Principal's News

Dear Parents and Friends,

Welcome back to a new school year. It was so nice to see everyone so excited to be back at school. It was lovely to welcome our new Foundation students as they start on their educational journey here at St Brigid’s.

We welcome our  new students who have started in other levels across the school:

Ethan R - Year 3

Declan R- Year 4

Iris T - Year 5

Lucas B - Year 5 and 

Chloe G - Year 2

We welcome Yasmin Allaf, to our staff. Yasmin was the TeamKids Leader at St Brigid’s for the last two years and after completing her teaching degree, she is working with us in an intervention role in the Junior area and will be job sharing with Loretta Flavelle in the 3/4 level. We also welcome Lucy Jones to our staff. Lucy will be working in 2Y as an Educational Support Officer.

We welcome back Zoe Finster from Maternity Leave. Zoe will job share with Heather Hughes in the 5/6 level and will take on the STEM role as part of our specialists timetable. 

COVID

Thank you for your support once again in following Government Guidelines in relation to our COVID restrictions. Please be reassured that we are doing our very best to keep everyone as safe as possible. We will continue to sanitise the children's hands as they enter their classroom in the mornings, after recess, after lunch and at the end of the day. The childrens desks will be sanitised at recess, lunch and the end of the day.

Masks are compulsory for Year 3 - 6’s and recommended for Foundation to Year 2. It is so great to see so many children wearing their masks. Just a reminder that parents must supply the masks.

We have given out the RATs to all families this week. There is enough in the box for this week and next week and we will hopefully have the next supply of RATs delivered for the following week.

At the time of writing we have had 2 purifiers delivered and at this stage I have not been given a date for the arrival of the rest of the purifiers.

At this time to reduce visitors on site we will be recording assemblies, class helpers will not start until week 5 and please remember to QR code in at the gates. 

FIRST POINT OF CONTACT

When contacting the school regarding any concerns with your child, your first point of contact must be your child's classroom teacher.  Your child's classroom teacher has all the necessary information about your child and they are the best staff member to work out whether we neeed to get other staff involved such as Literacy Support or the Learning Diversity Leader.  Please ring, email or make an appointment with your child's teacher and we can work on your concern together.

School Leaders

Jodie Marziano - Teaching and Learning Leader

Belinda Wendt  - Learning Diverstiy

Carolyn Yass  - Literacy Leader

Suzie Ripp - Numeracy Leader

Arch Cochrane  - ICT and Data Leader

SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL 

As of 2021, under MACS a new Governance structure was put in place in relation to our School Advisory Board. Please see the attached letter, explaining the role of the School Advisory Council.

At our last School Advisory Council meeting, Jason Watterson finished his tenure as Chairperson. We thank Jason for his work with the School Advisory Council and the support he gave me in his role. I would also like to thank and congratulate Allie Donnelly who has taken on the role of Chairperson. 

We are now seeking a new member for our School Advisory Council to take on the role. Please see the attached Expression of Interest form. If you would like more information please feel free to come in and see me.

SOCIAL MEDIA 

Unfortunately, we have had another issue with social media over the holidays where an account was set up in someone else's name. This created a lot of anxiety for the family and the child. When things occur on social media and where our children are involved, it impacts friendships at school.

Please make sure you are aware of what your children are doing on social media and if you have any concerns please report it to the appropriate social media platform and the eSafety Commission. 

SKOOLBAG

Our Skoolbag App is our primary communication tool between school and our families.  It is really important that you have the app set up on your phone and that you allow notifications from Skoolbag so that you are aware of any messages we send through to families.  It is also important that you set up your child's year level on the app as we do send messages to specific year levels.  We have attached below two articles to ensure that you receive notifications and on how to set up your group for the new school year.

FRIDAY 4 FEBRUARY 

Beginning of School Year Liturgy, Tabloid Sports and Assembly

We have a great day of activities planned for our students tomorrow to celebrate the beginning of the school year.  Our Beginning of School Year Liturgy and Assembly will be filmed and shared with families at the end of the day. Following the liturgy our students will be taking part in a Tabloid Sports day here at school run by Kelly Sports.  All Students are to come in their sports uniform tomorrow.  Please make sure they have their school hat, sunscreen and a drink bottle.

FOUNDATION INFORMATION NIGHT - TUESDAY 8 FEBRUARY

We look forward to seeing our Foundation Families at our information night this coming Tuesday.  Unfortunately due to the current COVID situation we have decided to conduct the night via Zoom.  We will be discussing the general running of the classroom and curriculum taught in the Foundation Classroom.  A zoom link will be sent to families on Monday.

YEAR 1 TO YEAR 6 PARENT TEACHER INFORMATION SHARING SESSIONS

On Tuesday 15th February and Wednesday 16th February we will hold our Year 1 to Year 6 Parent Teacher Information Sharing Sessions.  These sessions form an important step in your child’s transition to a new class, level and for some families a new school.  The relationship between home and school is vital and one we encourage families to develop with their child’s teacher throughout the year.  Please note these sessions are not teacher feedback to families about academic performance. Due to current Covid restrictions these interviews will be offered via a Zoom meeting or by telephone.  Unfortunately this term we will not be able to offer face to face interviews here at school.  Bookings information will be sent to families on Monday.  

ALL FAMILIES please note School will finish at 1:30pm on Tuesday 15th of February for ALL STUDENTS to accomodate these sessions.

SCHOOL PHOTOS

Date for your Diary - School Photos will be taken on Thursday 24th of February. Individually named photo forms have been sent home to all families this week.  All children will be required to come to school in their correct Summer Uniform (including proper footwear) on school photo day.

TUCKSHOP

Tuckshop will closed tomorrow.  Our Tuckshop team are returning on Friday 11th of February.  All students will need to bring lunch and snack tomorrow.  Orders for Tuckshop are placed through CDFpay and must be ordered by 9:00pm on the Thursday night preceding Tuckshop on the Friday.

SCHOOL FEES

Our school fee statements for Term 1 will be sent home by the end of  next week. Due to the new Governance structures all Catholic schools fees are created through Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic and then sent to us to verify. Fiona is doing the verification process this week and will hopefully have it completed by the end of next week. 

CAMP SURVEY

We are going to send out a survey next week to get your thoughts on what our camp structure could look like moving forward. The pandemic has made us rethink what our camping program could look like and I would like to hear your thoughts. Camps are part of the school curriculum. 

UNIFORM

Thank you all, for wearing our uniform correctly and with pride. It was so nice to see our new sport tops being worn on Tuesday and Wednesday - they look great!

It was lovely to see our Year 6 students wearing their Year 6 jumpers and tops - they are certainly going to be great leaders for our school this year. 

REMINDERS

Animals in the school grounds

Dogs are not allowed on the school grounds. This is an OH&S requirement.

Playground before and after school

School children and toddlers are not allowed to play on the playground equipment before or after school, due to limited supervision by staff.

Shooting hoops is also not allowed before or after school due to the amount of parents and toddlers that are in the school grounds at the time.

CONGRATULATIONS

Lovely to start the year with the arrival of a new baby!!!  Congratulations to Sorcha, Jesse, Casey and Jameson on the arrival of their beautiful baby girl - Eden.  

Eden Scarlett Farrell arrived just in time for Christmas on the 21st of December.

Once again, thank you for your support and understanding in the start of a new school year with restrictions in place due to the ongoing pandemic.

Take care and stay safe.

Yours in partnership

Wendy Sullivan

Principal