Bonjour tout le monde,

The term is speeding along and next week is the last week of term.

We will finish off the term with a week of swimming lessons for all.

Whilst it is 'a lot' and a disruption to our normal teaching week swimming lessons are both a compulsory and necessary part of the Victorian School Curriculum. As St Bede's students know particularly well these lessons absolutely save lives! At an assembly in first term I spoke to the whole school about one of our Year 2 students who bravely used his 'swim and survive skills' taught at school swimming last year to save his own life at a popular surf beach last December.

We will be forever thankful to the swim teachers for what they taught our friend at school swimming lessons and the miraculous ending to a truly frightening story.

Sun Smart and Hats

It's times to get out our sun hats again. As a SunSmart School students are required to wear hats from September through to April whenever they are outside. Please make sure your child has their hat at school next week, students without hats will be required to remain under the shade in the amphitheater during playtimes.

It is ok for now if students are wearing hats that are not our uniform hat, as we know it is tricky during the change of season times. But we do ask that you get onto having your child in correct uniform as soon as possible please.

Please note: students are still wearing their winter uniform for the remainder of Term 3.

St Bede's Footy Day -

Yesterday we celebrated our annual St Bede's Footy Day!

As usual Mr Walsh was amazing entertaining us with his rendition of each AFL themesong and the children were very excited and displayed great sportsmanship as each cohort sang their club's song!

I was very surprised that we do not have even one St Kilda fan amongst our school population!

Year 1/2 Activity Night and Sleepover

There was much excitement and anticipation in the Junior corridor yesterday as the day had finally arrived for the Year 1/2 activity night and Year 2 sleepover!

Activities included:

A tabloid sports afternoon run by Mr Price and our Year 6 sports leaders

A surprise incursion (African Drumming Workshop)

Pizza

Icy poles

A movie!

There will be some tired little people today I'm sure!

A special thankyou to the staff who have given up some of their own family time to ensure our junior students had such a special night!

Swimming 2025

Our swimming program begins for all classes on Monday morning!

Please don't forget to pack the following for Monday:

a towel
clean underwear
goggles
thongs/crocs/slides

Children can wear their bathers under their uniform to school (it makes for a quick change at the pool). They will not be wearing their shoes and socks to the pool they need to bring slip- ons like thongs for this purpose.

If you would like to come to watch your child's session this is fine but parents are not allowed on pool deck there is a viewing area. Due to Child Safety regulations parents are also not allowed in the change rooms. For Prep students who may need this level of support we will try to make arrangements for you to help your child whilst also respecting the privacy of others.

Class Structure 2026

As we are working on our class structure for 2026 may I ask you to please email Ms Murphy (kmurphy@sbedesbn.catholic.edu.au) or your child's teacher if your child will NOT be returning in 2026 and state which school he/she will be attending.

MACSSIS Survey

Lastly, can I please ask if you haven't done so already could you please spend some time (30 mins max) completing the MACSSIS Survey for our school?

There is one week to go in the survey and so far only 10 families have responded. The average response time to complete the survey is 10 minutes.

The details of how to login are on the Learning Diversity page in this newsletter.

Kindest Regards

Amanda