Newsletter Term 1, 2024 Week 2

Principal's Update

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Welcome to Week 2! 

Thank you to all who attended our Opening School Mass last Thursday, 8th February, it was lovely to see so many parents and carers.  Thank you Miss Foskett for organising such a beautiful celebration of our awesome children at St Brendan’s.   

Congratulations to our leaders who received their badges. 

Student Leaders

School Captains  

Nate P 
Charlotte McM   

Vice Captains  

Leo W 
Leah B 

 Green Sporthouse Captains  

Cameron W 
Bonnie P   

Red Sporthouse Captains  

Kai W 
Haven C   

Blue Sporthouse Captains  

Isla A 
Blye H   

Yellow Sporthouse Captains  

James B 
Chelsea R  

Mission Leaders  

Ethan S 
Emerson M 
Valli F   

Learning Leaders  

Amira B-S 
Jaiden W 
Zara O   

Wellbeing Leaders  

Ronan N 
Saxon L 
Matilda E   

Environmental Leaders  

Elliot R 
Blake C 
Brando   

SRC  

Celebrations

This week we had many celebrations in our church including Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day), Reconciliation information afternoon for parents, and Ash Wednesday.  Thank you for your participation and again, lovely to see so many parents and carers attend to support our school community. 

Parent Forum & PAG

Our annual Parent Forum was on Wednesday.  Thank you for joining our discussion about school improvement and our school’s visions for 2024.  I know some parents were not able to attend, therefore I will share our discussions in a letter on Compass.  Last year we celebrated our learning focused on Multiplication facts, this year we will be celebrating our learning in literacy, narrowing it down to writing! 

I will also be sending a survey regarding your thoughts about what our PAG (Parent Advisory Group) could look like and the intentions and purpose of a PAG.  I look forward to your replies. 

Enrolments

We are receiving many enrolment enquiries for various grades in 2024 and also Kindergarten enquiries for 2025!  If you need further information please register your interest using the link on our website. 

If you would like further information regarding the Eileen O'Connor School classes please visit Catholic Schools Broken Bay website:  EILEEN OCONNOR SCHOOL

CCC Swimming Carnival

Good luck to our CCC Swimmers on Monday!  The following children are heading to Mingara pool to represent themselves and St Brendan’s.  Have fun and perhaps you may qualify to attend the Broken Bay Swimming Carnival on 12th March! 

Welcome BBQ

Thank you for your RSVPs for the Welcome BBQ held next Tuesday, 20th February from 4.30-6pm.  Please bring your own fold-up chair and good weather so we can picnic on the oval with some games!  Soft drinks will also be for sale at the canteen (cash only). 

Bus Concerns

I am aware of the ongoing concerns with the overcrowded buses especially 2804 and 2795.  Could I please ask you to email me (charlene.reid1@dbb.catholic.edu.au) any correspondence you have sent through to either Busways, St Brendan’s, St Brigid’s, or Transport NSW previously.  We have a generous parent who has offered to put a case together to send to Transport NSW with our previous grievances and highlighting that the problem still exists even though we have brought it to their attention.  You may even have older emails from previous years that we can use.  We need to do this for the safety of your children. 

Sr Josie

We welcome Sr Josie to our school community every Thursday.  Sr Josie may have visited your child’s classroom yesterday to say hello!  Sr Josie is a very talented lady who loves music, singing etc.  Sr Josie is here to be involved in our Religious education lessons, to create a fun choir and to assist us in promoting our combined family masses. 

We are also very lucky to have on staff Nicole Anderson (our PEC, Parent Engagement Coordinator) and Jodie Mizzi/Vic the therapy dog (our PCW, Pastoral Care Worker).  Both Nicole and Jodie are here to support our school community by providing networking opportunities, parenting programs, wellbeing of our parent community, building parish and school connections, supporting the wellbeing of our children etc.  If you ever need support in any way please reach out to either myself, Nicole or Jodie. (nicole.anderson1@dbb.catholic.edu.au) (jodie.mizzi1@dbb.catholic.edu.au).  Earlier this year our learning support team provided a letter on Compass outlining the support available through our learning support staff.  Please refer to this particular letter for more learning support information.

Talented Students of St Brendan's

We have many talented children at SBLM.  Please take a look below and email me any photos and a short blurb, if you would like to share our talents with our school community!  

Matilda (Year 6) has been studying at Rippad Academy of music for a while now and awarded the excellence award for her performances and dedication to guitar, singing, drums and now songwriting and composition!  

Kai (Year 6) is ready for a big day at the Polding Basketball trials, representing the diocese of Broken Bay and St Brendan’s. 

Both Chelsea (Year 6) and Aston R (Year 4) competed at the Little Athletics Regional Championships in Glendale,  after having both qualified through from the Central Coast Zone Championship that was held in December.  Both children gave their all and we are happy to say that Aston has qualified for the State Championships to be held in March at Sydney Olympic Park. He will be competing at State in discus, shot put and the 700m walk. 

Marni O (year 3), Rain R (Year 5) and Alexia G (Year 5) were also competing last weekend and Rain and Alexis have both qualified for State too.

Liam W (Year 6) attended a Open Skiff Sailing  regatta at Kurnell over the weekend. He placed 3rd overall in the silver fleet with 28 other sailors also competing in the same division.  

Amazing, thank you for sharing your many interests and talents! 

Your children should have brought home a parent calendar for your fridge for Term 1!  Please use this calendar to add any further information you may receive from St Brendan’s.  I hope you have managed to book your goal setting meeting in with your child’s teacher/s.  These interviews are scheduled for the week commencing 26th February!  If you have not received one there are some spare copies in our office foyer. 

