Good afternoon all,

I hope you are all doing well and are ready for the long weekend. A reminder that our staff have a PD Day on Tuesday so our students are not due back until Wednesday.

This week I have loved the opportunity to get into classrooms and see some of our new initiatives in action. Miss Pedler and Mrs King started a Numero Club on Tuesday’s in the library which was a lot of fun. It was great to see the enthusiasm from some of our students and how quickly they have picked up the game (I got beaten by Jet in Year 2 – well done mate!). This is in line with our focus on basic number facts and is a fun and engaging way to practice these skills. We hope to put a team into the interschool competition later this year.

On Thursday and Friday our Year 6 students were engaged in a Design Technology project and were very excited to show me their cars that have no motor, yet were able to move and race each other! Finally, I spent Friday morning with some of our Upper Primary Students who were completing Brightpath Writing samples. These assessments will support our teachers in their reporting, provide consistent and reliable whole school data and also give teachers a report on what to teach in order to improve their students writing.

Finally, a quick FYI to parents that we have noticed an increase in the number of issues with smart watches in our school. Despite being a distraction to students, smart watches pose the same concerns as mobile phones in terms of safeguarding those in the school community.

We are currently updating our procedures to reflect these issues and align with local high schools. Moving forward the use of smart watches that have the ability to either make or receive calls, connect to the internet or have camera or audio facilities are not permitted to be worn by students at St Bernadette’s during school hours. This includes watches with school mode functions.

Students wearing smart watches of this kind will be asked to leave their watch at the front office with office staff for the collection at the end of the school day just like with mobile phones. Where parents or guardians need to contact students during the day, they should phone the school directly. We thank you in advance for your understanding and for having this conversation with your children.

Enjoy the weekend, stay safe and we look forward to seeing you all back on Wednesday

Geordie

Once again, Report time is near. As with last year, this will be sent electronically and will be available on Seqta Engage on the afternoon of Wednesday 28th June (week 10). To view your child’s report, please log into Seqta Engage. If you can not remember your log in or password, please email admin@stbernadettes.wa.edu.au and your log in details will be returned to you and which will need to be reset that day.

Once you have logged into Seqta, on the left-hand side (on a handheld device, you will need to select the blue button with three white lines in the top left hand corner) click Assessment, choose which child you would like to view (if you have more than one child on Engage). You will then see that you have access to all previous reports. Within the next week, could you please log on and ensure you can access last year’s report. If you are having issues, please email admin@stbernadettes.wa.edu.au before Friday 23rd June (end of Week 9).

There should be no surprises with your student’s report grades as teacher and parent communication should be open and ongoing. If you have any concerns, please contact your child’s teacher via admin@stbernadettes.wa.edu.au.

Below is the visual to remind you what each grade represents and an attendance visual that demonstrates how important regular attendance has on learning.

Here at St Bernadette’s, we are committed to supporting your child’s continuity of learning. While we recognise that there are some legitimate reasons for reduced attendance including illness, we are obliged to point out that reduced attendance can have a significant impact on your child’s learning.

In order to access the full curriculum and give your child the very best opportunity of learning success, CEWA and the Education Department recommend an attendance rate of 95% or above.

The below chart gives a breakdown of the amount of time missed in a year, and if maintained, how it impacts on the future education of your child.

Pupil free Day - Tuesday 6 June

Yr 4 Eucharist Reconciliation - Weds 7 June

Year 5 & 6 AFL/Netball at SOTS - Friday 9 June

First Holy Communion Mass - Saturday 10 June 6.00-7.00pm & Sunday 11 June 9.00am

Term 2: Wednesday 26 April - Friday 30 June 2023

Term 3: Tuesday 18 July - Friday 22 September 2023

Term 4: Monday 9 October - Friday 8 December 2023

Tuesday 6 June 2023

Monday 24 April 2023

Monday 17 July 2023

Monday 14 August 2023

Please note that as this is a live calendar, dates and times may change occasionally.