Welcome Back

Dear Parents, Carers and Friends of St Brigid’s,

Welcome back to school. We hope you had an amazing holiday and spent time with family and friends, relaxing and enjoying each other's company! We have enjoyed seeing our students and hearing about their wonderful holiday escapades. How wonderful was it to see all our parents - old and new - catching up and introducing each other to the new families at the Coffee Cart on Tuesday morning.

We are looking forward to continuing our partnership, with you all to give our children the opportunity to flourish academically, spiritually and personally.

Our children came to school on Tuesday looking very refreshed, excited and eager to catch up with each other and reestablish friendships. It was lovely to see our Foundation students come in so settled and ready to start their learning journey.

It was great to see our students come together to celebrate St Brigid’s Feast Day today. The day started with a Mass, then Kaboom and a sausage sizzle. The children all had a lovely time together. A very big thank you to Mr and Mrs Titchener (Tracey’s parents) who managed to cook 300 sausages for the staff and children to enjoy! Mr Cochrane, who loves ice cream especially choc tops, certainly enjoyed his ice cream and wanted to have more! The day finished with Fairy Floss expertly twirled by Alex (Juliete, Pip and Theodore's mum) and Chantel (Eva's mum). Great job ladies! We hope our new Foundation students won't be too disappointed that everyday isn't like this!

SAFER INTERNET DAY - TUESDAY 6 FEBRUARY

We will be participating in Safer Internet Day all next week.

REMINDERS FOR THE START OF THE TERM

Communication

Any communication must be made via your child's classroom teacher. This enables strong relationships between the teacher, child and parent to be built. I am very happy and encourage both parents and staff to cc me into all communications. This helps us to support each other to the best of our abilities. See the Contact Page of this newsletter for staff contact details.

Audiri App Reminder

Don't forget to update your groups so that you are receiving notifications for the correct year level. This is really important for our 5/6 families as we will be sending our lots of updates from Camp.

Specialist Timetable

Please see the attached specialist timetable for Term 1. Please note that we now have specialists over four days.

Tuesday - Art, PE, STEM

Wednesday -Art, PE

Thursday - (Alt weeks) - LOTE, Performing Arts

Friday - STEM

Uniform

Term 1 sees all students now wearing our new school Uniform. We begin Term 1 in our full summer uniform including a school hat. School Hats are required from Monday. A reminder that PSW is our uniform supplier. Orders can be made online or families can visit the PSW shop at 1 Age Street, Cheltenham. The shop is open Monday to Saturday.

Hair/Nails/Jewellery

Please remember no extreme hairstyles eg mohawks, razor cuts. Hair below the shoulder must be put up in a ponytail. Only clear nail polish is acceptable at school. Sleepers or small studs are the only acceptable earrings and if your child wants to wear a necklace it can only be a chain with a cross on it.

Sunscreen

Due to allergies and Child Safe Standards schools cannot supply or apply sunscreen to students. Please remember to put your preferred sunscreen into your child's bag. Their teachers will give the students time to apply their sunscreen before recess and lunch.

Clubs

Our lunchtime clubs will be back up and running in Week 3.

Monday - Library Club

Tuesday - Art Club

Wednesday - ICT Club

Thursday - Games Club

Friday - Drawing Club

Our Tuesday morning Running Club will commence on Tuesday 6 February. Running Club starts at 8:15am to 8:30am on the track in the grassed area. Everyone is welcome to join in the fun.

Tuckshop

Our tuckshop will not be open this week. They will reopen on Friday 9th of February.

Social and Fundraising

Our new Social Squad are hard at work already. Please see the dedicated Social and Fundraising page later in the newsletter.

Dates for Your Diary

Each week we publish the dates for your diary. It's a good idea to run your eye over the dates each week so you know what's coming up. A few special mentions this week -

Our Foundation information night is on Wednesday 9 February
School will finish at 1:30pm for all students on Tuesday 13th of February for Get to Know You interviews. TheirCare will be open for the afternoon.
Year 1 to Year 6 Get to Know You Interviews will be held on Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th February. More information to come shortly.
School Photos - Thursday 22 February
Celebration of Learning - Monday 25 March.

Welcome to Christine and Erin

We are very excited to welcome two new staff members to St Brigid’s this year.

Christine Thredgold is our new Learning Diversity and Wellbeing Leader. She comes to us from OLA Cheltenham.

Erin McGeoch is a Educational Support Officer working in the 5/6 area on a Wednesday and Friday.

We wish them both the very best and we look forward to working with them this year.

Welcome Back

Yasmin Allaf has returned to St Brigid’s in a full time capacity, working in Year 1/2. We are excited to have Yasmin working with us again.

Welcome to baby Toby

Heather and Marcus Hughes welcomed baby Toby on the 13/12/23. Toby was due in March 2024 but was in a big rush to meet his mum, dad, brother Patrick and sister Sophie. Toby is doing an amazing job and is doing everything he should - growing stronger and gaining weight. Please keep Toby in your prayers.

Have a lovely weekend.

Yours in partnership

Wendy Sullivan.

Community News and Events

Mordialloc Tennis Club Open Day

St Brigid's Community Hall Hire

Mentone Hockey Club

MBJFC