Dear Parents and Friends,

I hope you have had an enjoyable week. It’s great to be back at school. I have enjoyed catching up with the students and hearing all about their recent break and the new learning they have started this term.

As Mrs Hadley mentioned last week, we are celebrating NAIDOC Week next week. Our NAIDOC celebrations began last Friday morning with a regional NAIDOC Mass for Catholic schools and parents in the Southern Region. Pictured to the left is Samuel S receiving a recognition award from our Performance and Improvement Leader, Mr Tim Smith along with Fr George, Parish Priest of Sacred Heart Moruya. Samuel’s award was presented in recognition of the kindness and respect he continues to show, always reaching out to others. In addition, Samuel was recognised for his high level of engagement in learning Dhurga and his leadership in offering an Acknowledgement to Country. Samuel is an exemplary role model at St Bernard’s.
Congratulations Samuel!

Mayor’s Writing Competition

This year our Years 2-6 students are eagerly writing to enter the Mayor’s Writing Competition.

Held for the past 14 years, the competition has celebrated and encouraged the literary talents of our local community's young people aged between 5 and 18. The categories are Kindergarten, Years 1-2, Years 3-4, Years 5-6, Years 7-8, Years 9-10, and Years 11-12.

The theme for 2023, as selected by Mayor, Mathew Hatcher, is “CHANGE”.  All written submissions must incorporate the theme ‘change’. The competition is open to children and youth who live or go to school in the Eurobodalla. Entries can be any style of creative writing. Finalists will be chosen by an expert panel of judges. Entries close at 5pm on Friday 25 August. For more information, or to enter, visit the Mayor's Writing Competition webpage or call in to one of the Shire’s libraries.

We look forward to sending in our school entries! This is certainly giving our students a strong purpose for writing!

Absentee Notes

Just a reminder that when your child misses a day of school, you MUST complete an absence note in Compass Portal. From the Compass Portal home screen on the left-hand side in the student profile Parents can select…. + Add Attendance Note (Approved Absence/Late)

Parents then select a reason from the drop-down option list, write in supporting comments and select the date the student will be absent (either current or future). Parents will be notified on the right-hand side of their Compass portal through My News for any outstanding unexplained absences/late. To explain an absence or late for your child, the parent must click the check box to the left side of the absence they wish to explain and then the Explain with Attendance Note button.

This is a government requirement. If you have any questions or have difficulty accessing Compass, please don’t hesitate to come and see us at the Front Office.

Goodluck…

Next week we wish many of our Years 2-6 students, good luck competing at the Southern Region Athletics Carnival in Bega. A special thank you to Mrs Brady and Mrs Holmes who have been preparing the students for this event. We look forward to hearing about your experience next week.

Welcome…

We have welcomed 4 new families to St Bernard’s last week. Welcome to Ben T (4C), Claire E (4K), Alfred and Angelo M (1C) and Sai G (2B). We know you will be very happy as you settle into our beautiful school.

Brain Breaks

Most students require a brain break throughout the day. This can be a whole class or individual break. Brain breaks should be around 1-3 minutes long and can be either passive or involve movement. Some options that are used for brain breaks by our teaching and support staff include taking a message to a teacher/office, getting a drink, heavy lifting etc, meditation, movement activity.

The new jackets have arrived and they are a hit with the students! They certainly

look very smart and have provided students with an extra layer of warmth. All jackets can be purchased through the Front Office or Compass.

Our Year 5 students are enjoying a wonderful time at Birrigai. Although the weather is cold, this hasn’t stopped the fun or high level of engagement in the different activities. I am sure they can’t wait to share their experiences with the school next week.

Blessings to you and your family on the week ahead.

Kind regards

Johanna Wain
Principal

Finding a Treasure

Dear Parents and Carers,

On Sunday we will celebrate the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The theme of the scripture readings (parables) from Matthew are focused on the treasure of faith.

Jesus continues to teach about the Kingdom of God. He gives three examples of the Reign of God: a man finds a buried treasure, and he sells all he has to buy the field; a merchant finds a fine pearl, and he sells all he owns to buy it; and the Kingdom of God is like the many things that get caught in a fisherman’s net – the rejects are thrown away, and only the good catch is saved.

The first two parables teach that the Kingdom is so valuable that we ought to be willing to give up everything for it. We may not have to sell everything we have but we may have to change our way of doing things.

