Dear Parents and Carers

Our term is passing quickly with only 2 weeks remaining before our Easter break. We are in the fourth week of the Lenten season. Lent is the season of Prayer. A time to reflect and draw us closer to God as we prepare for Easter - the most significant time of the liturgical year.

This term we have been fortunate to have Jared Bussell and Brooke Wardana coaching and guiding our Kindergarten to Year 6 teachers in High Impact Teaching Practices in Literacy and Numeracy. Our Kindergarten to Year 2 teachers have all participated in coaching and training in the phonics program, Let’s Decode. The aim of this program is to explicitly teach students to read phonetically, helping them to become fluent, confident readers. The program uses oral repetition, transferring knowledge from short term memory into the long-term memory. We continue to focus on achieving our system’s two bold goals 'Every student is a competent reader' and 'High Impact Teaching Practice is visible in every classroom'. 

We are committed to achieving our targets and will continue to raise the bar to ensure our students receive the best possible learning opportunities at St Bernard’s. We are committed at St Bernard’s to continuing to be a leading school for best practice, student growth and improvement. We use assessment data, satisfaction surveys, improvement surveys and feedback to determine our targets each year. This year our targets are as follows:

• To increase student growth in NAPLAN in writing, aligning with State averages.
• To align Year 3 Spelling NAPLAN achievement data with the state average.
• To increase the number of students in the top two bands in Spelling to 35% in Yr 7.
• To increase teacher capacity to record formative assessment.
• To increase student growth in NAPLAN in numeracy, aligning with State averages.
• To continue the trend of decreasing Year 5 students in the bottom 2 bands (5%) and middle 2 bands (15%) in Numeracy.
• To decrease the number of students in the bottom bands in PAT Numeracy by 10% across Years 2-6.
• For students in Year 7 to decrease to 10% in the bottom two bands and increase the top two bands to 30%

To reach these targets, we have implemented the following strategies in 2023:

• To use Explicit Instruction in Literacy and Numeracy
• Daily Reviews occurring in all classrooms in Literacy and Numeracy
• Participate in coaching and professional learning with Dr Lorraine Hammond and her team
• Spelling Mastery across Years 1-6
• Maths Pathway implemented in Year 5 and 6
• Classroom Support Assistants trained to lead MiniLit & MacqLit to support students in Literacy development
• Implement Maths U See as an Intervention Program
• Track and analyse school data regularly
• Provide opportunities for extension in Maths and English

We are very excited about our learning journey and sharing the learning with you. The teaching and learning happening across all classrooms is excellent.

Sacrament of Reconciliation
Congratulations to all our students receiving the Sacrament of Recondition, this Tuesday 28 March. This is an important part of each students’ faith journey as they are strengthening their relationship with God. Fr Loi will lead the students through the Sacrament at 5.00pm at St Bernard’s Church. It is our Catholic identity that unites us. I warmly invite all families to join with us in celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Special thanks to all involved in preparing the children to receive this Sacrament, especially Fr Loi, Mrs Beashel, Mrs Davis and Mr Ward. I would also like to acknowledge the time and planning that occurred at Carroll College in regards to the retreat that happened a couple of weeks ago. A BIG thank you to Jacqui Heffernan, Erica Drewsen and Belle Barling. Our K - 12 Pathway for Catholic Education is so valuable and grows stronger each year. 

Supervision of Students
Class learning commences each morning at 8.42am and concludes at 2:40pm Mondays to Fridays. The school grounds are open to students from 8:10am each morning. No supervision is provided or responsibility taken by the school outside these hours. Where students need to be at school outside of these times for example, excursions or representative sporting events, adequate supervision is provided by staff. We are asking for your support in not dropping your child/ren off before 8.10am.

Just a reminder that we are holding our Welcome Barbeque and Disco tonight from 5.00pm – 6.30pm in the Lean To. We are looking forward to connecting with families.

We wish Olivia C and Beatrix F all the best next Thursday as they compete in the NSW Catholic Primary Schools Swimming Carnival in Sydney. We will be cheering you on from school. Next Tuesday we welcome Director of Catholic Education, Ross Fox, to St Bernard’s. He is looking forward to seeing the great learning happening across St Bernard’s.

