Dear families,

Behind the scenes we have had a very productive and busy week here at St Bernadette’s, in particular our School Registration Audit which we finalised on Thursday. As a new Principal to the school, this has been an opportunity to get a clear picture of all 13 Standards; ranging from Whole School Planning to Curriculum to Finance to Student Safety and everything in between. I feel like the process has helped me to understand our strengths and the areas where we can improve and I look forward to sharing the findings with the School Advisory Council on behalf of the community and this will also help me to make informed decisions in the future. I would like to thank Mel and Lisa, our AP’s, Melinda Evangelista and the Advisory Council, the many staff and students who have helped me in collating all the data we required. This has been a really huge team effort and our school will be better for it!

Our Year 3 and 5 classes wrote Naplan this week and with our new Wifi up and running in the school, this has run very smoothly so far. Our teachers have done an excellent job of keeping students calm and focused during the testing, keeping their rooms organised and reassuring students that all we ask is that they do their best – it is just one of a variety of assessments that we use in our school and is nothing to worry about! You may have heard in the media that there were some technical issues on Thursday, this did not affect our school and we were able to complete our tests without incident.

Next week is Week 5 of term and is ‘Wellbeing Week’ here at St Bernadette’s. This is a week dedicated to our mental health and wellbeing and we plan to carry this on once a term. The idea is that we focus on teaching and learning without interruptions at school. We don’t plan for extra meetings where possible; students will not bring home any homework and we ask staff not to stay late at work, rather to get home and spend time with their families. We also encourage our St Bernie’s families to do the same - do something for yourselves (play a board game together, share meals around the table or perhaps Mum’s could be treated to an uninterrupted warm bath) and try to have an uncluttered and calm week at home. I have learnt that since having kids, the weeks fly by with all sorts of commitments, and it is important to take a breath and slow down every now and then. We hope that you can take advantage of it!

Geordie Thuijs
Principal

An important aspect of MJR is learning how to recognise God Moments in an encounter with a friend, a cheerful greeting, a smile, a wink of encouragement, an offer of a helping hand or an unexpected compliment. MJR leads us to be ‘winners and grinners’ rather than ‘moaners and groaners’, to look for positives in each day, and to make sure we let others know how much we appreciate them in our lives, and how to pass on the Good News each day.

Congratulations to Daisy P for receiving out first MJR Award this week.

Daisy was nominated for always "greeting everyone every morning and for showing her bright smile". Well done Daisy, your smile is infectious!

Aidan P in Year 1B for having "superb manners and the way you always remember to keep everyone happy and safe. I love the way you greet and meet everyone with a smile"

Keira W in Year 6R for "being friendly and kind and welcoming people in. She's always there for a friend in need".

Congratulations to you all, what beautiful comments!

All the collected plastic will be used to create wonderful new things like school play equipment! Plus, registered schools are in the draw to WIN one of five exercise circuits made from all the recycled plastic we collect.

Please bring all your empty bread bags (it can be any bag, not just Wonder Bread) and pop them in the container in the undercover area.

Training will take place on Thursday afternoons, starting in week 6, on the 27th May from

3.15pm - 4.00 pm.

Permission slips will be sent home shortly and parents are welcome to join in as well!

They are also taking orders for anyone else who wants to purchase a bag for $5! All profits going to school garden

Calling for parents, grandparents, uncles, aunties and friends! Our Parish has a Busy Bee Sat 22 May from 7am to midday (come at any point, leave when you need too). We would greatly appreciate as many helpers as possible.

Jobs to be done include pruning shrubs and trees around the buildings to increase visibility for security reasons, cutting grass, weeding, edging, cleaning gutters, picking up rubbish, carting rubbish to tip etc.

Could volunteers please bring general garden implements, lawn mowers, whipper snippers, saws or chainsaws, trailers, ladders, tip passes, blowers, lawn edgers. Tip passes are reissued with rate notices in August, so if people have spares available they will be useful.

Some year 6 students went through the lost property and retuned all items that were clearly named back to the students. Unfortunately there were many items that were not named or had names of students who are no longer at the school. Please name (and re-name) all items- it saves us a lot of time and stress and you lots of money!!

Shane Klopper would like to start his running training at St Bernie's again and is looking for expressions of interest. The details are:

Tuesdays 3:20 - 4:30, on the School Oval

$10 per child per session

Maximum 10 Kids

If interested, please contact Shane on 0401 846 150 or shane.klopper66@gmail.com

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