Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome back to Term 3. I hope you have had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday, and the students are now ready for another busy term!

I would like to begin by congratulating Beatrix F in Year 4. Over the holidays, Beatrix competed in NSW Country Championships in Forster. Beatrix is now the 10s Country Champion in Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Beatrix also came 8^th in the NSW PSSA Cross Country Championships and is now a reserve for the NSW team. Congratulations Beatrix on your sporting achievements, we are very proud of you.

STAFFING UPDATE
This term we welcome back Mrs Beashel from leave, it will be lovely to have her back. Thank you to Mrs Smith for stepping into the Religious Education role for Term 2. 

Ms Mackenzie Turner will be travelling for Term 3. Ms Islah Lopez will be fulfilling Ms Turner’s position as a Classroom Support Assistant, whilst she is on leave. We wish Ms Turner a wonderful overseas trip.

FIRST EUCHARIST
First Eucharist will be celebrated this term with our Year 4 students. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare for this significant step in their Sacramental journey. The Sacrament will be celebrated on Sunday 22 September at 9.00am. All families are invited to join us at this special celebration. The Enrolment Evening for Parents will take place in Week 3 on Thursday 15 August. 

NAIDOC WEEK
St Bernard’s is celebrating NAIDOC Week in Week 1 and Week 2 of Term 3. Thank you to Trish who has been working on cultural art for each grade. Year 6 are leading our Assembly on Friday 2 August around the NAIDOC Theme. Our K-6 Aboriginal students and Year 6 students will be attending the NAIDOC Mass tomorrow, Friday 26 July at 11.00am at St Bernard’s Church. We are very excited to be hosting the Southern Region NAIDOC Mass.

This year’s theme chosen by the National NAIDOC Committee, is Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud & Proud. The theme honours the enduring strength and vitality of First Nations culture – with fire a symbol of connection to Country, to each other, and to the rich tapestry of traditions that define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

CLASSROOM LEARNING TIME
At St Bernard’s we always strive to focus directly on creating a high performing culture, enabling the students in our care to reach their academic potential. As a staff we have professional conversations focused on teaching and learning, classroom management, student wellbeing, timetabling and class sizes. Educational research has confirmed that it is the teacher who has the greatest influence on improving student learning outcomes. The morning block is prime time learning for students in Literacy and Numeracy. Parents can assist in this matter too. Students need to arrive at school by the morning bell at 8:40am to ensure that they do not miss any element of their first lesson of the day.

TEACHING AND LEARNING

On Monday the staff came together for Professional Learning focusing on the following:

• Understanding each of the eight big ideas that underpins Catalyst and the evidence-based origins of each key idea.
• Knowing the implications for teaching practice of each of the eight big ideas.

Some of the key points from the day include:

• Retrieval practice is the act of deliberately bringing information to mind from memory rather than restudying it or being retaught it.
• The challenge in trying to recall a fact or answer improves our memory and learning. Using retrieval practice helps teachers identify gaps in students’ learning.
• Retrieval is something that happens in the brain. Through the act of retrieval, or calling information to mind, our memory for that information is strengthened in long-term memory and forgetting is less likely to occur.
• Research demonstrates that retrieval is a powerful learning strategy and using it during the lesson helps improve students’ understanding and retention of content. Retrieval practice should be used to engage all students, not just one student being called upon.
• Retrieval practice strategies can include unison oral responses, paired responses, individual responses using non-volunteers or using mini whiteboards.

Teachers are committed to ensuring best practice is implemented in the classroom. All teachers at St Bernard’s have engaged in professional learning on the Science of Learning and the Science of Reading. I have included the 8 Big Ideas that underpin Catalyst.   

COMMUNICATION

Classroom teachers communicate with parents each week through email, sharing what your child/ren is learning and information for the week ahead. If you have a question or concern, please don't hesitate to email your child's classroom teacher. Staff are not expected to reply to an email between 5.00pm and 8.00am. Regular communication between home and school is so important and should happen throughout the term. Please know our door is always open.

I am looking forward to catching up with families throughout the term.

Blessings on your family this week.

Warm regards

Johanna Wain
Principal