Newsletter 22nd June 2022

Upcoming Dates

23rd June, 2:00pm-4:00pm:  Junior Parent/Teacher/Child Conversations 

24th June:  Last Day of Term 2:  Invitation to come into the classroom at 12:30pm and for children to go home at 1:00pm.  

11th July:  Term 3 commences

13th July, 2:00pm-5:00pm:  Senior Parent/Teacher/Child Conversations

19th July, 6:00pm-7:00pm:  Community Meeting with Tony Dalton

Principal's News

We are almost at the end of Term 2. I wish to thank both of our school communities for partnering together to make sure that we managed to get through the term. To the families who kept us informed of their child’s needs, concerns and health. Overall, we have had good numbers of attendance at school and families have ensured that unwell children remain at home. To the children who turned up to school each day with a positive attitude and ready to learn. And to the staff who worked hard to make sure that learning for our children remained as consistent as possible. They often worked extra days, adjusted their days at short notice and often needed to cover extra duties and classes. All of this was done with children and families often not knowing what was going on ‘behind the scenes.’

As much as I want to be hopeful, the prediction is that Term 3 will be similar, with COVID still in communities and the flu season at its peak. We will need to continue to work together to make sure that everyone is well and safe at school and that teaching and learning will continue with as little disruption as possible. We have got this!!!

End of School – Beginning of Term 3

This week we have a number of families taking the opportunity to start holidays a bit earlier and some children away due to sickness. By Friday we will have very limited numbers at each school, so instead of an assembly, families are invited to come into school at 12:30pm to spend some time in the classrooms to share time with their child, hearing all about what they have learnt this term. Children are invited to go home at 1:00pm to begin the holidays by having lunch at home.

Term 3 will commence at 9:00am on Monday, the 11^th of July.

Meeting with Jo-Anne Bond and Tom Sexton, DOBCEL

Last week I met with Jo-Anne Bond, the new Educational Consultant for the Ballarat Diocese on Thursday and with Tom Sexton, Director, on Friday. Both conversations were very positive and encouraging. We spoke about many things and the message was very clear, DOBCEL are committed to supporting our small schools.

I have employed the services of Tony Dalton who is an independent Education Consultant specialising in Family Engagement in Learning. He has worked in many schools, lifting their profiles and increasing enrolments. I spent a few hours with him last Wednesday and he is putting together a very specific plan for our schools.

Tony is meeting with all staff on the first Monday back in Term 3 and would like to meet with our school communities on Tuesday, the 19^th of July, 6:00pm at St. Mary’s. I strongly urge you all to attend and Tony would encourage the senior children to come along as well. He is also eager to have other members of our community that you believe may have a good insight into our schools and communities. Please contact me if you have anyone in mind.

This will be a vital step in moving forward with our plan. Finger food will be supplied and the meeting will go for about an hour and a half.

Parent Teacher Child Conversations & Reports

A reminder that your child’s report is available on PAM and that Parent Teacher Child Conversations will be taking place this week for some and early next term for others. If you would like a paper copy of the report, please contact the school so we can arrange this for you.  The different dates and times for the conversations are due to some staff being away this week and at the start of Term 3.

Please make sure you have a time booked to meet with your child’s teacher or contact them if you require another time.

NCCD Attachment

Please read the attached article about the NCCD process that takes place in schools. NCCD is the National Consistent Collection of Data. Schools must now complete the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) every year. It counts the number of students who receive additional adjustments or “help” at school because of a disability. The NCCD helps governments plan for the needs of students with disability.

If you have any questions about this, please contact myself or Callum.

Arriving Early

We ask that families remember that children should not be at school before 8:30am in the morning. This is because staff may not be on site yet or that there is only one staff member present. It is very important that parents always check that there is a staff car at school so that children are not dropped off and left alone. Supervision of children begins at 8:45am. However, we are aware that some parents may need to drop their children of a bit earlier from time to time. Please let the school know if this is the case and we can make provisions for this.

Child Safe Standards

The Victorian Government has announced new Child Safe Standards to further strengthen child safety across organisations, including schools. The new standards recognise the critical importance of families and the broader school community in maintaining and promoting child safety and wellbeing.

St. Brendan’s and St. Mary’s has reviewed and updated our child safety policies and procedures to ensure they meet the requirements of the new standards. They will be available to view on our school’s websites and at the school’s front office, early Term Three.

