Term 1, Week 2

Welcome and Community Connections

With hearts full and spirits high, we extend a warm welcome to each of you as we embark on an exciting journey into the new year! We trust your holiday season was filled with laughter, cherished moments with friends and family, and some rest and recovery.

As we reunite, the air is buzzing with energy, laughter and positive vibes. Here's to a year filled with collaboration, joy, and the unshakeable bonds that make our community truly special.

Let the adventure begin anew!

Preps

We welcome our 2024 Preps to the St B’s family. They are already very connected and much-loved members of the community, receiving lots of check-ins from their buddies and siblings.

“Our gorgeous Preps have had a wonderful start to the year and settled into their learning space so well. We have been very busy learning about the letters in our name, how to write and recognise the numbers 1-5, and also learning how to participate in morning meditation and who Jesus is. We are also all very excited to be adding a marble to the marble jar each day to count up to our 100 days of school”. - Miss T and Miss Perri

Classroom Happy Snaps

All classes are settling in, making friends, finding new routines, and getting to know their classmates and teachers.

Parish

We celebrated our first Parish/School event on Sunday 4th February, joining together with our sister school Holy Cross for both staff and student leader commissioning, as well as for the celebration of the feast day of St Brigid. Many staff and families joined with the parish after mass for some morning tea and a catch-up. Please also read Trish Armstrong’s parish report here.

All year 6 students have also taken their pledge in front of their student body at our whole school opening mass, which was on Thursday 8th February.

🎉 Important Update for February 14th, 2024 Welcome Event! 🎉

In light of recent considerations, we've decided to transform our Welcome BBQ on February 14th, 2024, into a delightful gathering with a unique twist! Recognising the significance of Ash Wednesday, we are adjusting our plans and will forgo the sizzling grills and embrace a shorter, but equally enjoyable, gathering.

Join us at 5:00 PM to kick off the festivities with a cool ambiance, featuring ice-cold drinks, refreshing icy poles, and delectable baked goods generously provided by our Parents and Friends Committee. While the grills may take a backseat, the spirit of camaraderie will be alive and well.

Don't miss the chance to see the kids hit the dance floor at 5:30 PM, where the beats will get you moving and grooving. We've condensed the schedule to ensure a lively and memorable experience for everyone, concluding the event by 6:30 PM. The early finish also allows each of you to conveniently grab dinner that suits your needs on the way home.

Let's make this Ash Wednesday celebration a unique and enjoyable experience together! Your understanding is greatly appreciated, and we look forward to sharing this special occasion with you.

Student Connections

Students joined together in their house groups for Friday afternoon community activities, beginning with learning all about St Brigid. This is a re-introduction this year, in response to student feedback that strongly indicated they wanted more opportunities to engage in whole school activities in their vertical P-6 house groups. These experiences create strong connections among all students, as well as providing opportunities for working with teachers different from their class groups. Activities will be fortnightly, alternating with assemblies. Activities vary between faith, sport, sustainability and wellbeing.

Our two years of whole-school fundraising efforts have reached their target of $10,000. The library is underway at Alive Montessori, in Nepal. We are scheduled for a meeting with the school next week to hear firsthand the impact our actions will have for their entire community.

Salesian Graduation Friday 2nd February

An evening for celebrating excellence, community, partnerships, and journey at the Salesian College Graduation. It was lovely to be part of the students’ full circle journey, seeing my first St B’s prep students graduate. Super proud of all of them. In addition, St B’s students Jemma Kinkead, Alex Bonanno and Tess O’Donnell took home excellence awards.

It was lovely to connect with families, liaise with our principal network, Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Holy Trinity, and Salesian as well as to represent the Parish of St Brigid's along with Aoife McCarthy from our sister school Holy Cross. Our schools have a long and proud connection with Salesian.

