Dear Parents and Carers

I hope your week is going well. This term some of our Year 6 students are about to take the next step in their faith journey as they receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. This is an important step in their faith journey as the students pledge their own commitment to being a Catholic. Last weekend in our Parish Newsletter, Phil Billington wrote “What are the qualities of the Witnesses to the Good News of Jesus? Perhaps the life of the late Fr Bob Maguire answers this question – life of unconditional love for the ‘unloved and unlovely’. A life that required selfless commitment and courage in all contexts. So these qualities are absolute conviction in God’s love and the mission of Jesus as the Second Reading, letter of St Peter states ‘if it is the will of God that you should suffer, it is better to suffer for doing right’. We all know witnesses in our lives, in our Parish – the everyday saints in our midst. They are people of joy bringing hope to others – living witnesses filled with the Holy Spirit! The Spirit, stirring in their hearts, sends them out to proclaim the good news through their daily lives – this is our opportunity too! The Gospel reassures us that God is with us”.

We are all witnesses and this is filtered through our work, lives and interactions that we have with each other. This weekend our Year 6 students will be making their Commitment to receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation at the weekend masses. All families are very welcome.  

This week at St Bernard’s we have had visitors from Catholic Education and Catholic schools to see the excellent teaching and learning happening across our classrooms. Patrick Ellis, Education Lead and Brendan Lee, a Primary School Assistant Principal in NSW came on Monday. Mr Lee has started a podcast, Knowledge for Teachers and has asked us to share our knowledge on what best practice looks like at St Bernard’s and how we have implemented change.

As early adopters in the Archdiocese, our teachers have been delivering evidence-based reading, writing and spelling instruction to help students learn specific language and to grow their knowledge and understanding of phonics and spelling. There has been a renewed focus on teaching and learning as we deliver explicit instruction. We are teaching with a low variance curriculum, with all teachers following the scope and sequence. Teachers have an excellent understanding of what needs to be taught and when.

Support Roles St Bernard’s

Mrs Sharon Beashel and Ms Jeni McCarthy lead our Classroom Support Team. The Classroom Support Team work to provide targeted support for individual students. We also have a team of 11 classroom support assistants who work throughout the school, trained to deliver specific programs that meet the social and learning needs of our students. Our Classroom Support Assistants include Mrs Amanda Fitzgerald, Mrs Michelle Burrows, Mrs Deb O’Brien, Mrs Theresa Hopman, Mrs Tracey Talbot, Mrs Jennifer Hyde, Mrs Dawn Penberthy, Ms Britney Spencer, Mrs Shani Briggs, Mrs Kristy Freeman, Ms MacKenzie Turner, and Mrs Jennifer Daly. The Classroom Support program at St Bernard’s is based on a team approach with all relevant people and agencies working together to support our students.

Mrs Schiefferly has the role of Student Welfare Officer. Mrs Schiefferly provides added support for our students’ social, emotional, and spiritual needs. As part of Mrs Schiefferly’s role, she provides much needed support to enhance students’ well-being (social, emotional, and spiritual). This added support and care assists students in many ways, either individually or in small groups.

Some of the programs being run through classroom support are:

• MacqLit
• MiniLit
• Reinforced Reading
• Corrective Reading
• Intensive Numeracy Support
• Extracurricular activities
• Extension in Years 3 & 4 Maths
• Opportunities for students to explore their interests/strengths outside the classroom, gardening, woodwork, code club, chess club, craft, mini vinnies.

Supervision of Students
Classes commence each morning at 8.42am and conclude at 2:40pm from Monday to Friday. The school grounds are open to students from 8:10am each morning and remain open to 3:00pm. There is no supervision provided before 8.10am and no responsibility will be taken by the school for any consequences of the activities of children outside those hours. Where students need to be at school outside of these hours for excursions or representative sports events, adequate supervision will be provided by staff. Recently there have been a number of students arriving before 8.10am. We ask that you please take note of the supervision times. 

Disco
Next Wednesday 24 May, our SRC are holding a disco to raise funds for Levi’s Project. Levi’s Project aims to develop a comprehensive and effective treatment strategy designed specifically for DIPG. The project builds on research previously done at Children’s Cancer Institute (CCI). CCI established Australia’s first-ever DIPG tumour bank, which contains samples of tumours from children with DIPG, and have tested a range of drugs against DIPG cells grown from these samples. 

Levi’s mum, Kathryn Wakelin was a past student of St Bernard’s and recently spoke at the Year 6 Leadership Day. Kathryn’s love of writing at school led her into a career in journalism where she worked for several well-known magazine publications. After the tragic death of her young son Levi to a rare form of brain cancer, Kathryn and her husband have dedicated their lives to raising funds for the Levi Project. 

Following Kathryn’s speech, the SRC were inspired to fundraise for this important cause. Children are invited to come to school dressed in mufti and bring in a gold coin donation to attend the disco on Wednesday 24 May. The disco times are as follows: 

• Kindergarten to Year 2: 11.20am – 11.50am 
• Years 3 & 4: 12.00 noon – 12.30pm 
• Years 5 & 6: 1.30pm – 2.00pm 

This is a great example of servant leadership, and we are very proud of our Year 6 leaders. 

Today and tomorrow I am hosting the Southern Region Principals' Meeting at St Bernard's. 

Blessings to you and your family. 

Kind regards

Johanna Wain
Principal