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Dear Parents and Carers
I hope you have had an enjoyable week. Thank you for your attendance at our Parent/Teacher Introductory Meetings this week. It is a great opportunity for teachers to meet with families and set goals for your child for the rest of the year. These are important steps in assisting each student's progress in their learning. Thank you to our staff for the additional hours put in this week. Please be reminded that you are welcome to contact your child’s teacher at any stage during the year if you wish to discuss progress or other concerns. Each week you receive an email outlining information for the week ahead. Please feel free to reply with any questions.
Student Wellbeing and Pastoral Care Policy
As a staff we agree that Pastoral Care and Welfare seeks to protect personal and school community safety, heal destructive behaviours, restore relationships, encourage reconciliation, enhance wellbeing, foster responsibility, enable personal growth, and promote the common good. The staff employ the philosophy of Restorative Practices to promote resilience in the one harmed and the one causing harm. Restorative measures help students learn from their mistakes, grow in self-discipline, take responsibility for their actions, recognise the impact of their actions on others, and reconcile and resolve conflict with others.
Social skills are also taught and reinforced to support students in developing their social and emotional literacy.
The teachers at St Bernard’s Primary School agree to follow these practices:
- Acknowledge shared responsibility for all students;
- Negotiate and establish clear rights and responsibilities through developing Code of Conduct
- Recognise the needs of individuals;
- Maximise students’ ownership of behaviour through Restorative Practices;
- Maintain impartiality;
- Follow up and follow through (consistency) with parents; and
- Utilise wide support (peers, staff, counselling support and parents).
If an incident occurs at school, parents are always contacted by the teacher who has been working through the situation, not necessarily the classroom teacher. As a staff we are all responsible for your child/ren. Please be assured that if an incident occurs in the classroom or playground, parents will be contacted.
Our St Bernard’s values of honesty, empathy, appreciation, responsibility and tolerance are central to how we expect the students to act at St Bernard’s. We are currently focusing on speaking respectfully to peers and adults. I would encourage all families to discuss this at home with your child/ren. If you have any concerns, please know that you can contact your child’s teacher or a member of the leadership team.
2023 Classes
The students are settling well into the routines of school. This week we began our Spelling Mastery Program. It is great to see the students engaged and ready to learn, starting the day with spelling.
Creating classes each year is a collaborative process involving class teachers, specialist staff and the school executive team. Every child from Kindergarten to Year 6 is placed in the best grouping to enhance learning and social development, with a range of academic abilities. It has been great to see the students connecting with their peers as they form new friendships.
Claim the date!
Our official enrolment period starts at the beginning of Term 2, from 1 May - 19 May. Please encourage any families with Kindergarten students starting in 2024 to attend Open Day. We are already taking enrolments. This will provide a snapshot of St Bernard’s, capturing life at ‘Big School’. Open Day will be held Term 2 Week 2, Thursday 4 May.
Next week I will be attending the Catholic Education System Leaders Day and Retreat in Bowral. Mrs Karen Hadley will be Acting Principal, Tuesday to Friday. I wish our St Bernard’s Competitors good luck at the Archdiocesan Swimming Carnival in Queanbeyan on Tuesday.
Last week we welcomed Tomas (5M) and Eva (3D) to St Bernard’s. A warm welcome to Eva, Tomas and their family.
Blessings to you and your family on the week ahead.
Kind regards
Johanna Wain
Principal
A DIVINE BREAK THROUGH
When Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, writes to an individual as distinct from writing to a community, he seems to me to reveal much more of the human affection he has for those he has chosen to be special co-workers.
In the lead up to the extract from his second letter to Timothy (1: 8b - 10) Paul writes:
“I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now I am sure lives in you. For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a gift of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”
How re-assuring is that? It needs to be because Timothy, like Paul, will be spreading the Good News of Jesus crucified. That implies suffering.
Matthew in today’s Gospel (Matt 17: 1-9) places the story of Christ’s Transfiguration six days after Jesus asked his disciples at Caesarea Philippi who they thought he was. When he got their answer he then told them that as God’s anointed one he was going to suffer. When Peter objected Jesus rebuked him for “setting his mind not on divine things but on human things.”
What happened over those six days we don’t know, but we can speculate that the disciples would have discussed the incident among themselves. And almost certainly Jesus’s rebuke of Peter. That Christ went up into the hills to pray was not unusual, but this time was different - he took with him an emerging leadership trio, Simon the Rock and James and John, the sons of thunder.
