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Dear Parents and Friends,
Happy Holidays! We’ve enjoyed a great term! So many things have been achieved and we have much to celebrate. I take this opportunity to thank our highly committed St Bernard’s staff who go well and beyond their duties on a daily basis. Following Parent/Teacher meetings over the past week I’m sure you’ll join with me in thanking them for the wonderful commitment they show every day.
I had the pleasure of attending the Carroll College Musical, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this week. I certainly enjoyed seeing so many or our past students in lead roles, showcasing their talent on stage. Congratulations to Mrs Theresa Hopman who was part of the band, the music was incredible. A huge congratulations to Carroll College on a wonderful show.
Welcome…
It’s been our pleasure to welcome Xian to Year 4C, Kiesha to Year 2J, Whaylen to Year KL, Sienna to Year 5D and William to Year 3D this term. We look forward to you and your families being part of St Bernard’s.
Bus Behaviour
We are currently speaking to all students who travel to and from school by bus about behavioural expectations and conduct in general. Mrs Hadley and I liaise with the bus company. I am regularly informed about some of the behaviours that are noticed by the drivers. Thankfully most students from St Bernard’s are respectful and well behaved. As a school, we work closely with the bus company and are proactive in dealing with issues as they arise. Swearing is totally unacceptable, as too is movement around the bus when the bus is mobile. Please know that you will be notified if your child is reported to the school for displaying inappropriate behaviour of any nature. We are committed to supporting the bus company to ensure the safety of all students, and above all else, disrespectful behaviour will not be tolerated. I ask for your support in speaking to your child/ren about their experience whilst travelling on the bus. Please contact me if you have concerns so I can address these in a timely and appropriate manner.
On Wednesday morning Senior Constable Mitchell Davis visited Year 6 to talk about bike safety. We have a number of students riding to and from school. The purpose of the talk was to ensure that students are following rules and riding safely to and from school. Mr Davis spoke to the students about safety features on their bike and specific rules around riding a bike on the footpath and the road. Thank you to Senior Constable Davis for his time.
Teaching and Learning
Our staff are committed to providing your child/ren with the best education. Over the past three years we have made changes across all classrooms. Our journey began in 2020 when all staff engaged in professional learning with Dr Lorraine Hammond focusing on the Science of Learning and the Science of Reading. This continued into 2021 with staff receiving professional learning in the delivery and design of Daily Reviews for Reading and Vocabulary aligned with evidence about the Science of Learning. Instructional coaching from Dr Lorraine Hammond on Daily Reviews for K-6, followed the PL to support implementation and embedded practice throughout the school. The Spelling Mastery program was implemented in 2021 across Years 1-6 as a whole school Tier 1 intervention strategy. All staff participated in this program to facilitate the range of groups across the school. All staff have committed to starting with spelling 4 days per week starting at 8.45am for 20 minutes. The implementation of Spelling Mastery has provided staff with excellent Professional Learning. There have been many light bulb moments! Teachers teach first then ask the question. Everyday we are providing students with explicit lessons and daily reviews across the curriculum to reduce the student's cognitive load. Students are thriving and achieving success with their learning. This week I had the pleasure of listening to Year 3 speeches. The students were confident, creative, and very impressive. They are to be congratulated for their incredible efforts, I was very proud of them.
We are working closely with St Mary’s, Moruya and Carroll College, Broulee to create authentic celebrations for NAIDOC Week. In the first week of Term 3, all Aboriginal students and their families are invited to Mass at Sacred Heart, Moruya to celebrate NAIDOC Week. Mass will take place on Friday 21 July at 11.20am. St Bernard’s will celebrate NAIDOC Week in Term 3 Week 3, with the Yuin Banaan Cultural Day scheduled for Friday 4 August.
I thank Mrs Naomi Beatty for her work at St Bernard’s. It has been a pleasure working with Ms Beatty and I wish her all the very best for the future.