The third parable has the same message as last week’s Gospel reading. We learn that the just and the unjust must exist together in this world. Just like the weeds and the wheat, everything caught in the net is not valuable. When judgement day comes, the net will pick up all kinds of fish, the good and the bad. Only the just are kept as the catch of the day.

(Lisa-Marie Calderone Stewart)

Family Enrolment Evening for the sacrament of First Eucharist

Thank you to those families who have confirmed their attendance at the Family Enrolment Evening on Wednesday 9 August in St Bernard’s church. The meeting will begin at 5.00pm and conclude by 6.00pm.

Mini Vinnies Maranatha Visit

Members of our Mini Vinnies team will be visiting Maranatha retirement village on Thursday 10 August at 10.00am. The students will be reading picture books to the residents during their morning tea. We will spend time during Week 3 practising reading our chosen texts. Thank you to Mrs Smith who will be supervising the students during the visit.

A Glimpse of Year Three

Year Three have made a tremendous start to Term 3.  We would like to share a snapshot of what we have been up to.

During Literacy, students been busy reading and unpacking poetry from famous Australian poets, C.J Dennis and Banjo Patterson. Our Daily Reviews have focused on handwriting and how to correctly join letters together as well as spelling words using the ‘ought’ and ‘ai’ spelling rules. 

In Math this term, students have solved three- and four-digit addition and subtraction problems. We have also used partitioning and a number line to demonstrate the jump strategy for mentally solving addition problems. In our Daily Reviews we have looked at place value, rounding numbers to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand, plotting fractions on a number line and identified different angles, just to name a few things. 

During History, Year 3 have started exploring how communities have changed over time for our Storyline Unit. We introduced this unit by looking back at the history of the corner shop and how it has changed from 1850 to today. Students were amazed by how time consuming a visit to the corner shop was, as items were not prepackaged and needed to be measured, weighed and wrapped before leaving the shop. 

We also went back in time to the 1950s and learnt about how challenging it was to run a household. There were no washing machines, televisions, dish washers and the fridge was a block of ice in a cupboard. Students were also amazed by the fact there weren’t any snacks in the pantry and dinner consisted of foods like tripe. 

In Art, Year 3 used oil pastel with a focus on lines to create an echidna. Students used pencil to outline a rough shape of their echidna then worked from the background to the foreground to add layers to their artwork to give it a more textured appearance. They then used edicol dye to create the background, which highlighted their fantastic artwork. 

During our Sport session last week, students participated in a Netball Coaching Session with Kate Blackmore. Students learnt about the various positions and where they were on the court. The students did so well with learning their positions, they then went into games.  Students are to be commended for their high level of engagement and enthusiasm when participating in the session. We were very impressed by the positive interactions between students displaying a great sense of fair play.

NSWPSSA Cross Country

Last Friday Beatrix F competed in the NSW Primary School Sports Association Cross Country. This event saw the best from Catholic, Independent and Public schools in NSW running some amazingly quick times. We are extremely proud of Beatrix for being selected to run at this event.  She was  only thirty two seconds behind the winner over 2km what an achievement. Congratulations!

Southern Region Athletics

Next Wedensday these students will represent St Bernard’s at the Southern Region Athletics Carnival in Bega. They have been eagerly training in their recess and lunch breaks and we hope they have a wonderful day.

Astrid B, Sietta G, Stella F, Kate W, Toby S, Beatrix F, Brooklen S, Charlie M, Aurelia S, Ruby H, Lucas V-D-S, Noah S, Xavier L, Lilly G, Georgina W, Storm R, Mia A,  Dusti-Rae L, Tomas C, Harper B, Ollie L, Arthur S-D, Ethan S, Nate K, Jace T, Annie F, Teagan W, Sienna B, Matthew S, Tyler Mc, Brennan C, Didier D-C, Chase W, Korban S, Isaac V, Ruby B, Keira A, Hailey I, Isabella L, Annaleise G, Rogan H, Lawson M, Sebastian C, Kobi B, Connor K, Samuel S-D,

UCI BMX World Championships

Congratulations to Raph C who has been selected to represent Australia in the UCI BMX world championships which are being held in Glasgow Scotland and will span 11 days from 3-13 August. Raph and his family will leave for Glasgow next week and we wish them safe travels and an every success in racing.