Blessings to you and your family on the week ahead.

Kind regards
Johanna Wain

Principal 

Dear Parents and Carers

We are in a very fortunate position to have Trish Ellis work in our school. Trish teaches Dhurga, the local language to the students in Years 3 to 6 each week and also to students in K-2 as they learn dreaming stories and cultural perspectives. The Dhurga Dictionary and Learner's Grammar was written by Trish and two of her siblings, Mrs Kerry Boyena and Mr Wayne Donovan. We have purchased a class set of these books to be used by students in Years 3-6 to support their learning of language. Next week Trish will be leading an excursion to Casey's Beach with the students of Year 1 and 2. Trish will gather treasures with the students including bush food and talk about how these were traditionally used by Aboriginal people. They will talk about keeping the beach water clean of pollution and practice Dadirri- quiet, still awareness.

Trish also supports some of the students in our school in the classroom and at times in the playground areas, teaching traditional cultural practices such as weaving lamandra grass found in our school garden. As we modify the play area known as the Tinkering Area, we will be working with Trish to rename this area with a Dhurga word. Watch this space.

Art Therapy workshops

The Family Place were successful in securing funding from NSW Office of Regional Youth to deliver a wellbeing program within local schools. St Bernard’s was lucky enough to be one of those schools. Binin.gala is a series of workshops aimed at improving the social and emotional wellbeing of children and young people in the Eurobodalla after a need for more group and psychosocial supports were identified. These workshops will incorporate Art Therapy, Drama and Yarning circle processes proven highly effective in supporting community and individuals.

Binin.gala will focus on the 3 pillars of Bravery, Resilience and Empathy and help develop self-regulation, a deeper connection, respect and empathy of self and others. These workshops will be tailored to each year group in Years 3-6 and delivered in a fun and interactive format during Term 2.

The Family Place is a community based not for profit organisation located in Moruya providing support for families in the Eurobodalla for over 30 years. To find out more about their service you can visit their website at www.familyplace.org.a.

Term 2 Assemblies

Award Assemblies are held regularly throughout the term on Fridays. Each grade has an opportunity to present an item at the assembly during the semester. In Term 2, assemblies will be presented on the following dates:

Cyber safety- eSafety Commissioner

I hope that you have an enjoyable weekend.

Karen Hadley

Year 6 have had a very busy and engaging term. There have been many highlights with the Leadership Day this week being one. Our trip to Canberra to visit the Museum of Australian Democracy and Parliament House was a wonderful experience; the rich learning and role play experiences consolidated the children’s understanding and appreciation of our democracy. 

We were very proud of the leadership the Year 6 students demonstrated at our recent Reading Day. Each student chose and read a book to their peer group, focusing on reading with expression, animation, and enthusiasm.  

Our dedicated SRC meet with the Year 6 teachers each Monday at lunchtime. Activities they have organised this term include ice block sales on Tuesday, Reading Day and St Patricks Day.  At the moment, they are preparing for a school wide Easter Egg Hunt on the last day of term. Our sports captains are doing an excellent job managing the distribution and tidy up of the sports equipment. They are preparing to lead and inspire their teams on Cross Country Day in Week 10. 

The students settled very quickly into their daily routines and enjoy their participation in the Daily Reviews. They have produced some outstanding art works. Their creativity continually delights us! 

We are focussing on explicitly teaching the children the values of kindness and empathy with respectful relationships being an ongoing theme. This is integrated throughout our teaching in Health, Religion and classroom meetings. We are working at improving our kind and respectful classroom culture.  

We are very proud of the efforts of our students this term, and we look forward to a busy and engaging term 2. 

NSWCPS Swimming Championships 

Good Luck to Olivia C and Beatrix F who have been selected to swim at the NSW Combined Primary Schools Championship in Sydney next Thursday. What an outstanding achievement! I have been asked to be a technical official on pool deck so I will be in Sydney with the students and am very excited to see them swim. 

 MacKillop AFL  

Next week we also have Lawson M playing AFL for the Canberra-Goulburn and Wollongong region at the MacKillop AFL Championships. We are very proud of your efforts and wish you well in Wagga. 

Angela Holmes

Term 1

Week 7 Class Awards

Presented : Friday 17 March 2023.

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!