As Term 2 draws to a close, I thank you all for the many ways you contribute to St Bernard’s. We have a very special school community and I look forward to continuing to work alongside you next Semester. School resumes for all students on Tuesday 18 July. I will return to school on Wednesday 26 July. Karen Hadley will be Acting Principal in my absence.
I wish all families a safe and enjoyable break.
Kind regards
Johanna Wain
Principal
Hospitality – any person may be the Lord!
Hospitality is a special form of attentive listening while answering someone’s call.
St. Benedict in his 6th Century rule for Beginners in Chapter 53 states: ‘Let all guests who arrive [at the monastery door] be received like Christ.’ For any guest may be the Lord, but the Lord may look very shabby! Sometimes we need to pay close attention and look beyond appearances to see the contours of the Lord in the other person. Sue McPherson, a young Aboriginal writer, in her book ‘Grace beside me’ tells a story about her Nan: ‘Every second Sunday after brekkie Nan baked up a storm, and then we’d go and spend time with Lefty. We walked through some large gates where we were searched and the wardens went through Nan’s food ... finally we were allowed into the prisoners greeting area where we waited for Lefty. We were the only ones, apart from Dad, who bothered to go. The first 10 mins were spent reminding Lefty what he had done wrong ...when Nan felt Lefty was feeling guilty enough she brought out the food. All guilt was put on hold while we shared a laugh and ate the food Nan lovingly prepared. Nan baked extra for the other prisoners – she became Nan to all those boys. Thinking back I wonder, does lack of support somehow make these blokes re-offend.’[‘Grace beside me’, 2012, pg. 93.]
One who welcomes - welcomes God Himself
The first reading from the 2nd Book of Kings speaks of a childless woman, who shows hospitality to a stranger beginning with providing a meal and later on building purpose built accommodation for him! Her hospitality is awarded and blessed by the stranger Elisha, with the promise of new life, a baby boy in the year ahead. One, who welcomes a man of God, welcomes God himself.
Jesus himself both gave and received hospitality during his busy public ministry ... at the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus is but one example. In today’s Gospel, [Matt. 10:37-42] Jesus from his discourse on Mission affirms the importance of hospitality and points to its deeper significance. ‘Anyone one who welcomes you,’ he says to his disciples ‘welcomes me and welcomes the One who sent me.’ Pope Francis reminds us: ‘that authentic hospitality is a profound Gospel value’ and Peter addressing the Christians in Rome says: ‘Make hospitality your special care! ’[Romans 12:21.] Marie Weatherall
Dear Parents and Carers,
We have come to the end of another school term. It certainly has been a busy but fruitful one. It has been a pleasure working alongside you as we continue to grow the Religious Life of St Bernard’s In so many ways.
Congratulations to our Year 6 candidates who received the sacrament of Confirmation last Saturday evening at mass. It was a special occasion where the parish, school and family communities joined in faith.
Thank you to Fr Loi, Mrs Wain, Mrs Coggan, Mrs McRae, staff, and students for your prayerful and practical support of the sacrament. The candidates were well prepared and so reverent during the rituals of Confirmation.
First Eucharist
Year 4 Parents who have children baptised Catholic, and received the sacrament of Reconciliation are invited to enrol for First Eucharist on Thursday 3 August.
KEY DATES FOR FIRST EUCHARIST
- Thursday 3 August: First Eucharist Family Enrolment evening 5.00pm St Bernard’s Church.
- Saturday 5 August 5.00pm/Sunday 6 August 9.00am: First Eucharist Family Commitment Mass St Bernard’s Church.
- Wednesday 30 August: First Eucharist Retreat Day to be held at St Mary’s Moruya.
- Saturday 9 September: First Eucharist Mass 5.00pm St. Bernard’s Church.
NAIDOC MASS
All families are invited to attend the NAIDOC Week Mass which will be held on Friday 21 July at St Mary’s Moruya.
Schedule for the day
11:00am Arrival / Morning Tea - Meet at St Mary’s Hall
11:20am Welcome to Country/Smoking ceremony Trish Ellis
11:30am Mass Sacred Heart Church
12:30pm NAIDOC Awards Ceremony Sacred Heart Church
1:00pm: Lunch at St Mary’s before departure
Please locate this special event on Compass
We thank Mrs Genevieve Schofield of St Mary’s Moruya for her organisation of this event.