We are committed to continuous improvement in our approach to child safety and wellbeing and welcome feedback from families and members of our school community on ways we can further strengthen our child safety policies, procedures and practices.

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions, please contact me.

Our schools are committed to providing a child safe and child friendly environment, where students are safe and feel safe. 

Ballarat Art Gallery & Ballarat Library Holiday Programs

There are wonderful holiday programs available for the children over the holidays. To view the Ballarat Library program, go to the website, using the link below and then to the section "Kids & Families".  Some of the programs are free and others do require a cost.

For the Art Gallery, please follow the links below and head to the following sections:  

Art Bites 

Paid school holiday program

Combined Schools Days - Term 3

After emailing our families, the majority were happy to go with a regular combined schools day for Term 3. This will be on a Friday, with the first five being at St. Mary’s and the second half of the term CSDs will be at St. Brendan’s. This will give the children the opportunity to have weekly art lessons in preparation for the Term 3 Art Show.

Thank you to everyone for helping make these happen. As always, please let the school know if you require support transporting your children.

Beleza School Uniform - Change of Hours

Beleza School Uniforms wish to advise customers that the store will be closed during the following periods:

Friday, 24th June from 2:00pm

Saturday, 25th June - Sunday 3rd July (all week)

They will reopen on Monday, 4th July for their usual trade and wish all families the best for the semester break.

Correspondence re COVID Guidelines

There will be an email in the next few days regarding changes to our COVID guidelines. DOBCEL will send this to me in the next few days and I will forward it to families before the end of term.

Holidays

I wish every family a very happy, restful and safe holiday. Many families are travelling while others are taking some quiet time at home. Whatever your plans are, enjoy and take the time to reset and do some of those things that you like to do with family and friends.

Take care,

Inez

Junior Room News

Math:  This term we have been using beads to count to large numbers.

Reading:   We have been doing reading independently and as a whole class. In order to help us sound-out harder words like “around”, we have been karate chopping the syllables to make it easier to sound out. In our independent reading, we have been reading books that we are interested in, such as the 13-Storey Treehouse. 

Writing:   The juniors have been writing about the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria.) They also wrote a Fairy Bread recipe to make for the seniors.  

Religion:  The juniors have been singing and learning about the different song versions of the Lord's Prayer. They love the Sister Janet Mead version.

Inquiry:   The juniors have been learning about looking after the environment and not littering in the water.

Senior Room News

Math:  In math we have been learning about fractions and decimals as well as starting JEMM (Junior Elementary Math Mastery). The point of JEMM is to start off easy and then becomes harder and harder each lesson. We are currently on lesson 23.

Reading:  In reading we have been doing 15 minutes of independent reading after recess. We have read a text about dual flush toilets because we waste around 11 litres of water every flush which is 4015 litres a year.

Writing:   In writing we have looked at five persuasive texts on why people should pick up their own dog droppings and we do "free write Friday".

Religion:   We looked at what a Christian is and listed what they do, celebrate and believe. 

Inquiry:  We made a poster about being WASTE WARRIORS and our action plan to protect the environment.   

National Gallery of Victoria Visit

Last week we went to the NGV for an excursion to look at different artwork with our friends from St Brendan's, we travelled to Melbourne on the bus with them.  We saw paintings, a stained glass ceiling, a coloured pool, a water wall, sculptures, a big gorilla, dresses and furniture. 

William: Upstairs there was a room that had bubble popping sounds and a Chinese statue that scares evil spirits away. I learnt that art can take a long time to create. 

Adelaide: The coloured pool looked pink because the bottom and the walls were pink. It is too hard to get pink water.  It was too cold to put our feet in it but we got to put our finger in.

Patrick: The water wall outside the NGV on the window was cool and very wet.  The water running down was very cold when I touched it.  The water would come down the wall and get reused to come down again, so they were not wasting any water.

Quinn: The stained glass ceiling was really cool because it took over five years to build it. We ate lunch under the stained glass ceiling in the Great Hall at the NGV. I liked that it was meant to be a picture of a snake. It had lots of colours and shapes in it.

Kaezia: We saw some dresses on display. We looked at a painting called Combat. It had swirls and it was pink and orange with a little bit of white and the artist was Lee Krasner and was the wife of Jackson Pollack and he was a famous artist too.

Kamden: We walked around the NGV learning about lots of different types of art. My favourite part of the day was eating under the stained glass ceiling. 

Paige: I have liked hearing about the Combat painting and the stained glass ceiling.

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