Maths Professional Development

On Wednesday our Prep and Junior teachers along with Emma Barker (P-2 Maths Intervention teacher), Steph Briggs (Enhancement Teacher) and Petrina (Maths Leader) attended “Teaching for Impact in Mathematics Series P-2". Teach Well led the day with MACS to provide an insightful day of learning in effective teaching practices, formative assessment and professional reflective practice. The team has a number of professional tasks to accomplish by the end of Term 1 in the areas of assessment and pedagogy.

Visual Arts Professional Development

Over the holidays, Jackie attended a "Teacher Art Exchange" at the beautiful Bendigo Art Gallery, which aimed to create connections between educators and encourage them to share their skills, by participating in workshops using watercolours, ink, polymer clay, collage, and gelli printing. She is looking forward to introducing some new techniques to St B's artists in our Art Studio!

Daniel's Digi Tech Update

Teamwork in action

It seems teamwork makes St. B's work, or however that phrase goes.

We started up some of our lunchtime clubs on Monday. You can see some of our middle and senior students helping our juniors to learn all about coding. What's great about St B is that I didn't ask any of those students to do that, they asked me. This is great for two reasons: 1, it shows how our students have great leadership and mentoring skills and 2, it allows me to sit back and work on my Solitaire high score...

- Daniel

Gisborne Golf Scholarships

Congratulations to Summer Connors and Mackenzie Hay for being awarded junior girls golf scholarships at Gisborne Golf Club.

Reminders

Hats

All students need to wear school hats when engaging in activities outside. Please ensure your child has their hat in their bag each day, or they may leave it in their tubs at school. Any child without a hat will need to remain in the shaded areas.

After school activities

We have commenced some onsite after-school activities as a trial for term 1 to gauge ongoing interest. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday sport or passive play options with Tyson and Meisha, and Wednesday tennis with Mario. Please contact the office for further information.

Fees

If you have not already returned your fee forms, please do so as soon as possible, or collect another one from the office. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to phone Lisa or Teresa for some assistance.

Mornings

Please note that staff are not on duty until 8:30am, which means students dropped off early are not supervised. When dropping students off at school, please do not leave your car when using the front parking, parallel parking is available for those who wish to walk their children inside.

Phone and Watches

In line with our ICT Usage Agreement Policy, recently sent out via Operoo, there is the expectation from students that their personal student mobile phones are to be left at the office at the beginning of the day, and collected at the end of the day. All I-watches must be disabled during school time. If you need to get a message to your child, or if they need to talk to you, this will be coordinated through the office.

Absences

Any absences can be reported to the office through Operoo or an email to the class teacher. Keep in mind the teacher may not have time to check the email if it is sent that morning.

Uniform

New school uniform processes are in place. Kylie Vacirca, (Education Support Officer), will be monitoring the uniform inbox and filling orders on Fridays. She is available to meet you and your child for fittings on Fridays, or alternatively, she can send the uniform home for sizing. All appointments and contact can be made through brigidsuniform@gmail.com. Students can wear their sports uniform on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Parent Helper Course

A reminder that there will be a number of sessions held onsite and online for our parents and carers who would like to assist with supporting teachers and students in the classroom.

Onsite dates are as follows:

Friday 9th February at 9:15am and again on Monday 12th February at 2:30pm.

These will be held in the Meeting Room at St Brigid’s.

Our online Parent helper course will be on Monday 12th February at 7:30pm. See below for the zoom link. You can also access the link via the school parent calendar.

Topic: Parent Helper Course

Time: Feb 12, 2024, 7:30 PM Australia/Melbourne

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/75608655929?pwd=jGfGEbnNbjCxcF2ZUsDN1d7vqFcShC.1

Meeting ID: 756 0865 5929 Passcode: 6Btppn

Check us out on our socials!

Facebook	www.facebook.com/stbrigidsprimarygisborne
Instagram	www.instagram.com/sbgisborne/

One of our goals this year is to increase our social presence from 324 followers to 400 on Facebook and from 160 to 200 on Instagram. Please like, share, and follow St B's! #stbsislivingitandlovingit

Parish News

St Brigid's Catholic Parish