Dear Parents and Carers

Catholic Schools Week has been a fantastic celebration of what our school offers for students and their families. The wide range of events have focused on nurturing excellent leadership qualities with the Year 6 Leadership Day, play and collaboration at the Kindergarten Teddy Bear's Picnic held at our sister school, St Mary's Moruya, inclusion and fun at the Eurobodalla netball carnival with 15 teams of students participating from Years 3-6 and as always, a focus on curriculum at the parent information session presented by Lorraine Hammond this evening. Today we held our Open Day for prospective Kindergarten students and their families for 2024. There were many highlights and so much to share with new and existing families about what makes St Bernard's such a wonderful school. 

Child Safety Curriculum

As mentioned last term in the newsletter, each week this term students will be taking part in a Child Safety program with their class aimed to teach protective behaviours, an important component of the NSW Syllabus for health and personal development. Supported by Catholic Education, we are undertaking this important teaching with the intention of informing students and being proactive to equip students with the skills and knowledge to recognise actions they can take to keep themselves safe. Below is an outline of the content that is being covered in all classes this week.

Recognise

This week we are starting to implement the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum. The first key safety message of the curriculum is recognise. Recognise is about being aware of your environment.

Children, young people and adults can all learn to take notice of what is happening around them to help keep themselves safe. Everyone can use clues, such as the things we see, hear, smell or feel to help protect us from harm and keep ourselves safe. Clues can be simple things that warn us about a danger, e.g. hearing a fire alarm or seeing smoke, that prompt us to react. We can also use clues to prepare for potentially unsafe situations, e.g. if we are walking alone at night, then we try to use a well-lit route and avoid secluded lanes or parks.

When we recognise that there might be a safety problem we can take steps to move away or reduce the risk or develop strategies that can help keep us safe. For instance, if you are in a busy environment such as the Ekka or a local event where there are big crowds, you might consider what you and your child could do if you became separated. Strategies could include: going to a highly visible pre-determined meeting spot; writing your phone number on a card and placing it in your child’s pocket; identifying who your child could approach if they become lost, e.g. police, staff at a booth.

We will continue to keep you updated as the program is delivered each week through the newsletter.

Personal Learning Pathways Meetings

Next week PLP meetings will be held for Aboriginal students from Year 1-6, with Kindergarten students included from Semester 2. PLP meetings are a recommendation for all Aboriginal students. Goals are developed in partnership between parents, child, class teacher and the teachers for Aboriginal education. Together, we identify strategies to achieve the best results for each child at St Bernard’s. A very important part of the meeting is acknowledging and supporting students to develop their sense of identity as an Aboriginal person, working together to nurture culture in a way that is very meaningful to each child. We are very grateful that we have this opportunity to meet and collaborate together.

My Body My Life- Puberty and Personal Development Program

Next Wednesday students in Years 5 and 6 will take part in a Puberty and Personal Development program titled My Body My Life presented by the Archdiocesan Marriage Family and Relationships team.

The program involves parents in this important aspect of their children’s journey by providing online units for parents & children to work through together at home.

The online parent program is followed up by the visit from the Marriage Family & Relationships team, who work with the students in small groups to facilitate corporate ownership of this important knowledge and allow an opportunity to ask further questions and clarify concepts and information.

Professional Goal Setting

Teachers at St Bernard's are always seeking to improve their practice. As part of ongoing professional learning, teachers have recently been setting goals in discussion with members of the leadership team, identifying areas for their own development which are aligned to whole school improvement plans. This process involves taking on feedback from coaches, sharing ideas and learning from one another. We are committed to focusing on how explicit teaching and learning practices. On Friday this week, expert coach Lorraine Hammond will be working with teachers in classrooms, providing instruction and feedback to improve teaching. 

We hope many of you will be able to attend this evening's session facilitated by Lorraine for parents on how the brain learns and how children learn to read. This information is highly recommended for parents wanting to support their child at home or school.

I hope that everyone has an enjoyable end to the week.

Karen Hadley