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Dear Parents and Carers
Congratulations to the students who represented our school at the Archdiocesan Swimming Carnival this week in Queanbeyan. Mrs Holmes and parents who attended commented on the wonderful way our students competed, trying their best, supporting one another and celebrating everyone's achievements. Thank you to parents and carers who attended.
NAPLAN
NAPLAN assessments for students in Years 3 and 5 will begin next Wednesday and continue over a two week period. Students have been preparing for the national assessments with their classroom teacher. A schedule for NAPLAN assessments at St Bernard's was emailed to parents and carers of students in Years 3 and 5 yesterday. Please be in contact with us if you have any further questions.
School Board
Last Thursday the School Board met for the first time this year. At the meeting we welcomed new Board members, Parish Priest Fr Loi, Paul Penberthy and Heidi Miners. Positions for the 2023 School Board are:
Chair: Nicole Allen
Deputy Chair: Claire Waite
Secretary: Melissa Franzen
Finance Officer: Heidi Miners
P&F Representative: Kelly Jameson
Other Board members include: Bernie Beatty, Margie Bruce, Jeni McCarthy, Jo Wain and myself.
New School Jacket
For some time, we have been in discussion about the possibility of introducing a school jacket as an addition to the school uniform. At the recent meeting, the School Board agreed in favour to introduce this item. The jacket is similar to the Carroll College rain jacket. It may be worn along with the navy woollen school jumper or in place of the jumper. The Canterbury brand jacket will be sold through the school. We will notify you when the jackets become available to purchase. A sample will be available to view in the Front office soon.
Peer Support Reading Hour
We thank Mrs McRae and the students of the SRC for their initiative to involve our school in Reading Hour, which many students in Australian schools have participated in today. The Year 5 and 6 students looked after their buddies in Kinder and Year One and gathered with a range of children in a mixed-aged peer group in classrooms throughout the school, to share a favourite picture book. Reading the picture books from our fantastic school library with students from a range of classes was a wonderful way to celebrate Reading Hour!
Animal Therapy
Animals bring joy to many of the students at St Bernard's. The guinea pigs, chickens and Frankie the school dog are favourites, but the new poddy calf visitors are creating quite a stir. Year 6 have done a great job this week with their responsibility of feeding the calves their bottle of milk twice a day. All other classes will have an opportunity for this next week. Teachers and their families have also been very enthusiastic to join the weekend milk feeding roster! Thank you to the Shepheards for allowing the calves to have this visit with us.
Year 3 Sacramental Retreat
I hope that the students of Year 3 have a wonderful time tomorrow at Carroll College participating in the retreat for the Sacrament of Reconciliation with their peers from St Mary's Moruya.
Mrs Wain will be back at school next Monday following the Southern Region Principals’ Meeting, System Day and Principals’ Retreat. We look forward to her return.
Have a lovely weekend
Karen Hadley
…LIFE-GIVING WATER…
Water is a basic need for life and for us as Christians it symbolises our call as the baptised to life in Christ as the People of God.
This weekend’s familiar Gospel of the Samaritan Woman at the Well has many layers of meaning for us, especially during this Lenten Season. The first is perhaps the understanding of encounter. Jesus encounters the Samaritan Woman at the well and asks her to give him a drink – he breaks the traditional cultural boundaries by speaking with a Samaritan when Jews did not associate with them and especially not women.
Breaking traditional boundaries was core to the mission of Jesus – reaching out to give the message of eternal life through telling us that ‘anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life’.
An outcast in her own community, the Samaritan woman even despised herself, but Jesus recognised her spiritual thirst and engaged with her. It is important for us all to accept that the grace of God is always there for everyone. Regardless of the messiness of our lives, Jesus values all of us enough to actively seek us, to draw us into relationship with him. If we wish to drink this life-giving water, we are invited to encounter Jesus and in the words of the Psalm – ‘If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.’
Living water can be understood in various ways, but the clearest way is that living water is a symbol for salvation and a true knowledge of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. God provides us with everything we need and is the “living water” that continues to always give to us.
