Newsletter 8th June 2022

Upcoming Dates

Playgroup @ 10.00 am                                                         17th May - 21st June                            

Queens birthday public holiday                                        13th June 

Excursion to the National Gallery Victoria                 15th June

Visit to public library                                                             20th June 

Parent Teacher Conversations                                          21st June        Juniors   

                                                                                                          23rd June       Seniors          

Last day of Term 2                                                                   24th June

                                                                                                          12.30               Assembly

                                                                                                          2.30                offical finish                      

Principal's News

Reconciliation Week.

Last week was National Reconciliation Week. The children at both schools were involved in a number of activities around the theme for this year – Be Brave, Make Change.

National Reconciliation Week: May 27 – June 3

National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.

More information is available at the National Reconciliation Week website.

As part of the week, school staffs from the Ballarat Diocese were invited to share in a conversation with Miriam Rose. What an amazing, insightful and insirational lady.

Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann AM is an Aboriginal activist, educator and artist of the Ngan’gityemerri language group. Ungunmerr-Baumann is the first Indigenous teacher to work in the Northern Territory. She is the founder of the Merrepen Arts Centre, and the owner of Rak Malfiyin Homeland.

The Miriam Rose Foundation is a charity dedicated to improving lives and creating opportunities for a brighter future for Indigenous children and youth.

She was the 2021 Senior Australian of the Year.

She spoke about ‘dadirri,’ the deep inner spring inside of us all and the importance of deep listening.

If you have 4 minutes, take the time to have a look at this video. It gives a beautiful explanation of what dadirri is and the  place it could have in your life.

School Uniform

Many families will know that we have added beanies, school bags, coats, jumpers and winter sports tops, all with the school logo to our current uniform. The vests should be available in the next few weeks.

While these items are not compulsory, they are available at Beleza and I think that they look fabulous. Thanks for modelling some of the range Preston!

Reports and PTC conversations - bookings open

Report this Semester will be available via PAM. This is bringing us into line with other schools. If you need a paper copy, please let the school know and we can print one of for you.

As is usual with the mid year reports, they are followed up with a Parent Teacher Child conversation (PTC). These will be held at different times for each class and school as a number of staff will be on leave at the end of term and early next term.

St. Brendan’s Juniors will have their PTCs on Tuesday the  21st  of June from 2.15 – 4.15 and the Seniors on Thursday the 23rd of June from 2.00- 4.30.  Bookings link below. 

These times and dates are in the public calendar. You will be sent a notification when they are ready to make a booking and we ask that you have read your child’s report before attending the conversation as the main focus of these times will be progress up to now and setting goals for term 3.

As always, if these times cannot work for you, please see your child’s teacher to arrange a suitable time.

Swimming

We have now completed our 2022 swimming program. The children and staff have done a great job each week, especially as it has become so cold. It is always amazing to see the progress the children make in 5 weeks, not just with their swimming skills, but in building independent skills of getting organised and social skills of getting together with both schools and reconnecting with friends.

Excursion

Next Wednesday we are going on an excursion to the National Art Gallery in Melbourne. This is a free excursion through the Positive Start  2022 program. It is an initiative intended to provide additional camps and programs for students in 2022.

The purpose of this trip is to view various kinds of art and is part of our Visual Arts Inquiry next term. The culmination of the Inquiry Unit will be our Art Shows in weeks 8 and 9 in Term 3. Please ensure that your permission notes are signed. We will be leaving from St. Brendan’s and we ask that all children arrive at school by 8.45. The children will be returned to their own schools for normal pick up. Please contact the school if you need any support with any of these arrangements.

If you would like more information, it is available on

Positive Start school camps | Victorian Government

Sacramental Program

At the last Parish meeting, it was decided that the Sacramental Program would take place every second year. This happened initially because of COVID but was decided that we would continue to move forward this way in the future. The reasons are the transition from a school-based program to Parish / Family based program, as well as the numbers that are making the sacraments. We need to work together to find an appropriate program that will suit our needs and plan to move to a Parish program. If anyone is interested in co ordinating this, I would love to hear from you. Louise, our RE leader and myself are keen to begin the process so that we can move to the new model in 2023.