When the transfiguration of Jesus does occur and he converses with Moses and Elijah Peter blurts out: “Lord it is good for us to be here; if you wish I will build three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
In a masterpiece of understatement Mark adds this.
“He (Peter) did not know what to say. They were so frightened.” It is easy for us, almost two thousand years later to say that Jesus was being confirmed in his mission by Moses the Liberator and Law Giver, and Elijah who prophesised it, but for Peter? His human instinct was to make this glorious moment permanent.
Only the voice of God the Father cleared up the confusion.
“This is my Son, the Beloved, with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.”
Like Timothy, most of us were born into our Christian faith, but that doesn’t mean we will escape some form of suffering as we try to live Christian lives.
Like Peter, we may be given moments of great grace, but that doesn’t guarantee that we won’t make mistakes and have moments of cowardice.
May we never forget the inexhaustible mercy of the Loving Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ who suffered for us all. Amen
Joe Quigley
Dear Parents and Carers
We are now half way through the term and there are many important school events coming up. The Welcome BBQ to be held on Thursday 23 March is sure to be a highlight for our community as well as the Combined Schools Mass to end the term at Carroll College. Some of the students in Year 3 will celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation on the 28 March which will also be a very special occasion. Tomorrow we are excited to have our first Awards Assembly, beginning at 2pm in the hall, presented by the students of Year 2. These students will be presenting two items and we hope that many of you can attend.
Begin with the Heart
Students at St Bernard's strive to follow our school rules to:
• Treat each other with respect
• Help each other learn
• Keep ourselves and others safe
• Wear our uniform properly
• Care for our school environment
Along with our school rules and central to our school Vision, is Begin with the Heart. Students are rewarded for demonstrating behaviours that reflect our Catholic values and are Christ-like, receiving heart merit awards when teachers and other adults in the school notice students demonstrating these behaviours in the classroom and playground. A highlight of each assembly is the prize draw for students who have received a Begin with the Heart merit card. Tomorrow will be the first of our Begin with the Heart prize draws and we commend the large number of students who have been identified for their behaviour.
Social media
We invite you to follow our school Facebook page if you are not already doing so. We endeavour to include regular posts to communicate with our school community and beyond what is occuring in classrooms and in other activities. Thank you for those of you who are already following and engaging with our page. We also value the promotion of our school on this forum and welcome you to share and comment on our posts.
Performing Arts
This term in Performing Arts students are participating in Drama. Students are learning to develop knowledge, skills and understanding in performing dramatically in collaboration wth others, taking on roles and creating imagined situations shaped by the elements of drama. The students are developing their knowledge, skills and understanding in appreciating their own dramatic works and those of others. We have had a lot of fun learning about the different elements of drama through games and role plays.
MacKillop Tennis Championships
On Friday, we had four students competing at the MacKillop Tennis Championships. Ruby B, Sebastian C, Annie F and Beatrix F all played multiple sets against the best players from Catholic Schools all over NSW. Congratulations on playing so well in your respective pools. Well done to Ruby who was runner up in her pool. All the students commented that it was a great experience and they played another development tournament over the weekend as well. Congratulations to our tennis stars!
Archdiocesan Swimming Carnival
On Tuesday the following students will compete at the Archdiocesan Swimming Carnival for a place at the NSW Combined Primary School Championship in Sydney.
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Olivia C, Annabelle T, Raph C, Zach C. |
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Beatrix F, Charlie M, Indi A, Eva H, Evie Po. |
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Arthur S-D, Ethan S, Annie F, Oscar J. |
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Ruby B, Molly W, Hailey I. |
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Samuel S-D, Rogan H, Kobi B. |
We are very proud of our nineteen students who are swimming in Queanbeyan and we wish them safe travels and the best of luck.
Representative Sport
There are opportunities for students to develop their talents in a variety of sports by trying out for Canberra-Goulburn Representative teams. This pathway leads to further representation and training for our students.
Students can trial in AFL, cricket, touch football, tennis, basketball, netball, rugby league, rugby union, golf and soccer.
Nominations for 11yr old Rugby League, 12yr old Rugby League and Netball CLOSE on MONDAY 6 MARCH. If you would like your child to try out please click https://www.sport.cg.catholic.edu.au/nominations and register on the CSNSW sport page.
Angela Holmes
