Dear Parents and Carers

I begin my newsletter this week asking for your prayers and thoughts for the Woolridge family. Nigel Woolridge, father of Casey and Kiana and wife of Susie, passed away at the end of last week. Please keep Susie, Kiana and Casey in your hearts and prayers during this incredibly difficult time.  

Remembrance Day - Friday 11 November
Tomorrow the students will be participating in a service to mark Remembrance Day. Our School Captains will accompany Mrs Hadley for the Remembrance Day Service in town. Each year on this day Australians observe one minute’s silence at 11.00am, in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts. St Bernard’s will be represented by Erica and Anthony who will respectfully lay a wreath in honour of those who died in war.

Class allocations for 2023
A reminder that all written concerns for class placements for 2023 need to be sent to me via email (jo.wain@cg.catholic.edu.au). Staff are currently looking at class lists in preparation for our ‘step up’ session in Week 10.  The teachers know your child very well and I ask that you put your trust in us as we decide on their placement for 2023. Please do not expect information provided by parents and carers last year to be heeded. Letters need to be written each year as circumstances change and information is not transferred from year to year. Please be aware that requests for particular teachers will not be considered.

The New K-2 English and Mathematics Syllabus
Implementation of the new Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 English and Mathematics Syllabus began in schools in 2022 and must be taught in all schools from Term 1, 2023.

Key features of the new syllabuses include:

• simple, concise language clearly identifies key concepts, knowledge and skills
• content that is inclusive of every student in NSW, including Aboriginal students, EAL/D students, gifted and talented students, and students with disability
• content organisers that assist teachers to identify the key knowledge and skills for each topic. 

The changes align with our current teaching and learning agreed practice at St Bernard’s. Students are being taught explicitly using Spelling Mastery and Let’s Decode. They are immersed in reading quality literature and decodables and are explicitly taught vocabulary related to their texts. 

Kindergarten Orientation
We welcome our youngest members of our school community tomorrow morning. Orientation commences at 9.00am. The children will be participating in activities until 11.00am. We welcome Mr Matt Lowe to St Bernard’s for the orientation. We look forward to welcoming the children as they take this big step!

Orientation Day for Year 7 Students 2023 at Carroll College
A reminder that our next year’s Year 7 students will be visiting Carroll College on Friday 25 November for their orientation day. This will be an exciting day as students familiarise themselves with their new school and make new friends. Mrs McRae and Mrs Coggan will be there to begin the day to support our students.  

Key Dates:

• St Bernard’s Book Fair Monday 7 Nov - 11 Nov
• Parent Expo for Kindergarten Thursday 10 Nov @ 6.00pm
• Mission Day & School Disco Thursday 24 November 
• SRC & House Captain Speeches  Monday 28 November:  SRC Speeches @ 9.30am/House Captain @ 11.30am 
• P&F Christmas Drinks Thursday 17 Nov @ 5.30pm 
• Kindergarten Orientation Days Thursday 11 & 18 November @ 9.00am
• Carroll College Year 7 Orientation Day Friday 25 November
• Year 4 Assembly Friday 2 December @ 2.00pm
• Candle Ceremony Thursday 8 December at 2.00pm 
• Whole School Mass & Awards Ceremony Friday 9 December @ 9.15am
• St Bernard’s Duck Race Friday 9 Dec @ 5.00pm
• Year 6 Dinner and Disco Tuesday 13 December @ 6.00pm 
• Last Day of Term 4 & Year 6 Big Day out Wednesday 14 December

Parent/Teacher Conferences
Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held in Week 6 on Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 November for parents and carers wishing to discuss their child’s progress or upcoming semester report. The interviews will provide you with an opportunity to discuss your child’s growth, celebrate their successes and plan future goals. 
 
Classroom Teachers will be available at the following times: 

• Monday 14 November 8am - 8:45am and 3pm - 5pm 
• Tuesday 15 November 8am - 8:45am and 3pm - 6pm

Interview bookings have opened through COMPASS. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any support with making your booking. If you are unable to attend an interview on the dates listed, please email your child's classroom teacher and we will organise another time or give you a ring.  

Blessings on the week ahead.

Warm regards
Johanna Wain
Principal 

Do we have trust and hope?

Thomas Merton, a Cistercian monk, reflecting on his life, penned the following conversation with his God: 

‘My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never lead me to face my perils alone.’ This conversation with God shows Merton’s awareness of himself and that his  trust and hope in God is very grounded. 

What is the source of our hope and believing?

Psalm 97 today reassures us that ‘the Lord comes’ despite all the catastrophic happenings the disciples were witnessing in their time and we too witness in our day: nations fighting nations, environmental disasters such as famine and floods; persecution of Christians. All this can be overwhelming, leaving us and the disciples in their time fearful and anxious. Yet Luke in the Gospel grounds the disciples & us in what is happening today not in ‘what ifs ...’ 

Even if much in our world seems to be crumbling we should not seek to escape from the present—the end of ‘a’ world is not the end of ‘the’ world. What counts is our endurance; that we stand firm and have faith in the Lord no matter what happens. As the Entrance Antiphon proclaims: ‘The Lord says this: my plans for you are peace and not disaster; when you call to me, I will listen to you and I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.’ 

Let us this week renew our hope in the Lord and his plans for us.

                                                                                                Marie Weatherall

Dear Parents and Carers, 

On Wednesday I attended professional learning in Canberra. It was hosted by Jodie Davey principal of Powerful Partnerships who is based in Cairns. The day focused on:

• Time management
• Influencing others
• Management vs leadership
• Building the capacity of others
• Leading with integrity

I enjoyed participating in the leadership day as it gave me the opportunity to absorb new content and listen to and share strategies with aspiring leaders from ACT schools. 

