Afternoon everyone,

Hope you and your families are doing well. St Bernie’s has been a lot of fun this week and I thank all the parents and staff for keeping it as upbeat and normal as they can. Parents have obviously done an amazing job discussing mask-wearing with their children and we have had very few issues so far. Our teachers will continue to support our students, give them regular outdoor breaks and be a listening ear if they need to talk. As always, please send us an email or give us a call if there is something you need to discuss with your child’s teacher.

On Wednesday Mrs Resuggan prepared an Ash Wednesday Liturgy for classes and we welcomed Fr Francis and Father Giovanni over to our school to help distribute the ashes. This was well received by students, and I look forward to introducing Father G to the rest of the community soon! Obviously, this is Father Francis’s last weekend with us, and he will be sorely missed. On behalf of our whole community, we wish him all the best in his new role.

I have again spent time in classes this week and I have enjoyed seeing some of the teacher’s hard work in action. Up in Year 6 I saw both Mrs Cairns and Mr Murtagh using whole class explicit instruction as well as small groups to engage their class and differentiate the work for their students. Mrs Cairns kept her teaching short, sharp and punchy, ensuring everyone was listening and engaged in the concept. I loved how Mr Murtagh created a ‘silly story’ using words containing the focus grapheme with his students to keep the lesson fun and interesting.

Out on the oval our students have been learning new soccer skills – dribbling and striking. It is always awesome to walk through the school and hear the sound of students enjoying their games out there. We are very lucky to have two great PE teachers to mix it up and find different sports for everyone to enjoy!

I am sure you all agree there has been an information overload in the past few weeks so I will leave it here. Enjoy the long weekend and I will see you all next week!

Geordie Thuijs

Principal

Due to the restrictions around Covid we were not able to have a whole school Mass for Ash Wednesday this year. As a whole school we participated in an Ash Wednesday Liturgy online. Some of our student leaders recorded the readings into a PowerPoint to share with each of the classes. Our focus this year was around Caritas and Project Compassion's "For All Future Generations" where the students were reminded that it is important to be humble around doing good deeds for others, that prayer brings us closer to God and if we work together, we can help people experiencing poverty. Children were also reminded that Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of our season of Lent leading up to Easter.

A BIG thank you to Denise and hubby Buttafuoco for the kind donation of the 'World Game' footballs and bibs! These are a great addition to our sports department, thankyou!

THANKYOU to Tracey Curtis and Angela Dugouchet for being amazing "book coverers" and covering some of our reading books!

Down in the Year ½ Block, our teachers have been busily creating an outdoor learning space for our students in the early years. This is being supported by our awesome P&F as well as the Van Den Broek family who have kindly donated some wood for the mud kitchens! Huge thanks to everyone involved!

School photographs will be taken on Thursday 24th March with a catch up day on Friday 25th March. Family/sibling photo's will also be taken before school.

More information and class schedules will be sent home shortly.

Mike and Janice have informed us that the rules for crossing the road on bikes or scooters has changed. With immediate effect, students are to please RIDE their bikes or scooters across the crossing and not walk across as has been the case previously.

Please talk to your children about this change.

Waste-free (Nude Food) Lunches

This year St Bernadette’s is really going to be making a HUGE effort to reduce the amount of rubbish we create in our school, which in turn makes it way to our landfill rubbish dumps. Our planet is running out of space for all our waste and it is causing major problems for our environment that will remain for future generations.

One simple way that we can help to reduce the amount of litter that ends up lying around our school and in our bins is to bring a waste free lunch box to school. Waste-free lunches benefit the environment by reducing packaging waste, which in turn reduces energy and resource use. Waste-free lunches will not only reduce the amount of litter in our school but it may also encourage us to have healthier eating habits! Often highly processed snacks, like chips, cookies tend to be packaged whereas, healthier foods choices like fruit and vegetables are not packaged.

We have spotted some AMAZING waste-free (Nude Food) lunch boxes coming to school and here are just a few to give you some ideas.

Starting soon we will be holding waste-free lunch challenges called, ‘Nude Food Tuesdays’. Your teacher, or a member of the Environmental Ministry will be doing random checks and if you are spotted with a healthy lunch that has no throw-away wrappers or plastics, you could be given a raffle ticket to be in the draw for a prize!

Thank you,

The Environmental Ministry

Our Bernie's Garden is back for 2022!

Unfortunately due to current Covid regulations we are unable to hold our fortnightly stall but

Mrs Cairns and our Year 6 students are tending to the garden beautifully!

They are now taking orders for

• Mint - 50c a bunch
• Worm Wee Fertilizer - Small jar 50c

One of our lovely Year 4 Nana's is also making more

• Library bags - $5
• pencil cases - $5
• trinket holders $5
• casserole warmers - $10 which can be purchased through school.

All proceeds will go to the school garden to help maintain it and buy new seeds/seedlings to grow.

Please support this initiative by placing orders via admin@stbernadettes.wa.edu.au

This year we are lucky to be able to provide students with a fortnightly Library session coordinated by Miss Roberts and the classroom teachers. Students will be able to borrow books during this time, along with being able to exchange books during their allocated recess and lunch sessions, and after lunch on Tuesday and Thursday.

All students will require a sturdy library bag in order to borrow, unfortunately, no bag will mean no borrowing. We encourage you to purchase the St Bernadette's library bags which can be ordered through the uniform shop, as they are durable and a good size.

Should your child lose a library book (including Lexile readers) the process for payment of lost library books will be as follows;

1. Overdue notice emailed to the parent when the book is more than two weeks past the return date.
2. Second overdue notice emailed to the parent when the book is more than three weeks past the return date.
3. Invoice email sent to the parent when the book is more than four weeks past the return date. Parents will be given the option of paying for the book through the front office (price identified through Booktopia) or purchasing the identical book and leaving that at the office to then be added to the library collection.

If you have any questions regarding the Library and process please email admin@stbernadettes.wa.edu.au and we will respond.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the changes to our Uniform Policy. Over the coming weeks, we will be clarifying a few points so that we are all on the same page.

GROOMING:

Students are expected to show pride in themselves and their school by paying attention to their personal appearance.

• Clothing is to be clean and in a good state of repair.
• Nail Polish and Make Up is not permitted.
• Clear lip balm/gloss may be worn.

HAIR:

• Shoulder length hair or longer is to be tied back.
• Hair is to be tidy and away from the face.
• Hair Accessories- black or brown hair elastics - only navy blue or red ribbons or bobbles.
• Any change to hair colour should be in natural toning only.
• Hairstyles are to be moderate and not extreme (Number 1 haircuts or chiselled pattern hair styles are considered extreme).
• No hair wraps and or bead/coloured braiding.

JEWELLERY:

• The only jewellery permitted is:
• Wristwatch / Smartwatches - Smartwatches are to be used as per iPad Code of Conduct Agreement. - Earrings which are small sleepers or plain studs - one only in the lobe of the ear.
• One chain with religious symbol, to be worn under clothing.

• Fume Free Friday - 11 March 2022

Term 1 Monday 31/01/2022 - Friday 08/04/2022

Term 2 Wednesday 27/04/2022 - Friday 01/07/2022

Term 3 Tuesday 19/07/2022 - Thursday 23/9/2022

Term 4 Monday 10/10/2022 - Friday 09/12/2022

Tuesday 26/4/2022

Tuesday 07/6/2022

Monday 18/07/2022

Monday 15/8/2022

Monday 7/11/2022