St Brigid's News and Events
RE News
Catholic Education Week
10–17 March 2024
Catholic Education Week will be celebrated in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne from 10–17 March 2024.
This annual event is held to promote the special ethos of Catholic schools and to highlight the great things that take place in Catholic schools every day.
The theme for this year’s celebrations is ‘In the Light of Christ’.
Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and walk the way of the gospel to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society.
There are 331 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne that educate around 114,000 students and employ more than 16,000 teachers and staff, and most will celebrate Catholic Education Week in some way.
Project Compassion
Third Week of Lent
Samoa may be a country surrounded by water, but access to clean drinking water is scarce in some areas, with many families facing extreme hardship as a result.
Leaia lives with her five children, husband, brother and sister-in-law on the island of Upolu in Samoa. Not having access to a reliable source of clean water caused Leaia a lot of worry.
Their home is not connected to a piped water system, so they had to rely solely on rainwater collected in old fridges. When their water ran out, Leaia had to walk with her young children to collect water in buckets and containers from a neighbour down the street.
With the support of Caritas Australia's local partner, Caritas Samoa, a water tank was installed at Leaia's home. She and her family now have a steady supply of clean drinking water at home. Next year, they will also have a toilet built, with the support of Caritas Samoa, which will further improve their health and living conditions.
“We are very thankful and grateful for the water tank. It has helped us so much and made our daily life easier,” Leaia said.
Eucharist
Our Year 4 students have begun their preparation for the Sacrament of Eucharist which they will celebrate on Sunday 21st of April at 1pm. They have shown their willingness to learn and commitment to taking this next step in their Sacramental journey through their eager participation in the Commitment and Level Mass this weekend and the Faith activity night. We thank the families for their presence and modelling for their children the importance of this commitment to their faith.
Jodie Marziano
STEM Update…
Thank you for the Lego
We are incredibly grateful for the generous donations of Lego from a number of families for our STEM Lego Makerspace. The students have thoroughly enjoyed completing engineering tasks and challenges with the Lego during some of their STEM classes.
Robotics in STEM
All of our classes have been using the St Brigid’s robots this term and have been learning how to code with various programs.
Bee-Bot Robots (Foundation):
Bee Bots are programmable floor robots that teach students sequencing, directional language, basic commands and programming. The Foundation students have been enjoying programming their Bee-Bot to move to a certain area of their Bee Bot Mat.
Dash Robots (Years 1-4):
Dash is a programmable robot with sensors that respond to the environment. Students have been programming Dash to move, sing, dance, flash its lights, respond to voices and make sounds. We have been doing the coding with the Blockly app, which is a block code tool that introduces students to basic programming concepts. The students have enjoyed programming Dash to follow pathways and complete a specific sequence of tasks.
Lego Mindstorms Robots (Years 5-6):
The 5/6 students have been busy following detailed instructions to build their Lego Mindstorms Robot. This advanced robot also includes distance sensors, colour sensors and motors, which students build into the robot. We learn coding using the EV3 Lego app and students create complex programs that are uploaded to the ‘smart brick’ on the Lego Mindstorms Robot.
What’s next?
Next term, students will continue expanding their understanding of digital technologies during STEM. Activities such as using QR codes, Stop Motion, Makey Makeys, Scratch, creating holograms, Claymation and InkDo will be covered in STEM.
Our 5/6 students will take part in ‘A Day of AI’ over the course of 3 STEM lessons in Term 2. It is an exciting program for students, to spark their curiosity about artificial intelligence and computer science and to encourage them to develop the skills that will be critical to the future.
In addition, we are planning for all of our Years 3-6 students to take part in the ‘Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge’ in Term 2. It is a fun and engaging challenge that students complete at school in small groups. Students will be prepared for the challenge during STEM early in Term 2, with more detailed information provided to parents soon.
Deborah Patterson
Wellbeing
2024 Lunch Club Overview
Lunch Clubs are particularly appreciated by those students who:
- find navigating the playground a little overwhelming
- struggle with the lack of structure in the playground and prefer activities that are guided by a teacher
- find it difficult to initiate or maintain friendships or may be interested in quieter activities not usually available outside. Friendships blossom between children who find a common interest, and who they may not otherwise have met.
Bringing students together from all year levels and also supports buddy friendships and social groups. The programs are organised and supervised by Education Support Staff, who generously share their expertise to make Lunch Clubs a fun and valuable experience for students.
2024 Term 1 Lunchtime Clubs
Monday - Library Club - Glenn
Tuesday - ICT Club - Deb
Wednesday - Games Club - Erin
Thursday - Box Club - Sigi
Friday - Colouring Club - Cathry
Scholastic Book Club
Thank you to all the families who have placed orders through Scholastic Book Club. When you order books from Scholastic St Brigid's receives a percentage of the sales. Your donations make make a BIG differece. Here are some of the resources we have purchased through our percentage of sales. These are decodable BIG books that we are using in our Foundation area.
Brochures were sent home last week for the current catalogue. To place an order from the bookclub please download the LOOP app or visit scholastic.com.au/LOOP. When ordering please pay by credit card, please do not send cash to school. The last day to order Friday 15th March, please ensure that all orders are placed by this date.
Thank you
Erin McGeoch
Running Club
This week at running club
laps run = 150
km run = 7.5km
Total Km = 362.8km
We are on the Hume Fwy/National Hwy in New South Wales in Mullengandra.
With House Cross Country coming up in a few weeks you can come to running club for some training.
Hannah Richards
Wanted - Players for the St Brigid's Dad's Basketball Team
Calling all St Brigid's Dads!! The Mordy Saints are alittle short of plaers this season!
Where we play?
We are in the Over 35's Wedneday night Mckinnon basketball competition. Games are at either Bentleigh or Brighton Secondary Schools. Earlies game is 7.55pm and latest is 8.25pm at the moment so pretty good.
Cost?
Depends on numbers but this year we paid $154 each.
Season Dates?
We've got one game left next Wed 13th March if anyone wanted to have a look and then the Winter season runs between 17 Apr to 18 Sep (Grand Final) with some breaks over the school holidays. We will be registering the team by end of March. There is a general understanding that with work and family commitments most players are going to need to miss a few games throughout the season.
Experience?
We are towards the bottom in the lowest grade so we are no superstars but most weeks we are reasonably competitive. The team is a mix of players who generally have played some level of basketball, some as adults but also a few who haven't plated since juniors.
Training?
No training required we just hope to bring it all together on the night.
Uniforms?
We've got some uniforms from when we formed that are probably due for a refresh. The plan is to get some new uniforms for the Winter season.
If anyone is interested feel free to give me a call or send a message to:
Matt O'Meara (daughter Emerson Year 4)
M: 0499 006 088
E: momeara@emprisegroup.com.au
St Brigid's Little Learners Playgroup
We are pleased to announce that our Little Learners Playgroup is back for 2024. All welcome.
Wanted - Boxes for Box Club
We would love some donations of boxes for our lunchtime box club. Sigi would greatly appreciate any donations.