Remembrance Day

At 11.00am on the 11 November 1918 the guns on the Western Front finally fell silent after more than four years of war. Remembrance Day marks the anniversary of the armistice which ended the First World War (1914–18). Each year Australians observe one minute silence at 11 am on 11 November, in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts.

A ceremony will be held at school on Friday 11 November at 11.30am. Members of the SRC will assist in leading the prayer at school. Mrs Hadley and our School Captains Anthony and Erica will attend the Remembrance service at the Batemans Bay cenotaph.

Lest We Forget

The Girl Campaign

Kimberli Eke will be hosting the Girl Campaign at school on Tuesday 15 November. Year 3 and 4 girls will participate in the morning. Year 5 girls will be accessing the program in the afternoon.

The girls may wear Mufti on Tuesday. The school will cover the cost of the day.

We thank Kimberli for sharing her expertise with our girls around positive self-image, language, and friendships. 

RE Dates for your Diary

Thursday 24 November Whole School Mission Mass 9.00am

Friday 2 December Year 2 Parish Mass 9.00am

Thursday 8 December Candle Ceremony 1.45pm

Friday 9 December Graduation Mass and Prize Giving 9.15am 

I ask that you to hold the Woolridge family in your prayers.

Blessings on your weekend

Sharon Beashel

REC

Dear Parents and Carers

Aboriginal Education 

This week Trish Ellis and I attended a meeting with other teachers in our southern region who work in the area of Aboriginal Education in our Archdiocese. At the meeting we set a priority to develop a school Reconciliation Action Plan in 2023, as part of the Reconciliation Australia Narragunnawali initiative, a word meaning alive, coming together and peace. Trish and I discussed the importance of including members of our community to form a working group and we will be reaching out to members of our Aboriginal parent and wider school community to be part of this. We are seeking to create an action plan to focus on areas such as:  

• Race relations
• Equality and equity
• Unity
• Institutional integrity
• Historical acceptance

Our intention is to ensure that the direction that we take towards Reconciliation at St Bernard's reflects the ideas and voice of as many people as possible. We believe we are very much on the way with this in our school.

Parent Webinar- Vaping

The Council of Catholic School Parents NSW and ACT have collaborated to present a webinar for parents, carers and other adults on the topic of vaping. The webinar will be facilitated by Paul Dillon who has worked in the area of drug education for over 25 years. The webinar will be held next Thursday 17 November at 7pm. Please see the flier in this newsletter to access the webinar link.

Peter Pan the Musical

Next Wednesday, students in Years 3-6 will be attending the musical production of Peter Pan, presented by the students of St Mary's Primary School in Moruya. Students will travel by bus to and from the school. We thank St Mary's for inviting us to their matinee performance. We are really looking forward to experiencing this musical event with our partner school.

Red Nose Day

Next Friday 18 November, the SRC will be holding a Red Nose Day fundraiser, supporting the incredible efforts of Brooklen's mum, Shanon Small who will attempt to cross Bass Strait in February with 7 other team mates in a surf boat to raise money and awareness for research and education into SIDS.

Students can wear red wear mufti clothes for a gold coin donation next Friday to support Shanon's journey. The SRC will be selling Red Nose Day merchandise including wrist bands and plush red noses for $3.00. Money raised from the sale of merchandise will go to Red Nose.

If you or someone you know would like to make a donation directly to support Shanon and the MusselRowers team please use the link below:

http://fundraising.rednose.org.au/musselrowers

Have a restful weekend.

Kind regards

Karen

Learning in Year 4

with Mrs Coulter and Mrs Keough

We can not believe that Term 4 has arrived! It has been a busy term indeed.

 During this term, we have been exploring the genres of narrative, explanatory text and more recently recount texts during our writing. We have also been extending our vocabulary through Daily Review and frequent sentence based writing. Our paired fluency reading has also been a favourite as we challenge ourselves to read more accurately and fluently with each read.  

This year we have been focused on obtaining a pen licence and FINALLY this exciting event has occurred with some of our students reaching this benchmark. Congratulations!

During Religious Education Year 4 have been exploring what it was like to live in the time of Jesus. We have also looked at the Decologue (The Ten Commandments) and how these important rules guide our lives as Christians.

Within our Mathematics lessons we have been learning to multiply numbers up to four digits, we have been refining our multiplication fact recall skills and we have also been learning about area of composite shapes. Our Daily Review has proven to be an exceptional way to revise previously taught content and help us to push our learning to long term memory.

Students recently visited the Mogo Zoo to see first hand some fascinating endangered animals and to collate information and data. We have used this data to construct graphs representing the distribution of endangered animals at our local zoo. We will also create maps that show the distribution of these animals globally.

Trish Ellis continues to support our learning through connecting the indigenous perspective into our Dhurga lessons. 

In Health and Sport, we have been learning about the importance of physical activity. Students have been tasked with creating posters to convince younger students about the benefits of regular exercise through play at our school.

We must mention our SENSATIONAL performance in the school musical. Ms Guthrie and Mrs Smith were amazing in supporting Year 4 in preparing and delivering their songs. The students had a fantastic time and they were so excited to be able to have you come in and watch them on stage. We wanted to thank everyone involved for giving the students an opportunity to take part in a stage performance. This will be a memory to treasure for years to come.

Todd Woodbridge Cup

Congratulations to Seth L, Campbell R, Annie F, Georgina W, Arthur SD, Ollie L, Indiana A and Mia A who have won their way to the State Final of the Todd Woodbridge Cup at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Complex. We are so proud of your skill and teamwork. Enjoy a fantastic day! We look forward to hearing all about it.

Mrs Holmes

Term 4

Week 4 Class Awards

Presented : Friday 4 November 2022.

Congratulations to the following children who received class award this week. It is great to see so many children working hard and receiving acknowledgment for their efforts. Well done to all!