The story of the woman at the well is a rich example of love, truth, redemption, and acceptance. And best of all, not only does Jesus accept her, but He accepts us, too. He invites us all to belong and to be open to believing in God’s kingdom.
The Samaritan woman became the first evangelist. She preached the message to the whole city…’many Samaritans of that town had believed Jesus on the strength of the woman’s testimony when she said, “He told me all I have ever done’.
As we journey during Lent are we willing to really encounter God, to trust in God so that we can not only share in the living water but be the living water to others through our witness and love of others.
Phil Billington
Dear Parents and Carers,
Over the next three weeks teachers will begin acknowledging the HEART Value of EMPATHY. The behaviour that accompanies this value is:
At all times I will use kind words and kind hands.
We would like all children to understand that they need to speak to teachers, staff, and peers in a respectful manner. Speaking in an unkind and disrespectful way can affect the feelings of others.
Teachers will award students with a HEART token when they see them using kind words and kind hands towards others in classrooms and on the playground. BWTH Awards will also be given for the value of Empathy during this time. At the end of Week 8 the class with the most tokens will be rewarded.
Teachers will spend time modelling and explaining the importance of kind words and kind hands during their Religious Education and Health lessons.
Thank you to Cruze W who takes on the responsibility of watering our flower tubs each morning. They are growing beautifully!
Reconciliation Retreat Friday 10 March
Year 3 students will attend a Reconciliation Retreat at Carroll College Broulee tomorrow Friday 10 March. The Retreat will be facilitated by Mrs Erica Drewsen and her Year 9 Religious Education students. Year 3 will participate in several group rotations during the day. Activities will include ice breaker games, scripture reflections, art/craft/drama, and prayer opportunities.
Fr Loi will attend the afternoon session, where he will speak to the group about the sacrament of Reconciliation.
The bus will leave school at 9.15am and return by 2.20pm. Students are asked to wear their full sports uniform and bring along their own morning tea. Pizza, drink, and an ice block will be provided for lunch.
A big thank you to Year 3 teachers Mrs Davis, Mrs Tyler and Mr Ward for their support leading up to the retreat. They have been so wonderful at communicating information to Year 3 parents through their Weekly Memo and individual emails.
St Patrick’s Day Friday 17 March – to be sure
Although Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain in the 5th Century, he spent most his adult life bringing the Good News of the Gospel to the people of Ireland, which was a pagan country at the time. He is believed to have used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity, and the shamrock remains associated with the saint and the Trinity to this day. Saint Patrick died on March 17, 461. He is now the patron saint of Ireland and is known as the Apostle of Ireland. Many people in Australia are from an Irish Catholic heritage. Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day is a way of acknowledging the faith that St. Patrick brought to the Irish people a long time ago.
We will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on Friday 17 March. Students and staff are encouraged to wear green to celebrate this day.
PRAYER - ST. PATRICK’S BREASTPLATE
The Breastplate of St Patrick (or the Lorica of St Patrick) is an ancient prayer that some believe was written by St Patrick himself. In this prayer St Patrick asks for the protection of Jesus but also for Jesus to be present within him.
"Christ be within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ inquired, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger."
Blessings on your weekend
Sharon Beashel REC
Welcome to a snapshot of Year 1!
In Maths, we have been learning about place value using MAB blocks. We focused on building different numbers to 20. We also complete our Daily Review each day to practice skills we already know. As part of our Daily Review, we have been practicing addition and subtraction equations within 10 and creating all the addition equations for the number 5. We also practice telling time to the hour, position using left and write, and 2D shapes and their properties.
Our Spelling Mastery lessons have been going very well since we began a few weeks ago. We have settled into the routine and are flying through our lessons. Each day we complete segmenting activities where we sound out words, spelling activities where we spell out words, and writing activities that put those skills into practice. Our paired reading Fluency is really helping to improve our pace and recognising high frequency words. Each partner reads for three minutes to the other partner and then we complete a one-minute timed test. During our daily review this week we have been writing sentences using the ‘oo’ sound like in the word book.
