Welcome to the 2023 school year.

It was such a privilege to welcome our families as they arrived for school on Monday. The excitement and glee as friendships were rekindled, the courage displayed when entering a new area and hanging the bags up and being greeted by a new teacher or simply placing the drink bottle and fruit on the table with their name on it-all natural signs of a new year and new adventure.

Thank you to all the parents who were able to accompany their children into school, such an important sign of unity, trust and partnership with the school. For those parents who were unable to attend in the morning, thank you for preparing your children for their first day back at school and supporting them so positively.

Welcome to New Staff 2023

We are delighted with the ease with which our new staff have embraced St. Bernard’s, becoming active members of the St. Bernard’s community and working collaboratively within their teams.

We welcome:

Deputy Principal Leigh Symons

Grade Three / Four: Tanya Sutherland in Literacy support.

Grade One / Two: Courteney Shannon

Foundation: Rebecca Whale

Visual Art Teacher: Tanya Sutherland

Science Teacher: Jen Symes

Wellbeing Liz Nelson

Learning Support Officer (LSO).

Tegan White

Emily Fitzsimons

Meet and Greet

We welcome new families to our school and encourage all families to pop into school on Thursday afternoon from 3.30pm to 5.00pm for a meet and greet with your child’s teachers. The teachers have spent many hours preparing the learning environments for the children, they are attractive, calm and provide carefully selected resources for optimum learning.

We would love all families to pop in and connect with the teachers strengthening the partnerships that are so important for the flourishing of our children.

Maintenance

We have had a lot of maintenance work carried out over the holidays and our school is looking fresh, safe and welcoming for our community.

Carpark and Drop Off Protocols - Reminder

We encourage parents to drop off or pick up their children at the internal drop off / pick up zone near the hall or the drop off / pick up point at the front of the school.

The carpark is entered from Skehan Ave. Cars travel at 5kms an hour and either -

1. Drive into the car park, where parents park their car then walk to the crossing point with their child and cross at the crossing point. At no time should children cross into the carpark, except at the designated crossing point with their parents. A teacher will be on duty at this crossing point.

Or

2. Choose to drive into the drop off zone where children will get out of their parent’s car on the left side of the car and walk up onto the footpath and into school. Parents will then continue to drive out of the school by entering back onto the driveway out of the school. The exit gate is automated to open.

At pick up time, A teacher will be at the drop off bay to direct children to their parent’s cars. The children will wait under the verandah of the hall and be directed by the teacher on duty to their parent’s car at the drop off point.

Parents do not leave their cars in the drop off zone. If you have grandparents etc supporting you with the drop off please familiarise them with the protocols for using the drop off zone.

It is important that students are waiting for pick up at the end of the day in either the hall drop off zone or the pick up zone at the front of the office. Students cannot play on the playground unsupervised, while waiting for a parent to pick them up.

There are teachers on duty at both zones to supervise the pick up of students.

Gates locked

All of our school gates are locked each day at 9.15am and then opened at 3.10pm each afternoon complying with child safety regulations.

Reminders:

* HATS AND DRINK BOTTLES ARE ESSENTIAL EVERY DAY!

If you have changed your contact details since last year, please contact our Admin Team and update your details. This is very important for medical emergencies!

* If your child has new medical information or you need to update your child's medical information, please do this on the SIMON APP and contact our Office Admin team.

Have a great week, everyone!

Patricia Boak

Principal

IMPORTANT INFORMATION