Wishing you all a very safe and happy holiday break.
With gratitude and thanks
Sharon Beashel
Religious Education Coordinator
Dear Parents and Carers
NAIDOC Regional Mass and Awards
The national celebration of NAIDOC Week takes place during the school holidays. Our school NAIDOC Week celebrations will begin on Friday of Week One, 21 July when Aboriginal students from Years 1-6 and members of the SRC will attend a regional NAIDOC Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Moruya. The Mass will begin with a Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country offered by Trish Ellis. Students will join with other schools in our Southern Region to celebrate Mass together and the theme 'For Our Elders'. Following the Mass, a presentation of NAIDOC Awards for nominated adults and students from our regional schools will be presented. We warmly welcome parents and carers of these children to attend the Mass.
Yuin Banaan- Cultural Day
On Friday 4 August our K-12 Pathway schools will be hosting the Yuin Banaan Cultural Day at Captain Oldrey Park, Broulee. Aboriginal students from Kindergarten to Year 12 from St Bernard's, St Mary's and Carroll College and their friends will be invited to attend, as well as all family members. Students will travel by bus to attend the full day of cultural activities.
We were very fortunate to receive a NAIDOC grant from National Indigenous Australians Agency to support this event. Activities include a bush tucker and medicine walk; traditional dancing with the Muladha Gamara group; damper cooking; Yarning circles; seafood cook up; ochre face painting; Aboriginal Trivia, art making and soccer. Some of the activities will be led by Carroll College students and we thank them for the initiative and leadership they have shown.
Community organisations and service groups have been invited to set up stalls on the day and many have offered to co-ordinate an activity for the students.
We particularly extend a very warm invitation to Elders of family members from our school communities to attend the Yuin Banaan so that we can honour you in a special Elder's tent.
Please mark this date in your calendars! More details will be provided in the coming weeks.
Protective Behaviours and the Daniel Morcombe Program update
Report
In Protective Behaviours lessons in classes throughout the school, we are starting to implement the final key message of the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum: report. This means that when children or young people have been in a situation that is unsafe that they are taught to report what has happened to an adult. Even if a child has been able to make themselves safe, it is vital that they still report what has happened. Adults need to know about unsafe situations so that some action can be taken to help the child be safe again or ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Students involved in the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum will be encouraged to make a list of adult safety helpers. These are adults the children and young people nominate whom they can talk to when they are feeling unsafe or have experienced an unsafe situation or feel they are at risk of something that may cause them harm. This list will include a selection of adults who live in and outside the home.
Report also includes telling an adult about unsafe or inappropriate incidents which may occur when children or young people are online. This might occur when surfing the net or using social media sites like Facebook and twitter, and can include cyberbullying, viewing or receiving inappropriate images or messages or communicating with unknown contacts.
It is important that the key safety messages of the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum: Recognise, React and Report are reinforced, both at school and home. I encourage you, wherever possible, to talk with your child about safety to help them stay safe now and in the future.
How to use parental controls and other tools to maximise online safety in your home.
Advice from the e-Safety Commissioner
Know your devices
All the devices that connect to the internet in your home offer lots of benefits. But you also need to understand the risks associated with these devices and how to protect yourself and your family.
Explore how to use parental controls:
- on your home wi-fi network
- built into devices, including computers, mobile devices, gaming consoles and smart TVs
- through third-party software
- in apps and programs, including streaming services, web browsers and search engines
Use parental controls
Parental controls are software tools that allow you to monitor and limit what your child sees and does online.
They can be set up to do things like:
- Block your child from accessing specific websites, apps or functions (like using a device’s camera, or the ability to buy things).
- Filter different kinds of content — such as ‘adult’ or sexual content, content that may promote self-harm, eating disorders, violence, drugs, gambling, racism and terrorism.
- Allow you to monitor your child’s use of connected devices, with reports on the sites they visit and the apps they use, how often and for how long.
