WOW… Well, that was an exciting week!

St Bernie’s has been a busy place this week with much fun and excitement across the school. Fred has had a morning of luxury and pampering at Picture Pawfect Dog Grooming and as you can see from the photo above, he is looking rather dapper with his new do....

On Wednesday, our Year 4, 5 and 6 students participated in the St Bernie’s Swimming Trials and it was a really fun, organised and well-run day, this was made possible because of the efforts of Mr Murtagh and 10 very supportive parents who helped. I was really impressed with the participation of our students and their willingness to have a go and do their best. As this was our first school sporting event with the new Leadership and Sporting Team, I can’t thank everyone enough for their support. Looking forward to having a crack at the carnival next Friday!

On Thursday, a group of our Year 5 and 6 students participated in the Interschool Cricket Carnival and represented our school community very well. All our students showed excellent sportsmanship, played fairly and had a great time. It looked like HEAPS of fun, even when the bus malfunctioned on the way home! Thanks to all our parents for being so understanding and supportive when this happened – I know this would have thrown out your routines, but everyone was calm and kept their sense of humour... which was awesome!

Finally, today our school is celebrating St Bernadette’s Day. We started off with our first assembly and prayer service, followed by some Tabloid Sports, an icy-pole and finally a Yr 6 vs Teacher Tug-O-War Challenge! Lots of fun to be had and I am sure there will be some tired students in the car this afternoon! All of these events have required a HUGE commitment from our new sports teacher, Mr Murtagh and so if you see him around please give him a pat on the back. He will deserve a ‘Pepsi’ later today!

Over the past week I have noticed that we have had a few incidents at recess and lunch where students have been playing roughly. I have been talking to the students after playtimes and our teachers will be working on this in class as well. We would really appreciate this being backed up at home so that everyone comes back to class happy after breaks. Our message is that when we get frustrated it is important to talk to the person first and when that doesn’t work, we need to speak to the teacher on duty to help out. Our focus is on preventing incidents before they happen, however, this is difficult when we do not know about them. It would be helpful if you could talk to your child/ren about how important it is to get the help of a teacher in these situations and that this is not ‘dobbing’ it is making a good and a safe choice!

Many thanks and have an excellent weekend.

Geordie Thuijs

Principal

Environment,

Culture

Arts

MJR

Sport

Congratulations to all our Leaders, we look forward to your fabulous contributions to our St Bernie's Community!

The MJR ministry stands for Making Jesus Real. MJR is happy to help those that sit on our colourful buddy bench – when sitting on this bench someone needs help or when they’re upset.

If we see someone doing a random act of kindness, we’ll give them a Spirit of Jesus Ticket (aka a raffle ticket) we’ll draw 3 tickets at every assembly. For a lot of younger students patience is a hard thing, MJR is helping students wait their turn and play nicely in the playground!

MJR leaders are Daisy and Lauren

MJR members are: Rose, Gabrielle, Angus Hollie, Ryan, Liliana, Cole and Carmella!

Don’t be shy, come and say hello or join in the Garden Games on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s at recess and lunch.

MAKE JESUS REAL at Bernie’s by showing the spirit of Jesus!

The Environmental Ministry are in charge of our garden, the chickens and our school recycling program. Together we can make a difference!

Our leaders are Liam and Roisin. Our ministry members are: Gabrielle, George, Isaiah, Sophie, Caitlin, Darcy and Jack.

Please remember that you need to put your fruit scraps in the compost bins in the garden. Please do not put citrus into the bins. Please stay away from the chickens if you don’t have a teachers permission or a Year 6 Environmental Ministry member with you!

Please make good choices and don’t put your fingers through the chicken coop fence.

Thank you 😊

We have placed some bike racks along the Kindy and Library brick wall for parents to use when they they are coming to and from school. Please feel free to use them as often as you like!

The worms are very grateful too! 😊

Thank you!

Welcoming new and present families to our St Bernadette’s Community!

Bring a picnic and join us for a great family fun night with music!

When : Friday 19th March

Time : 5.00pm to 7.30pm

Where : Our school oval

• Live music!
• Canteen available for food
• Please drink responsibly

RSVP in the online form below

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdOakzKGYmz78w84qNi7X0NLgLtD72Ae-WiIglwbdbMJw013A/viewform?usp=sf_link

Support our fundraiser by returning your order form for the sausage sizzle at the Year 4 - 6 swimming carnival! Available to both the children and spectators who will be at the pool. This sausage sizzle is not available to the younger children who are at school.

1. Orders placed by Friday 12th March to avoid disappointment
2. Enclose order in an envelope marked 'P&F Sausage Sizzle'
3. Include the correct amount money
4. Spectators, please mark it 'Spectator'

We are looking for some helpers on the day - let us know on the order form if you can help!

We are holding our very popular Easter Raffle! The children really enjoy this event and we are hoping there will be lots of participation from our school community.

If your child would like to participate, please bring in an Easter egg, an Easter craft or similar.

Easter donations can be dropped off at the collection table outside the school office between 8.15am and from Tuesday 9th March to Friday 19th March.

Donation of an Easter item will give you an automatic entrance into the raffle. (Please note this is a Raffle and not all children will receive a prize).

Please ensure your name is marked off the class list by your teacher when you hand in your donation. This is very important!

The raffle will be drawn on Wednesday 31st March (Pre-Kindy 26th / Kindy 25th)

Finally, Chocolate Eggs are fragile …… they tend to get squashed in school bags on the way to school, so please handle with care!

Donations of baskets will be greatly appreciated!

Happy Easter from the St Bernadette’s P&F

We are now in the third week of Lent with the Project Compassion story of Oliva, a 22-year-old woman from Tanzania. She did not have the opportunity to go to school and was embarrassed that she was unable to read, write or count. As an adult, her business was losing money because she couldn’t add up her money and give the right change to customers.

Then Oliva enrolled in Caritas Australia’s literacy and numeracy classes. She also set up a home classroom to teach her neighbours, for free, because they were too shy to attend larger classes.

Oliva has now graduated, attendance at her classes are growing, her kiosk is thriving and she is helping her children with their homework. She aims to become a pastor and run for leadership in the next local election - to help her community to ‘Be More.’

"Approximately 260 million children don’t have the chance to go to school (un.org)

Watch a short film about Oliva’s story here.

Aspire not to have more, but to be more.” Please support Project Compassion: lent.caritas.org.au

Term 2 Monday 19/04/2021 - Friday 02/07/2021

Term 3 Tuesday 20/07/2021 - Thursday 23/9/2021

Term 4 Monday 11/10/2021 - Friday 10/12/2021

Friday 04/06/2021

Monday 19/07/2021

Monday 16/08/2021

Monday 24/09/2021