Newsletter Term 4, 2024 Week 10

Principal's Update

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Welcome to Term 4, Week 10! 

I would like to thank you all for another great year.  Your children have made great contributions to SBLM over the year and we hope you have seen great gains academically, socially and emotionally. 

I hope all of our new families who have joined us during 2024 have found some new friends and supports within our school/parish community. 

I would like to welcome some new families to St Brendan’s in 2025: Flynn in 5R, Jackson in 5R, Braylen in 5R, Aria in 3B, Phoenix in 3/4G and we have more families waiting confirmation!  Welcome! 

After our step up day last week you are now aware of your child’s 2025 teacher.  Our staff have spent many hours placing your children in a class that will be conducive to their learning plus taking into consideration they will be with at least one nominated friend.  I am aware of parents not necessarily following our Parent Charter (linked below) which is very disappointing.  Every staff member at St Brendan’s are here for your children, we too want what is best for them – it may not be your perfect but things are in place for a reason, please trust our professional judgement. 

You might hear about teacher shortages on the news which is a fact, however, at St Brendan’s we have excellent teachers, LSAs and non-teaching staff members who give 110% of their time at school, their time at home, their family time etc for your children.  I would like to applaud each and every staff member and I will would like to retain them at St Brendan’s and not give them a reason to want them to leave the profession.  Teaching is a very rewarding profession, it’s a difficult and ever changing profession and yes the demands are increasing and we always rise to the challenge here at St Brendan’s.  Please value your children’s teachers.  We always promote using kind words and actions with our children, so why not our teachers!  They deserve praise too!

We celebrated many talents, skills and achievements at our End of Year Awards last Thursday.  Congratulations to all of our recipients shown in the following photos!

Our Year 6 Awards were presented at their graduation dinner.  The recipients are:

I would like to thank and wish our leaving families all the very best.  Thank you for your support over the years at St Brendan’s.

Our Spirit of St Brendan’s awards for Term 4, 2024 were presented after our Thanksgiving mass.  It was lovely to see so many parents attend our mass and also our presentations on this day.  I hope you enjoyed the coffee van treat!

Our Year 6 graduating class of 2024 celebrated their mass last Monday evening.  This was a lovely time to gather in our church for their special mass.  Thank you parents and carers for your presence and participation.

Our Year 6 graduation dinner was an amazing evening of speeches, awards, dancing, photos and fun!  A special thank you to our staff and parents who made this night a success!  The planning for the end of year events for Year 6 started in June this year.  Thank you to all the parents and carers who gave up their time to plan and prepare for fundraising events and the end of year celebrations!

2024 Student Leadership

I would like to acknowledge and thank our current 2024 student leadership team:

Stage 2 Touch Tag gala day at St Brendan’s this week – what a great day for all involved.  Thank you to Mrs Neems who coordinated the day after being washed out a couple of weeks ago.  It was also wonderful to see so many helpers i.e. parents, daughters etc to help referee.  Super day had by all!  Great sportspersonship and skill building also.

Our End of Term Reward was spent in our House Colours.  The children played games, learnt chants for our 2025 swimming carnival, explored the possibility of introducing new symbols and traits to our colours and our new names (see info graph below – new logos to come).  Our outgoing colour house captains also had the opportunity to introduce our newly elected house colour captains to their team!

Congratulations to Ollie G (Year 5) for representing Broken Bay for Cricket!  Ollie has been presented with his representative badge. 

Congratulations to both Alexia and Rain for representing Broken Bay in multiple disciplines and awarded a medallion and certificate.

Well done to Kiri on her impressive skating results!

2025 Teaching Staff

Our 2025 teachers are:

KR Miss Nicola Caflisch

KB Mrs Madeleine Loneragan

KG Miss Alana Robertson

1R Mrs Katrina Gordon (Mon-Thurs) / Mrs Suzanne Shui-Haskins (Mrs S) (Fri)

1B Mrs Samantha Beveridge

1G Mrs Madie Martin (Wed-Fri)/ Mrs Caitlin DeLemos (Mon-Tues). Then T2 onwards Mrs DeLemos will be teaching Mon-Fri and Mrs Martin will be joining our learning support team.

2R Miss Katie Bevan

2B Mrs Maureen McDonnell

2G Mrs Lily Anderson (Mon-Wed)/Mrs Stephanie Mind (Thurs-Fri). Then T2 onwards Mrs Mind (Mon-Tues) and Mrs Moolman (Wed-Fri)

3B Mrs Laura Lewis and then Miss Mackenzie Wilson from 10^th March

3R Mr Daniel Murphy

3/4G Mr Matthew Chandler

4R Mrs Anne Neems

4B Mrs Melissa Townsend

5R Mrs Ebony Mills then maternity leave from T2 (no replacement finalised)

5B Mrs Maggie O’Brien (Mon-Tues)/Miss Kara Lees (Wed-Fri)

5G Mr Brendan McMahon

6B Mr Matthew Ward

6R Miss Alli Foskett/Mr Damien Lobb (exec release). Mr Lobb will be on long service leave in term 1 – no replacement finalised.

