Dear Parents and Carers

Today some of our Year 6 leaders led our Remembrance Service at St Bernard’s. 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. “At 11.00am on 11 November 1918 the guns on the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare. The allied armies had driven the German invaders back, having inflicted heavy defeats upon them over the preceding four months. In November the Germans called for an armistice (suspension of fighting) in order to secure a peace settlement. They accepted allied terms that amounted to unconditional surrender” https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/remembrance-day/traditions .

System’s Day
I recently attended the System’s Day held virtually by the Catholic Education Office in Canberra. The day featured keynote speakers who focused on our two bold goals:

• Every student is a competent reader
• High Impact Teaching Practice is visible in every classroom

During the day, we were privileged to hear from world renowned presenters E.D. Hirsch, Jr and Natalie Wexler. Both affirmed the journey we are on and challenged us to think deeply about how we approach knowledge building in the curriculum. This aligns directly with our Annual Improvement Plan and the direction of St Bernard’s. We are continuing to focus on Explicit Direct Instruction, with the premise that we must teach first and build student knowledge to improve student outcomes. Dr Jenny Donovan, CEO of Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO) also spoke about our knowledge in the Australian context and described how we can monitor the impact of our improvement efforts.  

On Wednesday, Tim Smith, Catholic Education Performance and Improvement Leader, visited St Bernard’s and worked with the Leadership Team on priorities for 2022. Our targets for 2022 are centred around our data and improving student outcomes in English and Maths through continuing to embed high impact teaching practices in every classroom, ensuring that every student is explicitly taught the NSW Curriculum.

2022 Kindergarten Virtual Information Night
This Monday and Tuesday we hosted the 2022 Kindergarten Information evening virtually. It was our pleasure to welcome the families of the youngest members of our school community. Next year we welcome 25 new families with children commencing in Kindergarten. Kindergarten Orientation is occurring tomorrow and the following Friday, from 9.00am - 11.00am. It has been wonderful to meet all the Kindergarten students, and we look forward to welcoming them to St Bernard’s tomorrow. 

Have an enjoyable and relaxing weekend.

Johanna Wain
Principal 

Dear Parents and Carers,

Father Martins, Seminarian Mark, Mrs Keough and I met yesterday afternoon for special First Eucharist planning. We worked together on preparing mass for the nineteen candidates. Readings for the solemnity of Christ the King were chosen.

Eucharistic Banner

Mrs Day has prepared a beautiful Eucharistic banner for the celebration. Children will personalise the artwork with their names added in the shape of leaves. Thank you Mrs Day for your generous and creative spirit.

Reconciliation

On Friday Father Martins will hear the candidates’ reconciliation. Each child will light a candle and say their penance prayer as a sign of the forgiving love of Jesus. On Friday afternoon, candidates will visit the church for a practice of readings, prayers of the faithful and communion reception. We will be practicing next week too.

Piety Stall

The church Piety store will be open before and after masses for the next two weeks. They have made sure that there is a wonderful selection of First Eucharist cards and gifts. Please let your family and friends know of this resource.

Retreat day

The students are still talking about the great time they had on their Retreat Day last week. I have included some more photos for you.

Year 4 Eucharist Retreat

Guests for First Eucharist

Thank you to those families who have let us know the number of guests that will be attending the First Eucharist Mass. It really helps us plan in line with COVID protocols. If you could send in this information, it would be greatly appreciated.

Words for Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day. It is a day that we pay respect to all people who have died in wars and conflicts. We remember and give thanks for those who have served and continue to serve in our defence forces. 

Laurence Binyon wrote his poem For the Fallen, in September 1914. This immortal verse is used on Anzac and Remembrance Day.

Dear Parents and Carers

The weeks are moving quickly and it is hard to believe that we are already making plans for end of year events. At the moment, teachers are administering assessments and writing reports to reflect the learning that has occurred for each child during the semester. Taking account of the extended period of remote learning and adjustments needed to come back to face to face learning is important to ensure that judgements on learning progress are accurate. The general comment this semester will be a welcome addition for teachers to describe student learning and the attributes of each individual.

Cold Write Assessment

On Tuesday every student in the school from Kindergarten to Year 6 completed a writing task in order to assess learning progress in the area of writing from semester one. The task was the same for each student, with an image provided to inspire writing ideas for a narrative text. The fact that students are required to write independently and without the usual level of explicit scaffold before and during the writing process is the reason this task is referred to as a 'cold write'. A task such as this provides teachers with information to make judgements related to student growth. In the afternoon, all teachers met with their grade partners and members of the leadership team to make comparisons and decisions for future teaching and learning. 

