St Brendan's Primary School

 Principal's Report 

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

 

 

Welcome to the first newsletter of the Autumn season. It is remarkable to me how quickly the weeks are flying by and how well our students are settling into their new classes and new routines. The ability to adapt to change is a key strategy that all children need to develop so that they can manage changes in structure and routine throughout their schooling and their later lives. Thank you to everyone who has assisted their children through these changes at the start of the new school year.

 

At this time, we remember as Catholic Christians that we have entered the season of Lent. It always strikes me that the timing of this important season in the liturgical calendar is interesting. It falls for us in Autumn. As we watch the leaves change colour and fall away, it is important to think about the habits and behaviours we might change or allow to fall away just like the Autumn leaves, We teach the children that Lent is the season for a change of heart. Let us be people who demonstrate a change of heart in our relationships with each other. Let us look to the Christian values of faith, hope, forgiveness, peace and love that Jesus Christ modelled for us during his time on Earth. Let us use these values for our own inspiration and motivation.

 

Staff Conference

This Thursday afternoon at the conclusion of the school day, the St Brendan’s staff will head to the Catholic Leadership Centre in East Melbourne for our biannual staff conference. We will spend the evening enjoying a conference dinner and some team building activities. The following day, we will examine two areas from our recent school review that we wish to further develop. These are:

  • Student Voice
  • School Community 

We will work together to explore how we can better listen to the student voices in our school. We will also examine ways that we can better connect and communicate with our parent community.

 

We look forward to sharing the results of our work together in the coming weeks.

Please be aware that school resumes on Tuesday 14th March at 8:45am

 

School Advisory Council

Last Tuesday evening, the St Brendan’s School Advisory Council (SAC) met for the first time in 2023.

We are very pleased to announce that Paul Bryant (Catherine Year 5) is our new Chairperson. 

We held a productive meeting where we addressed the following items:

  • An upgrade to the drainage of our oval and surrounding playground and paths of travel from the back to the front of the school (Civil Engineer from MACS to visit St Brendan’s in a fortnight)
  • The replacement of the metal verandah posts on the Administration and Year 3/4  building (Civil Engineer with look at these posts before deciding which company will complete the works)
  • Spending some of our Social and Fundraising money - more information and input to come on this

School Tours - Enrolment for Foundation 2024

Our first round of school tours was held last week. The tours were held on Monday 27th February at:

9:30am, 11:30am and 5:30pm. 

Our next round will be held Monday 27th March at 9:30am, 11:30am and 5:30pm. If you know someone who is looking to enrol their child in Foundation for 2024, please recommend they attend this scheduled tour or contact the office to arrange a mutually agreeable time.

 

School Uniform

Thank you to all parents who are supporting us by sending their children in the correct school uniform each day. Please note that jewellery is not part of St Brendan’s uniform so therefore I ask you to ensure that earrings are small, not too colourful or ornate. Chains and bracelets are not part of school uniform and therefore, I ask you to encourage your children to save these for the weekend.

 

Something From Social Media

Each fortnight, I’d like to share with you an item or two that has resonated with me from social media.

 

Please enjoy the two below.

 

Enjoy your week.

Sue Carr

 

 

Dear Parents,

 

We had a fantastic response to the homework survey that was sent home last week via email.

It is a topic that has been much debated and researched by experts.

Currently, St Brendan’s is in the process of refining our homework policy and really values parents' input. 

 

I have included some responses from the homework survey:

  • I believe the teacher's role is to just keep an eye on how students are engaging with the home learning, definitely not to correct or provide detailed feedback. Teacher time is too valuable and better spent on planning for assessments and classroom tasks.
  • Consequence potentially for older year levels but not Juniors, creates negative feelings towards hw at a young age and it should be positive so they flow into Secondary feeling more confident about hw and have better time management skills.
  • I believe that play is just as important as academia as it helps children to learn social, physical, creative and problem-solving skills. These skills are all vital in todays world. I would much rather my children have the time to be outside and/or engaging with the community rather than feeling pressured to do more bookwork.
  • Our daughter enjoys simple homework tasks and is proud to show us what she can do
  • Children in this generation do not have sufficient downtime and time to be outdoors, using their imagination. Homework would limit this further
  • I feel like we need to positively reward good behaviour ie. Sticker chart. I also feel that we don't want to ostracise the kids that find homework hard or don't have the easiest home lives.
  • Home work is very important and I believe that student should be given more
  • School life is hard, kids need downtown after school to be kids. Most kids have extra curricular activities and parents still work and have to come how and cook and clean.

I think the mandated reading every night is crucial but there is really no need for children to be doing work at home. Family time is important too and homework should not distract away from home time. Not all children are able to have complete homework tasks on their own and this puts added stress on parents. The odd project once a term would not hurt so long as it is manageable by the children.

 

 

 

Currently at St. Brendan’s every year level has an expectation regarding reading.  

Obviously, reading will look very different at each year level depending on the individual child's ability. 

 

Typically, in the early years of schooling, children will need support and guidance from parents.

Students may have high-frequency words to revise. We recommend 10-15 minutes each night.

 

In the middle and senior years, most students will be reading independently (No longer the take-home levelled reader books).  Library and personal choice books are suitable at these levels.

We recommend at least 15-20 minutes each night.

 

We are currently reviewing the best practice for maths home tasks.  We are conscious of providing work that is personalised to each student's level. 

We do recommend that students work on building automatic recall of multiplication facts from Year 3 onwards.  ‘Mfacts’ cards will be provided to support the development of this skill.

 

We have a ‘no consequence’ policy at St Brendan’s for uncompleted tasks.  However, if a child is a chronic ‘non reader’, a note will be added to the student's diary/reading log, followed by a phone call from the child’s classroom teacher.

 

I will continue to keep you updated as we continue to build our homework policy.

 

Thank you for your support,

Bernie Turner