Good afternoon Bernie’s families,

I hope you have all had a good week and are ready for the weekend. There has been a lot going on here at school with our students completing a range of standardised assessments in preparation for reporting and handovers at the end of the year. Our staff have done a great job at reminding students that these assessments are important and just a regular part of the school curriculum. While we want our students to do well, do their best, slow down and take their time, we also want to support those who may be worried or be anxious. These are just one example of the assessment used throughout the year and our teachers use a range of data when reporting on student progress. If you want more information or need to let us know that your child is worried about these assessments, please see your child’s teacher or one of our AP’s.

On Thursday, our Year 5 students went on an excursion to the Rockingham’s Castaways Sculpture Awards which celebrates artists work and environmental awareness. They had an awesome time and this morning we received an amazing email about our students from a member of the public who congratulating our school on the exemplary behaviour and conduct of our students.

"Your students visiting the Rockingham Foreshore sculpture exhibition today were a credit to your school. I was involved in education from classroom teacher to superintendent level many years ago and always prided myself on my ability to identify a good school. I did that today. I spoke to several groups as we moved around the exhibits and found that students and staff I met were happy to speak to an old bloke and were proud to speak about their school. Congratulations".

Finally, congratulations to our Year 6 students for their final assembly today. Many parents and staff were taken on a trip down memory lane as our Year 6’s reminisced over highlights of their time at St Bernadette’s. They spoke and acted clearly and confidently in front of their peers and parents and entertained us with their singing. More information about upcoming Year 6 graduation events can be found further down in this newsletter.

Have an awesome weekend and I look forward to seeing you all Monday.

Geordie

We love celebrating Bahasa Indonesian at Bernie's and we are excited to show you Neave and Ibu Kristy's video entry. Their feature Indonesian word is 'Maaf" (which means, sorry and forgiveness).

This year's video has been set up as a trial run, as it is our first time entering the competition. The Bahasa Sesh competition challenges participants to share their favourite word(s) or phrase(s) in Bahasa Indonesia. Neave M in Year 3 entered the Challenge and thoroughly loves her Indonesian.

We'd also like to thank https://www.acicis.edu.au and the #bahasasesh for setting up this competition and wish Neave all the best.

The Grand Prize

One free ACICIS Indonesian Language Short Course session in Central Java, valued at over $3,000 AUD! This program consists of intensive Indonesian language classes (from total beginner to advanced), cultural classes and field trips.

Weekly Prizes

There are also several weekly prizes to be won! Vouchers, snack packs, Indonesia-Australia paraphernalia and more! The grand prize winner from last year won with the word ‘curhat’, meaning to have a ‘heart-to-heart’.

By Cara S Year 3B

Yesterday, the Year 5 students went on an excursion to Castaways Sculptures at Rockingham Foreshore. We saw many incredible sculptures that were very thought provoking around many modern-day issues such as landfill, technology usage, taking things for granting and the human impact on the planet.

We began our day with a guided tour from the amazing artist Rachel, who had created the Peli’can’ not Peli’can’t’ sculpture. It was created with mainly single use plastics including spoons, bread tags, wrapping but interestingly had the body shape of a Harley Davidson!

Rachel showed us four different sculptures and showed us how the enjoy, question, and ponder on the message of each sculpture.

We saw many ideas brought to life using recycled, re -purposed and sustainable materials including a Frilled-Neck lizard made from satellite dishes and aluminium cans, all the way to a shark made from garden fencing.

It was memorable day for everyone included in the experience. A huge thank you to all our adult helpers, without them this amazing day would not be possible.

By Alfie P, Max T and Sebastian B

Monday 4th December: Kolbe Day A large number of our students will attend an Orientation Day at Kolbe and will not be at school. All those not attending will attend St Bernie’s as normal.

Tuesday 5th December: Graduation Mass and Awards Ceremony at 5.00pm. All parents, family and friends are invited to attend the mass and awards ceremony which will be held in the Church.

Thursday 7th December: Adventure World 8.30am – 4.30pm.

Friday 8th December: Class lunch and Guard of honour. Parents and family are invited to come in at 2.45pm to cheer the students through the final Guard of Honour!

Friday 8th December: Parent run class party in the evening.

Year 6 Scoliosis Screening - Monday 30 October & Tuesday 31 October

Kindy 2024 Parent Information Session - Monday 30 October

Interschool Spelling Bee - 2 November

Term 4: Monday 9 October - Friday 8 December 2023

Term 1: Wednesday 31 January - 28 March 2024

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