now be invited to complete a leadership application allowing them to reflect on their time at St Brendan’s and now incorporating the SBLM expectations into their everyday lives.  Their leadership speeches may be presented to our school community the week beginning 13th November.  Further details regarding speeches will be shared ASAP.  

Congratulations to both Keeley and Tyson in Year 6 who have been nominated to receive the citizenship awards at Doyalson RSL on 15th November.  This is a wonderful achievement and acknowledgment for Keeley and Tyson – well done! 

We would like to thank our school community for getting behind Rain R in Year 4 who has qualified to attend the National Athletics Carnival in Tasmania.  Today we all wore our sports gear and brought in a gold coin!  We will be cheering from Lake Munmorah!  Congratulations Rain, this is an amazing achievement!  Well done. 

We have an amazing outdoor education started up this term with Miss Bevan (our Year 3 Green teacher) every Monday afternoon.  This is what it is all about, next week we might be able to share some photos: 

At our PAG (Parent Advisory Group) meeting last Tuesday at 6 pm we agreed on our NORMS for all future meetings (please see below).  I would like to declare all positions vacant. 

• Welcome everyone – introduction 
• Respect each other’s opinions/differences 
• Listen attentively and respectfully 
• Focus on children 
• Stick to the agenda – send out the agenda beforehand 
• Speak with kind words 
• Commit to action 

Congratulations to our St Brendan’s cricket team who attended the Waratah Shield last Friday. One win, one loss!  Well done.  Thank you Mr Perry for organising the teams before and after the day. 

I have been looking into the bus situation since the beginning of the year!  The overcrowded buses will not be resolved until all children have their Opal cards. Could I again urge all families to apply for an Opal card as soon as possible? 

Tierney DesBrulais is now on Maternity leave.  Tierney is one of our wonderful learning support team.  In her absence, Madeline Martin will be taking up with role until mid-term 1, 2024.  I am excited to introduce to our school community new staff members for 2024 and announce our existing staff.  I will do this in our next newsletter if all is confirmed.  

Our Family Mass including St Brendan’s and St Brigid’s is coming up on Saturday, 18th November at 5 pm. It would be wonderful to see you there! 

Our Christmas Carols will be on 29th November.  The food trucks will be serving from 3 pm and the children’s performances will commence at 5.15 pm.  An invite with further information will be sent home soon.  I would encourage you to stay until the end of the evening – there may be a finale! 

Groovin the Green date is 5th April 2024.  We will be sending out an invite, with details, and how you can help our community.  

Year 2 intensive swimming is from December 4 to 8.  The 8th will see a change in departure time and arrival time due to the Thanksgiving mass and End of Year awards on the 8th of December.  Thank you Mr Banks for organising this at Morisset pool. 

God Bless, 

Charlene Reid 

Principal 

Collaborative Coaching:

We are now in our fourth term of Collaborative Coaching, where all grades are continuing to focus on building skill, knowledge, and understanding in the area of Numeracy (Multiplicative Thinking).  We have seen growth across all grades as we increase student knowledge and understanding, reduce vulnerabilities, and build teacher capacity. 

Today, I would like to share data from Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6 and the HUB from Term 3.  The data is not in alphabetical order for confidentiality.  Some students have greater growth at different times than others.  Where you see a missing data set, this is predominantly due to a child being absent and shows the importance of school attendance; learning every-day matters.  

The data you are looking at is based on the following rubric that is used to assess student achievement against the Syllabus outcomes:

0: Knowledge or skill is not evident

1: Developing

2: Working at

3: Working beyond

You will see the pre-test data for Year 5 was indicative of a quick win as the cohort had a solid understanding of the task.  This is a quick win as Year 5 allocated more time to other areas of multiplicative thinking where students showed less proficiency.  The data for the HUB demonstrates the shift of students from 'developing' and 'working at' to 'working beyond'. 

How can you support your child's progression?

• Expressing a positive attitude towards learning by using phrases like let's work it out together and avoiding phrases like I was bad a maths.
• Playing games that involve multiplication and division.
• Reciting multiplication facts (timetables)

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

The Hub

Religious Education

School Updates

St Brendan's Christmas Carols are fast approaching.  Be sure to save the date and come along to support our local businesses before the concert.

If you are interested in having a stall then please fill out the form below and we will be in touch

NSW Junior Chess League Expressions of Interest

Dear parents/caregivers,

We are currently seeking expressions of interest from students who would like to compete in the Primary Schools Chess Competition next month. It is run by the NSW Junior Chess League and attracts around 260 competitors each year. Please see the details on the flyer below and email daniel.murphy1@dbb.catholic.edu.au for further information or to register your child’s interest.

Kind regards,

Daniel Murphy

Getting Started with Social Media esafety webinar

To register your interest in doing 'just one thing' at St Brendan's, follow the attached link

Awards

SBLM FOCUS

Our SBLM focus for Weeks 5 and 6 is "Keep hands/feet/objects to yourself".

Merit Awards

Week 3 Awards

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Week 4 Awards

Dojo Awards

Community News

Did you Know….

Every Thursday is an opportunity to grab a bargain! You can pick up a bag of essential groceries for $10 and the option for bread, fruit & veg & frozen items for reduced sale as well!

Most of these items are either surplus or close to use by date, but if they don’t get eaten, they will be thrown in the garbage… what a waste!

The local locations are:

Food Bank: Colongra Bay Hall, Colongra Bay Road, Lake Munmorah: 10.00am until sold out

Wyee Community Hub: 20 Gorokan Road, Wyee (the road that goes under the railway line at Wyee train station)

10.00 am-1.00 pm; free BBQ lunch, bring your own bags, open-air markets with loads of discounted items for sale. The food hampers with Wyee Community Hub are ‘$10 for around 30-40kg of groceries, fruit & veg, bread, juice & (UHT) milk’ – items in the hamper are dependent upon stock available. When I visited the Wyee Community Hub, I got there at 12.00pm and for $10, I walked away with shopping bags of groceries & a bag of vegies (which included a whole pumpkin & head of cauliflower: pumpkin soup for dinner that night!).

Both locations accept cash only, so raid that money box, it will be worth it!

If you can’t make a Thursday, you can always try:

Toukley Neighbourhood Centre: 199 Main Road, Toukley

Tuesday, Thursday & Fridays from 9am-3pm and Saturdays 9.30am-1.00pm. Stretch your grocery budget further with cheap groceries.

If you know of a family member, school family or friend who would benefit from information or a helping hand, please leave a message for me at the school. I can provide you with local resources and services that may be of assistance. If I don’t know, I can’t help!!

Take Care… Nicole Anderson

Parent Engagement Coordinator (PEC)

Every Monday & alternate Tuesday’s

Christmas Eve Mass and Nativity

Join our school and parish community to celebrate Mass on Christmas Eve, Sunday 24^th December at 5p5 pm at St Brendan’s Church. If your child/children would like to be involved in the Children’s Nativity please register your interest by scanning the QR code.  Or click here 

Circle of Security

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Support Group

Positive Parenting Program

Compass Calendar