Book Fair

This week the Ashton Scholasitc Book Fair arrived at St Bernard's. Thank you to Mrs Hopman for the time that she has given to set up the display and to communicate the process for making purchases. Each class this week is visiting the Book Fair in the iCentre with their class. All students are given a wish list that they can use to note down items that they like most and to share with you. Written instructions on how to order items from the Book Fair are included in this newsletter. Mrs Hopman has also described the process in a video uploaded to our school Facebook page. Order forms showing online payment can be brought into school by your child or a photo of the receipt and order form can be sent to Mrs Hopman's email address: Theresa.Hopman@cg.catholic.edu.au

Pick up procedures

Thank you very much to everyone who is following our COVID safe pick up procedure in the afternoon at the church carpark. We appreciate you coming to school at the staggered time to avoid over crowding in the carpark. Wet weather has added an extra dimension to this process and again thank you for checking the email and Facebook post which indicates our front of school gate pick up point. Your patience in waiting outside the school is very much appreciated.

eSafety

Some students in primary school express an interest in using social media. As a parent, it can be difficult to know how best to guide your children on this. The eSafety commissioner website offers the following quesitons to ask yourself when deciding if your child is ready to interact with social media:

• Is your child able to withstand negative online experiences?
• Does your child understand the importance of protecting their personal online information?
• Does your child understand how privacy settings for social media work?
• Does your child understand what is safe to share online?
• Does your child know how to report cyber bullying and other kinds of abusive content?
• Is your child willing to let you establish clear rules and supervise their social media activity?

For more information on this topic refer to the following link:

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/skills-advice/are-they-old-enough#is-your-child-old-enough-for-a-smartphone

I hope that you enjoy the weekend ahead.

Karen Hadley

Assistant Principal

Representative Sport for 2022

Students currently in Year 4 and 5 are invited each year to try out for various representative sports.

If students choose to try out they attend a selection trial held in 2022 and if chosen are part of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn team.

We have had many talented students selected in previous years in a huge varitety of sports including cricket, tennis, basketball, touch football, netball, rugby union, rugby league as well as soccer and AFL. There are girls and boys teams in various sports and we encourage all of our enthusiastic sports people to try out and use this as an opportunity to develop their skill and meet new friends from around the state.

Last week I received nomination information for AFL. If your child would like to play AFL in the C&G Rep team and you haven’t already received the nomination information, please let me know and I will provide the details. Nominations for AFL need to be sent to Sherree Bush, Archdiocesan Sports Coordinator, by 19 November. I have approved those students who have nominated so far.

All other sports nominations will open in the coming months and I will speak to the students in their class and advise them each time a new sport is seeking nominations as well as share those details with parents and carers.

Angela Holmes

Sports Coordinator

Week 5 Class Awards

      Presented : Friday 5 November 2021.

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

WE’RE HAVING A BOOK FAIR!

5-12 November 2021

It will be a virtual book fair like no other!

Due to current restrictions we are unable to welcome parents and guests into the school for the fair, however we hope to make it just as amazing, with a virtual book fair!

 How it works:

Step 1:

Students browse Book Fair during their iCentre session during week 6.

They will complete a ‘Wish List‘ and take a catalogue home.

Step 2:

Parents can browse the Book Fair collection via our virtual tour on Facebook in Week 6.

Step 3:

Decide which books you would like to purchase, complete the ‘Wish List’ or catalogue order form, including title and price per book and add up the total cost. 

Step 4:

All credit card payments are to be made online this year as parents are unable to visit the Book Fair. Otherwise, students may purchase using cash in the Library.

If paying by credit card, please visit www.scholastic.com.au/payment

Step 5:

Complete online payment details

State: NSW,  School name: St Bernards School (choose Batehaven option)

And your name, payment amount) then NOTE THE RECEIPT NUMBER on the back of the Wish List / Catalogue with the name used for the purchase.

Step 6:

Student brings the receipt number (or cash) into the Library and can collect the book/s and accessories to the value paid. 

Thank you, every purchase benefits our school!

For 90 years, our School Banking program has helped children learn about money, reinforced the importance of regular savings and provided structure for parents to support their children to save.

Though the program continues to have strong support from schools, parents and teachers, recent decisions by some state and territory governments because of a review by the corporate regulator mean we are unable to continue providing programs in schools, and we have had to make a difficult decision to close our School Banking program for all government and non-government schools across the country.

Our School Banking program was established in 1931 at a time when having a bank account was not commonplace, and since then we have helped more than 15 million Australians take their first financial steps. This would not have been possible without the wonderful support we have received from schools like yours, including all the parents and volunteers, and for this we are deeply grateful. Thank you.

Even though this is a sad time, School Banking has taught so many young Australians, past and present, the value of money and we believe this should be celebrated. We have created a place for you to share your stories, fondest memories and lessons learnt through the program. To share your story and access our financial education resources, please visit commbank.com.au/schoolbanking 

Even though the CommBank School Banking program will not be returning to your school after this year, you can continue to make deposits into your child’s Youthsaver account through online transfers or at any CommBank branch. If you need further information please phone 132 221 or visit your local CommBank branch.