Library – Ms Sue Purdue

Canteen – Mrs Tracey Marley

Level 6 Senior Administration (office) – Mrs Kate Kennedy

Level 4 Administration (office) – Mrs Victoria Price and Mrs Cathy Norris

Parent Engagement Coordinator – Mrs Victoria Price

School Marketing Officer – Mrs Gemma Murphy

Pastoral Care Worker – Mrs Jodie Mizzi (Playgroup also)

Digital Technology – Mrs Suzanne Shui-Haskins

Sport and Exec release – Mr Greg Banks

Aboriginal Education Workers – Mr Lucas Gainsford and Mr William Spek

Learning Support Teachers – Mrs Lauren Betts and Mrs Tierney DesBrulais and Mrs Madie Martin

Learning Support Assistants – Mrs Kim Hancock, Mrs Kim Reilly, Miss Karley Ridges, Mrs Jodie Mizzi, Mrs Sarah Atwell and Mrs Jennifer Homes

School Councillor – Mrs Tabea Keske

2025 Executive team comprises of:

Mrs Charlene Reid – Principal

Mrs Jacqui Fletcher – Assistant Principal

Miss Alli Foskett – Religious Education Coordinator

Mrs Madeleine Loneragan – Wellbeing Coordinator

Mr Matthew Chandler – Coordinator 2 – data/assessment

Mrs Anne Neems – Coordinator - Curriculum

We will send out a letter outlining who our learning support team are and what classes they will be supporting in 2025.  This letter will include our learning support teachers and our learnings support assistants.

Our teachers do not work in silos, they work collaboratively hence their time each week on top of RFF (release from face to face teaching) they have Collaborative Coaching time to work as a stage team.  At this point in time we have teachers who will release your child’s teacher each week and they may be Mrs Allyse Cresta or Mr Benjamin Power and we have advertised for one more staff member.

On behalf of the staff and community I would like to thank the following staff members leaving our school community and wish them all the very best in the future.  Perhaps one day you will return to us:

Mrs Belinda Brown (Learning support)

Mrs Nicole Evans

Mr Christopher Perry

Mrs Andrea Crosara (Administration – office staff)

Miss Milla Sullivan

Miss Piper Kennedy

Mrs Nicole Herdman

Miss Rebecca Zietsch

Mrs Sandra Pazaridis

Mr Brett Pickett

We have also staff members who have been on leave for 12 months who are not returning in 2025.  I wish both all the very best:

Mrs Jaimie Wallis

Mrs Fiona Scott

Thank you for your kind donations toward National Diabetes Day.. St Brendan’s raised $722 and the goal was $600!  Well done everyone and thank you.

National Diabetes Day

Thank you for your kind donations toward National Diabetes Day.. St Brendan’s raised $722 and the goal was $600!  Well done everyone and thank you.

Please note some 2025 dates:

VERY IMPORTANT to RSVP please Years 2-6 (8 years in 2025) to our St Brendan’s swimming carnival on Compass so we can confirm bus travel for your travel if needed.  If you do not RSVP, your child will not have a seat on the bus if needed.   You are welcome to drive your child to and from the swimming carnival at Swansea pool on Monday 10^th February.

You will receive a paper calendar copy however here are some dates in 2025 to kick off the year!

Yeronga Uniform shop at St Brendan’s open on 8^th January from 8-12pm (during holidays)

Staff return 31^st January

Years 1-6 return Monday, 3^rd February

Kindergarten start of school screener 3-4^th February – please book your timeslot on Compass

Kindergarten first day Wednesday, 5^th February

Parent forum K-6 – all welcome in hall at 9am on Thursday, 6^th February

St Brendan’s swimming carnival (children turning 8 in 2025 onwards) – Monday 10^th February at Swansea pool. You need to RSVP now please on Compass.

Opening School Mass – Captains badged 9am 12^th February

CC zone swimming carnival – Monday 17^th February

Athletics Carnival 10^th March

NAPLAN 2025 12^th March-21^st March

School Photos 8^th April

Year 6 Canberra Excursion (TBC) 25^th June-27^th June

Year 5 Camp – possibly Point Wollstoncroft (TBC) – 28^th August (overnight)-29^th August

Pupil free days (TBC) – some dates of our pupil free days in 2025 may be as follows:

Friday, 31^st January (Pupil Free day)

Friday, 11^th April (TBC)

Monday, 28^th and Tuesday, 29^th April (Pupil Free days)

Friday, 4^th July and Monday, 21^st July (Pupil Free days)

God Bless and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and safe and happy holiday! Would love to see you all at our Christmas Eve mass, Tuesday 24^th December at 5pm at St Brendan’s.

Charlene Reid

Principal

Assistant Principal Update

Stationery Requirements 2025

School Updates and Upcoming Events

Religious Education

Children’s Christmas Eve Mass 

Join Us for Mass and Children's Nativity!

Date: Tuesday, 24th December 2024
Time: 5:00 PM
Where: St Brendan's Church

We warmly invite you to our special Christmas Eve Mass. If your child would like to participate in the Mass—whether as part of the nativity, a reader, dancer, or choir member etc —please complete the form here.

Please also see flyer regarding the Vinnies Christmas Appeal

We look forward to celebrating this joyous occasion with you and your family!

Awards

Community News

Compass Calendar