Cold Weather – coats, beanies

I do not need to tell everyone how cold it is at the moment and winter has just begun. There are still children coming to school with coats or even jumpers from time to time. The children will be playing outside if it is not raining as we find that they need the fresh air during the day to help their learning. Please make sure that you child comes to school prepared to be outside even if it is cold.

100 Days of school

In the Junior Room we are counting up to 100 days of school and look forward to celebrating this day when it arrives next term.  Every morning, our “Brick of the Day” student writes the numeral for that day, the word, places a popstick in our tens and ones containers and ‘blobs’ the day on our tens frame chart and our 100^th day countdown poster. We calculate how many more days it is to 100 and use our friends of 10 to help us. We can’t wait for the big day to arrive.  I wonder what will be in store for the students??

Western Bulldogs clinic

On Tuesday the kids participated in a skills clinic endorsed by the Western Bulldogs. They engaged in some fun warm up games, skills practice and the seniors even got out for a short game of 4v4. We were very lucky to have been given some great goodies from the Bulldogs. The school received a bag of footballs, two Bulldogs beanies and a travel mug. Jai and Felicity were the lucky winners of the beanies and Billy won the cup. Huge thanks to Jason for running the sessions with the kids and also a big thanks to Andrea and the Dunnstown Football Club for the use of the Community Centre. 

Football Clinic

Maintenance update

An aluminum canopy has been installed over the automatic door.  Since the automatic door was installed we have had continual issues with minor flooding in the passage.   The flooding has been caused by rain coming in under the door and water overflowing from the gutters in severe rainfalls. A weather strip has also been installed on the automatic door.

The blue mat which was installed in the passage last year was damaged due to flooding and this will be replaced in the next few weeks under insurance.

A weather strip has been attached to the external door in the Junior room which will hopefully keep the bugs out and the warmth in. 

The split system in the Senior room on the north wall was replaced on Friday due to the previous system failing.  

Child Safe Standards

On the 1^st of July, there are a number of new Child Safe Standards that will be implemented in all schools and organisations.

A bit of background -

The Child Safe Standards (the Standards) commenced in Victoria in January 2016. After five years, we have seen how the Standards improve safety for children and young people.

Changes are being made to make our Standards even stronger. Organisations covered by the current Standards will need to comply with updated Standards from 1 July 2022. Until then, the current Standards apply.

The new Standards have been updated from 7 to 11 Standards and include new requirements such as:

• involving families and communities in organisations’ efforts to keep children and young people safe
• a greater focus on safety for Aboriginal children and young people
• managing the risk of child abuse in online environments.

This means that there will be some new policies and procedures put in place. You will be informed of these as they occur.

If you would like more information, please refer to the following website

New Child Safe Standards for schools | Victorian Government

Attendance at school and absences

We have been very fortunate to have good student attendance at school despite the many germs getting around. It is the school’s duty of care to account for each child each day.

Please remember to always let the school know if your child is away or you are planning to be away for some time. The preferred way is via PAM however a phone call can work.  The admin ladies or a staff member will contact parents at 9.30 in the morning if your child is not at school and we have not been contacted.

Assemblies

Assemblies at each school are scheduled for 12.30 on Friday the 24^th of June, which is the last day of Term 2 for staff and children. We would love to have as many families as possible join us to celebrate and share our Term 2 learning.

School Fees

Just a reminder regarding school fees.  As per our School Fees Policy all school fees must be finalised by the 30th November of the current school year.  If you are experiencing difficulty in managing your school fees please make an appointment to discuss with Inez. 

Jack's fundraising for Mental Health

The Dunnstown Football Club are having a fundraising event for mental health.  Players have offered their lovely locks to be removed for donations.  Their cause is the Black Dog Institute.

This is a cause very close to Jack's heart and he will be participating by having a "big trim" of his "flying mullet".  

If you would like  to donate, Jack would appreciate your support.  Please see the link below. 

Plastic lids and bread bags

A huge thank you to everyone who has been bringing in soft plastics (eg bread bags) and plastic lids (milk bottles, water bottles etc).  We are still collecting these for all of Term 3 so please continue to bring them in.

Thank you,

Clare 

Gardening and Tidying Roster 2022

Message from Beleza

Dear School Community,

Please be advised that all Beleza locations will be closed on Monday 13th of June for the Queen's Birthday public holiday.