Principal's message

In our prayer at assembly, we prayed our St. Bernard's Prayer

Dear God 

We thank you for St. Bernard whom you loved, 

St. Bernard was a great writer about the love of God and neighbour 

May we always show our love of God and of our neighbour through our actions and words. 

St. Bernard was a great preacher 

May we always speak with truth, kindness and compassion for others. 

St. Bernard loved being amongst God’s gift of creation 

May we protect our natural environment just as our Founding Sister the Brigidine’s showed us. 

St. Bernard had a contemplative heart 

May we find comfort in reflecting on God’s word. 

St. Bernard loved to pray to Mary our heavenly mother 

May we pray to Mary to watch over us just as she did for Jesus thorough His life. 

May all who enter our school find welcome, joy and the peace of Christ. 

Amen 

Dear Parents,

It was a pleasure to see happy faces ready for term 3 last week. 

We were blessed with a lovely sunny start to the term which put a skip in everyone's step, yesterday's weather was not as welcoming. 

Our Classes have begun in a calm and orderly manner building on the work our staff experienced at our most recent pupil free day last term, where we engaged with Knowledge Society, the creators of Classroom mastery to learn the proven routines of Cue to Start, Classroom Entry and Classroom Exit routines, and to implement these with consistency throughout our school. 

Consistency allows our students to develop automaticity in the routines, creating a safe, calm and orderly school environment.  These successful behaviour techniques, limit disruptive behaviour and incidental talk that impedes our children's learning.

In every class and with every teacher we have introduced the children to three routines that our teachers will use with the children, -

Routine 1, this is how we enter our classrooms,

Routine 2, this is how we exit our classrooms and

Routine 3, this is the cue to start that every teacher will use, every day.   

These routines provide predictability, safety, and a sense calm where children know they can learn without disruption.

The use of these routines such as how 'we enter our classroom' eliminates the inappropriate low level disruptive behaviors such as the tone and volume of voice of outdoors from even entering the classrooms enabling learning to begin in a conducive learning environment.  

The children are already focused, attention is on the teacher and the children are ready for learning, capitalising on the available teaching and learning time in the most productive way.

Through the routines the children develop

-Greater stamina in their learning

-An increased in engagement in their learning.

-Greater confidence in understanding how their brains work.

Further what we are teaching with the routines, helps our children understand social etiquette, that different behaviors are acceptable in different environments, and the type and way we talk, the tone of talk and the way we listen to others is different on the playground, is different in the classroom and is different at a dinner table. 

The way we move about the playground is different to the way we move around a classroom is different to the way we move around in our homes. Different behaviors are appropriate in different settings and contribute to the success of each setting. 

We look forward to embedding these routines and seeing the children reap the benefits of them.

Principal Appraisal.

Last week you received a letter regarding my Principal appraisal.  In the letter was a link to complete the appraisal which does not take a lot of time.  I would greatly appreciate as many parents as possible completing this appraisal, those who have known me a long time and those who are new to our school. Please find an attached link to the appraisal.  It is only available for this week. 

Thank you in anticipation for the time given by you to completing this for me.

Staffing 

Unfortunately, our new teacher has not been able to attain permission to teach after returning from teaching internationally. However, I am delighted to announce that we have come up with a great solution to this.  Mr Murphy will now be the new grade teacher. This is a great outcome for our children.  Mr Murphy has been working in the area of Behaviour with our children and will still have influence in this area, but his core role will be the Grade five teacher.  Mr Murphy is very excited about his new role.

Sickness. 

We remind families that there are still several illnesses in the Wangaratta community.  

At the end of last term our children were impacted significantly with the flu and other illnesses.  We had over 100 children away on the last few days of term 2.  

Fortunately, the holidays acted as a buffer and curbed the spread of the germs.  

If your child is showing signs of the flu, or any bugs please keep them home so that they can recover and also avoid spreading the illness.

This term we have several special celebrations which are highlights for many of the children.  

Parent teacher interviews 4th August (Pupil Free)

Mary Mackillop's Feast Day 8th August

Sandhurst staff Spirituality Day 13th August (Pupil Free)

Book week Parade Monday 18th August

St. Bernard's Feast Day and Mass Day 20th August 

Sacramental children special Eucharist preparation Day 22nd August 11.30 am 

Sacrament of Eucharist 6.00pm 27th August.

Father's Day Breakfast and prayer 4th September 

Athletics Day 5th September

Footy Colours Day 19th September. 

More details will be provided regarding these events.

Let's have a great third term, we look forward to a building on the learning already achieved during the first half of the year and to continued successes during this term. 

Have a great week everyone

Patricia Boak

Principal