Dear Parents and Friends,

I hope you have had a wonderful week. Can you believe it - we only have 12 1/2 days left of our 2020 school year! How quickly this term has gone! And within those 12 1/2 days we still have a lot of work to do! All staff are so thankful for the way our students and parents have supported us so much this term.

ADVENT

The first Sunday of Advent sees the commencement of the new liturgical year. This new liturgical cycle is referred to as Year A and features the gospel of Matthew. The word ‘Advent’ comes from the Latin word Adventus which literally means ‘coming’; it is also reflected in the Greek word Parousia, which is used to describe the second coming of Jesus. So Advent is a time of preparation and anticipation of the coming of Christ into the world that is celebrated in the Nativity at Christmas. It is a time of preparing our hearts to ‘receive’ Jesus into the world each year.

The greatest Christmas gift is God’s gift of his Son, our Saviour. Jesus came bringing hope, peace, joy and love: four gifts traditionally celebrated in Advent, the four Sundays preceding Christmas.

The first week’s focus is the gift of hope. What does hope mean for us? What does hope mean for others? And most importantly-How can we give the gift of hope to others?

COVID

As with all things this year we have the COVID layer on what we can and cannot do. At the time of writing this newsletter, even though restrictions have eased in our community, nothing has changed for us on a school level. I understand this can cause frustration and sadness at this time as we cannot celebrate as a community all the activities that we usually have at this time of the year.

Last night at 8.00pm we received an email from Catholic Education Melbourne in response to the lifting of restrictions on Sunday. For Catholic schools, the changes are as follows:

Visitors can come on site as long as the group size indoors does not exceed 20 people and outside it does not exceed 50 people. Face masks must be worn, the 4m2 physical distancing must be maintained (1.5m) and sanitizing and cleaning procedures are maintained.
We can now use our drinking fountains.
Teachers can now mix classes eg. 5/6 children can work with other students in the 5/6 area and buddy activities can recommence.
School tours can recommence.
For our Foundation 2021 students, parents can now walk them to the classroom, instead of leaving them at the office for our transition program.

SCHOOL CLOSURE DAY

Friday 4th December is a school closure day. The focus for this day is planning for 2021, where we will be working in our teams to plan our yearly scope and sequence for all curriculum areas. Our staff will be onsite and TeamKids will be available for children to be booked in for the day. TeamKids have a great day of Christmas baking and a movie planned for the school closure day.

BOOK FAIR

We have had excited students this week with the arrival of our Book Fair. Wednesday morning at the gate I had children coming in the gate telling me what they wanted to buy and had money in their bags. Thank you for supporting the Book Fair. Also a BIG thank you to Michele Wain and Glenn for organising and running our Book Fair, when you both have many other duties keeping them very busy at school at the moment.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

I have noticed in the past week we have students not wearing correct uniform - I understand about shoes at this time of the year and hard to buy during COVID but we are also not wearing the correct shorts or jumpers. If your child is not in the correct uniform can I ask that you please email your child's teachers. I am also noticing children not tying their hair back (both boys and girls). Can you please make sure this is occurring. As the end of the year approaches we have a number of important events coming up including Year 6 Confirmation, filming the end of year Liturgy and Assembly and we hope to see our students showcasing our school and wearing their uniform with pride.

CHRISTMAS ANGELS

Wow! Our Choir has arrived!! Our Angels look amazing - what a wonderful job you have all done, we have so many different angels who are bringing us lots of joy! Please come around to the front of the school to see them in our windows.

PARISH CHRISTMAS MASS

Keep sending in your videos and photos of your Christmas messages and your decorations that you are putting up at home. It is lovely to spread the joy of Christmas with our parishioners, especially the ones that do not have a lot of family around and for our lovely residents at Nixon House.

WELCOME TO OUR FOUNDATION 2021 STUDENTS AND FAMILIES

We were so excited to welcome our Foundation 2021 students to their first transition session today. I was lucky enough to spend some time with them and we read a great a story called Monsters Love Underpants. Afterwards the children made some really scary Monster crowns. The Foundation students will be back next Thursday for their final transition session.

TUCKSHOP NEWS

Tania and Lina are hanging up their aprons after doing an amazing job over the last 5 years running the St Brigid's Tuckshop. We would like to thank Tania and Lina for their tireless effort in providing our students and staff with their delicious food. You truly went above and beyond. We are now seeking expressions of interest from any other parents who may be interested in running the Tuckshop. Please contact me if you would like to discuss it further.

CONGRATULATIONS

We are very excited to announce to our school community that Zoe Finster (FZF) and husband Craig are expecting their first baby in March. Zoe will continue to work at St Brigid's for most of Term 1, 2021, supporting our students with Literacy and Numeracy. We look forward to celebrating the safe arrival of their precious baby.

Take care, stay safe and have a great week.

Yours in partnership,

Wendy Sullivan

PROBLEM SOLIVING & LEADERSHIP

This week the Year 5 students found out their leadership groups for 2021.

Congratulations to all our leaders for 2021!

Mrs Wendt

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