- Set time limits, blocking access after a set time.
If a device or program is shared by multiple members of your family, you should be able change the tool settings to reflect each user’s age and skills.
I hope that you have a restful and enjoyable holiday time with your families over the next two weeks.
Karen Hadley
Learning Snapshot
We can not believe that we are already half way through the year!
Term 2 has been very busy with preparation for Public Speaking through learning persuasive texts. We have also honed our close reading skills through exploring fascinating History related topics around The Industrial Revolution and Indigenous culture.
Our excursion to The Botanic Gardens was very educational. We had a great time exploring the gardens whilst undertaking a hunt for specific plants. We enjoyed learning about the parts of a plant and discussing how plants adapt. Finally, we were able to plant some seedlings to help the gardens replenish plants that had perished during the bush fires. Leila and Evie presented Mrs Wain with two seedlings upon our return.
During Religious Education we have been exploring the parts of the Bible and the different kinds of text types found in the Bible. As part of our learning, we have learned about the referencing system in the Bible and participated in ‘The Amazing Race’ to locate passages in the Bible. We have enjoyed the narratives in the Bible, especially the stories of Moses and Jonah.
During Mathematics, we have worked with elapsed time to the minute on a numberline, built our knowledge of place value up to hundreds of thousands, demonstrating an ability to round to the nearest ten, hundred, thousand and even ten thousand! We have explored the bar model as a method to answer addition, subtraction, multiplication and division worded problems. We have revised our knowledge around fractions, telling the time, decimals and the four operations. A big focus has been building fluency with our multiplication and division facts.
Our Guided Inquiry has been carefully linked with our History unit. We have been drawing, writing and creating in order to learn about what was happening in England and Australia before 1788 and the colonisation of Australia by the English. Our central focus has been on the Aboriginal perspective, and specifically on why it is important to understand who lived here first. We have been developing our research and note taking skills, ready to write a persuasive text about the topic. We were very lucky to have Trish Ellis share her artefacts with us to help us make connections between things we had read so we are ready to create some interesting artefacts for Storyline.
It has been a busy time in our art lessons as we have been creating persuasive posters for the Eurobodalla Shire Council Calendar Art Competition. Its focus has been on thinking about how to dispose of or recycle old clothing items. In addition, we have been constructing art for the Little Sellars Art Competition. The theme this year is ‘Drink the Wild Air’.
The students enjoyed participating in the Binnin.gala workshops. We are grateful to Sage, Katie and Megan for coming along to teach us about courage, resilience and empathy. We really loved the game ‘Zip, Zap - BOING!’ and this has become one of our classroom rewards for positive learning.
Our PE lessons with Mrs Holmes have allowed students to build our team and athletics skills. We are grateful to Mrs Holmes for all of her encouragement and support.
Classroom sport lessons have centred on the skills of long jump and discus. We looked at discrete skills and then put them together to participate in qualifying events for the annual athletics carnival.
We’re half way through Year 4 and yearning to learn more!
Term 2
Week 9 Class Awards
Presented : Friday 23 June 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!
| KB: Jasper G, Jagger L, Korra T. |
KL: Emma W, Whaylen L. |
| KT: Alevy A, Kayden G. |
1C: Mack P, Lola R, Parambrata R, Sally S. |
| 1M: Lebron C, Tahiti H, Riley N, Cali Z. |
2B: Rory B-S, Mason L, James P, Winter W. |
|
2J: Sebastian T, Kiesha L. |
3D: Mitchell B, Madeline C, Macy L, Sydnee S, William B. |
|
3W: Alexander B, Malkiel G, Indianna L, Imogen R. |
4C: Emie A, Milo D, Laycie E, Elsie F. |
| 4K: Finn H, Jace T. |
5D: Oliver B, Tyler McD, Korban S. |
|
5M: Maddison B, Didier D, Kye P-P, Indi T, Micah T. |
6C: Lachlan J, Xavia W. |
|
6M: Isabella D, Connor K, Angel R. |
