Miss Mel's Message

Term 4, Week 4

Springtime in Gisborne

Who doesn't love surprises? Hail in springtime. A blustery day, but nonetheless, a beautiful sight to see. 

Nature at its finest. A bee hive we discovered on our Doggie Day Care walk through the forest.

Evacuate!!

We all engaged in a practice emergency evacuation on Wednesday. It was a great opportunity for the class teachers to become wardens, taking on a different role to their usual class teaching evacuation role. Gisborne turned on the waterworks just as we lined up outside the church for our headcount. Senior teachers love the new outfits! Some students are just super excited about the hail. 

Processes and Requests

Signing in 

It is important that when your child is late or getting picked up early that you come into the office and sign them in and out. Parents are to communicate the child’s upcoming absences via Operoo or phone call to the office. Teachers often don't see SeeSaw or emails first thing in the morning and as such your child may be marked as an unexplained absence. 

To ensure a calm and consistent start to each morning for all classes, if your child arrives after 850am they will be asked to wait in the foyer until prayer and meditation have finished.

Hats

Please ensure your child has a school hat each day to ensure adequate sun protection. If your child does not have a school hat, they will be required to play in the shade on the decking. 

Building Update

The new building is almost complete. Look at the amazing space. This is a bird's eye view of the building site and new buildings from the scissor lift.  The Handover date is still tracking for December 15th. Recently we had a pipe burst on the grass area, and as such we have had the grass area dug up, and re-seeded in some parts. We are hoping over the summer holidays to get the grass back to a good, well-covered, and consistent condition. 

School Community

Parents Night Out was a huge success! A massive organisational effort from the P&F! A big thank you to all who contributed, your collective efforts are very much appreciated. Thank you to all of the sponsors of the event. Check the P&F page for more details and photos.

When looking at the large number of P&F members present at the function, a comment was made by another attendee, (not from St B’s), that in their school, P&F is a small group, and it is difficult to drum up support and get things rolling. Not to mention, that they found our community so fun, and welcoming. This is another testament to the big-hearted, community-minded people we are at St B’s. We truly are blessed. 

Thank you to all the families, friends and staff who attended the night out. There was lots of fun to be had with silent auctions, a live auction and great food and entertainment. The babysitting live auction raised a massive total of $1200! McGinley, Cummings, Fava, Morris, Bartolo and Wood family - Miss Annie and I can’t wait to have your kids! Together we continue to achieve great things. 

Middles Master Chefs

Fantastic effort to the Middles Master Chef team who participated in the Sacred Heart Master Chef competition over the last two weeks. The feedback from their cooking sessions was great. A fantastic team effort. 

Education Support Staff

Our ESOs joined together this week to engage in some learning of their own. They attended an online webinar focussed on Student Transitions. They found this to be most beneficial in supporting students as they move across the school on specialist days, inside and outside, and from subject to subject. They also discovered some great timetabling apps that would be beneficial for home as well as school. Students love using the apps to support their learning and transitions. Please reach out if you would like to know more. 

Shout out to the Seniors

A huge shout out to the Senior students, staff and families who have tirelessly planned, organised and run fundraising events over the past few weeks. We have had raffles, car washes, doggie day car walks and washes, slushies, bake sales and still a few more to come (apologies if I have missed any). We are hoping to close out the Nepal Library fundraiser in the coming weeks. There has been so much learning behind these social justice actions, and I have firsthand seen the increase in confidence, organisational skills, communication skills, networking and leadership skills. I could not be prouder of these wonderful students. Jayde, Hayley, Leanne and Erlina - huge thanks to you all, for guiding, leading and supporting these efforts. Thank you to our community, parents and friends, for your ongoing and generous support. More pics and info on our Fundraising Events page.