During visual arts, we have been creating colourful under the sea artwork. We have created images using water colours, paper, pencils, and texta. We explored the use of line through our backgrounds and images. We used warm and cool colours. We think we are very creative!
In Dhurga Trisha has been sharing Dreamtime stories about the ocean with us. We heard the story The Dolphins. This story is from the far north coast of New South Wales from the Wwuble people who originate from the Bundjalung area. We created pictures to represent the story. When the tribe would go fishing, they would call upon the dolphins to help them bring the fish in. One day a greedy man from another tribe caught a dolphin. The dolphins would no longer help the tribe bring the fish in. The old men of the tribes punished the man throwing him into the sea with his boomerang. He turned into a dolphin. The dolphins never returned to help the people
In HSIE we have been learning about the ancient civilisation of Mesopotamia. This is known as the first civilisation. It was in what is now known as the Middle East. Mesopotamia means “between two rivers.” It was located between the Tigres and Euphrates rivers. We have learned that this is where farming began when people grew food in one place without needing to move around to get food. Communities began to develop, and they depended on each other. Different people had different jobs to do. They had their own written language called cuneiform. We wrote our own names using cuneiform.
This week in Religion, we have been studying the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. Students have learnt about the nine special qualities; self-control, peace, patience, love, faithfulness, goodness, joy, kindness and gentleness. In class, we discussed how we can display these qualities in our daily actions.
Archdiocesan Swimming Carnival
On Tuesday the following students swam at the Archdiocesan Swimming Carnival.
Olivia C, Annabelle T, Raph C, Zach C. |
Beatrix F, Charlie M, Indiana A, Eva H, Evie Po. |
Arthur S-D, Ethan S, Annie F, Oscar J. |
Ruby B, Molly W, Hailey I. |
Samuel S-D, Rogan H, Kobi B. |
The students were both nervous and excited. For many it was their first Representative event. Congratulations to our relay teams on their amazing team spirit and support of each other. The best result was our youngest swimmers with the Junior girls relay of Indiana A, Eva H, Evie P and Beatrix F touching for 3rd. In individual events Olivia C was 2nd in 8yr 50m, Samuel S-D 3rd in 12yr 50m, Beatrix F 1st in 9yr 50m, 2nd in Junior 200m individual medley and 3rd in Junior Breaststroke. The best part of the day was telling students how much they had improved on their personal best times. We are so proud of your achievements this swimming season. We now have Olivia C and Beatrix F who have been selected to swim at the NSW Combined Primary School Championship in Sydney. What an outstanding achievement.
Archdiocesan Netball and Rugby League Trials
Good Luck to Ruby B, Annie F, Parker W and Molly W who will attend the Archdiocesan Netball trials on Tuesday. Good Luck also to Tyler M and Campbell R who are trialing for the 11yrs Rugby League team on Tuesday as well. It is a wonderful opportunity for these students to share their talents at a Representative level.
Term 1
Week 5 Class Awards
Presented : Friday 3 March 2023.
Congratulations to the following children who received class award this week. It is great to see so many children working hard and receiving acknowledgment for their efforts. Well done to all!
KB: Asher A, Lucas F, Kyla S, Korra T. | KL: Elizabeth C, Hunter T-G, Wyatt H, Eleanor P. |
KT: Lexi B, Rhylan B, Isabella C, Daniel M |
1C: Ruby P, Amelia P, Aidan S. |
1M: London B, Auroralise C-N, Louis C. |
2B: Astrid B, Rory B-S, Mason L, Winter W. |
2J: Hendrix C, Indie F, William O'C, Layla S. |
3D: Lucy B, Eva C, Oliver C, Beau O'D. |
3W: Nicholas E, Remi F, Heidi F, Quinn S. |
l4C: Kingston A, Lilly G, Nate K, Paige L. |
4K: Indiana A, Beau C, Ava G, Molly M. |
5D: Oliver B, Seth B, Dusti-Rae L, Campbell R, Korban S. |
5M: Didier D, Gurnoor K, Seth L, Matthew S, Teagan W. |
6C: Angus D, Xanthe K, Amanda N. |
6M: Malachi C, Ella-Maree G, Samuel S. |