God Bless, 

Charlene Reid 

Principal 

Photo Permissions

Catholic Schools Broken Bay requires that we have all Photo Permission forms completed every year.

We have sent out reminders to families who have not completed this and ask that this be made a priority over the weekend.

Permissions are through Compass and if you have any problems, please don't hesitate to contact the office.

Religious Education

School Updates

From the PEC

Easter is a special time in the Catholic Church. Preparing ourselves for Easter includes some important days and a brief description of these has been sourced from Catholic Australia.

Shrove Tuesday is a day to feast on eggs, sugar and dairy (pancakes) which were traditionally restricted during the Lenten fast. The word shrove comes from the word shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins by way of confession and by doing penance. Shrove Tuesday is celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday, which is when the Lenten period (Lent) begins.

Ash Wednesday is an important holy day, when ashes are used to make a sign of the cross on the forehead, symbolising the ‘dust from which God made us’. The ashes are made by burning blessed palm branches, kept from last year’s palm Sunday Mass.

Lent is a 40 day season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving (the act of giving charity to others).

A simple example of Lent is a time when ‘something is given up’ (eg. Ice cream or chocolate) for 40 days and funds are deposited into the Project Compassion box within the home or at church (the money that would have been spent on these items would be put aside to help others).

This may sound a bit daunting, so I have included 40 days of suggestions that may help you at Lent with your family.

Updated Canteen Menu

2024 OPEN DAYS 

SBLM

Madeleine Loneragan (Wellbeing Co-ordinator)

Hello parents and carers.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to give you a brief summary of our PBL (Positive Behaviour for Learning) procedures as we set off on a wonderful new year at St Brendan’s. During 2023, we developed and implemented several new policies and procedures to help support our students in their learning and behaviour choices. These include: 

SBLM – this is the cornerstone of our PBL at St Brendan’s, and applies across all contexts and students. Each letter of the acronym represents a core expectation and sets out a number of examples of how students can represent that expectation at school. 

Dojos – these are digital reward ‘points’ that students can earn from staff at school for demonstrating our SBLM expectations, that build towards totals that earn a range of rewards/awards presented by their class teacher.  

1-2-3 Magic! - this is a program that provides teachers with a structure to respond to students’ negative behaviour choices, by offering the opportunity to redirect/prompt/reteach towards more positive choices. Students have the opportunity to spend some time in the classroom Calm Space, a buddy class, or the Reflection Room if required, to enable them to think about their choices, reflect on what happened, and how they might make a better choice in the future. 

Reflection Room – students may spend lunchtime with a teacher because of a major behaviour incident, three minor behaviour incidents during one week, or through being counted 9 times on the 1-2-3 Magic chart in a day. They complete a reflection form with the teacher - which we keep on file to refer to in any future meetings/calls with you - and then have the opportunity for some social-emotional learning and activities together. 

Action Plan (AP) meetings – AP1 is a meeting between myself and a student once they have attended the Reflection Room three times in one term, to discuss their choices and build some strategies for more positive future choices. AP2 is meeting with the student and their parents, to closely examine the student’s behaviour and wellbeing. 

For further information about any of our PBL policies or procedures, please feel free to email me at any time at loneragan@dbb.catholic.edu.au, or refer to our school website which contains further information. 

Kind regards, 

Madeleine Loneragan,

Wellbeing Coordinator. 

Awards

Community News

Catholic Care and OSHC

CatholicCare is the social care agency of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Broken Bay. This is a wonderful resource for our community. Catholic care now has a new website:  https://catholiccaredbb.org.au. 

For any information regarding St Brendan's OSHC, please follow this link:: https://catholiccaredbb.org.au/childrens-services/out-of-school-hours-and-vacation-care/

For vacation care, bookings can be made via this link: https://catholiccaredbb.org.au/vacation-care

Cricket Blast

 Cricket NSW Cricket Blast  is running two Cricket Blast programs for kids ages 5-10 in Term 1. To register please follow the link : https://www.playhq.com/cricket-australia/register/714aab

Youth Group in Summerland Point

Christ Church is a local community church in Gwandalan (supported by Swansea Baptist) who have a heart for our community. We are commencing a Youth Group for young people in Years 6 and 7 at school and would love to invite you to join.

Please Note: We are very conscious of Child Safety and all leaders undergo thorough screening, child safety training and have valid and clear working with children checks. We also have a child safety team comprised of people who work professionally with youth.

Scouts

Scouts Australia provides young people aged 5 to 25 with fun and challenging opportunities to grow through adventure. With around 70,000 members, Scouts Australia is one of the largest youth development organisations in Australia. What makes us unique is our diverse range of activities that develop skills in young people such as leadership, teamwork, problem solving and communication from the age of 5 years old.

Today’s Scouts can take part in an extraordinary variety of outdoor activities, from ‘traditional Scouting skills’ such as camping and bushcraft, through to more extreme challenges such as abseiling, overnight hiking, rafting, canoeing, canyoning, snow activities, rock climbing, sailing… even flying!

The Scouts Australia Program also incorporates contemporary issues such as youth health, ‘responsible risk-taking’, vocational skills, and issues pertinent to Indigenous Australians. We offer an Award Scheme that encourages participation in the full range of activities available and provides recognition of individual achievement.

Scouting is a not-for-profit organisation, and apart from a small administrative staff, is fully staffed by volunteers,.

We are trying to reach as many parents and young people as possible, to open the opportunities Scouts can offer, especially as we emerge from the past few years of lockdowns, and more people want to explore the outdoors again.

So spread the word and get involved in the great outdoors.  

Compass Calendar