Newsletter Term 3 Week 6 (Wednesday 24th August 2022)

Our Front Page with Stage 3

We have been working really hard inside and outside of the classroom. We are becoming Critically Literate students who are tracking and measuring our own success against learning intentions and success criterias. We are also putting our hand up and making the most of opportunities that come our way. Year 6 students are learners, artists, dancers, bakers, footy players, soccer players and wonderful people! Here is a glimpse of what we’ve been up to: Soccer and Football competitions, dance spectacular, baking for those in need and making rosary beads. We are so fortunate to have so many opportunities here at St Brigid’s!

Year 6 Gallery

Our Gospel Reflection

Parents and children often enter into “negotiations” over how much allowance is to be earned at certain ages. Typically, when a child seeks an increase in allowance, parents will attach an increase in chores and responsibilities for them to better earn the increase. Talk about what kind of allowance you received as a child and what kind of responsibilities your parents expected of you to earn your allowance.

In this Sunday's Gospel from Luke 14:1,7-14, Jesus talks about doing good deeds for others and expecting nothing in return. Ask your children how they would feel if you told them to take on more chores without ever expecting another raise in pocket money. Emphasise that Jesus teaches us that it is our duty as his followers to take care of the needs of others and to do so without expecting repayment. Discuss what other types of rewards we can find when doing good things for others.

Point out that we sometimes fall into the trap of wanting too many things. In reflecting on the Our Father, it says that we pray for “our daily bread,” meaning that we pray for only that which we really need in life. Conclude this time together by praying aloud the Our Father.

From Our Principal

As mentioned earlier this term, our school has been progressing through a Diocesan initiative to improve student writing in our school. This has involved a whole staff agreement to ensure what is required and needed is put in place to ensure the writing growth of our students. Our writing results and performances are highlighting the collective improvement right across all grades and all of our students. During the recent visit from a number of principals, Catholic Schools Office staff and teachers from other schools it was noticed how tight our processes are in relation to student writing. Michele McDonald, the Assistant Director - Teaching and Learning commented on the day "that it was a privilege to be in our school and to be welcomed by the staff and students so warmly. I contacted Lyn Sharratt and let her know that the great team at Kyogle are championing the way".

This week we had a visit from teachers from St James Primary School, Banora Point and they were also very impressed with what is happening here. Kylie Cain, one of the visiting teachers commented "It is with immense gratitude that we write to acknowledge the wonderful time we had today at your lovely school. Thank you for taking the time out of your very busy schedules to share your recent pedagogical journey and for accompanying us on classroom visits.  We all learnt so much from your presentation and from your classroom teachers.  As such, this new learning will support our pedagogical journey and most importantly impact our students at St James".

This is a real credit to the wonderful team that we have here at St Brigid's, all striving to do the best they can for the students of our school.

Next term we will be transferring to a new Administration and Finance Program under the banner of ONCE. Each week we will have updated information on the implementation of this new system and how it will affect the families of our school. I ask tht you continually read this ready for the switch to the new program from the first day of next term, Monday 10th of October. The information in today's newsletter is all about the payment of school fees from Term 4 onwards and then into 2023.

Take care and looking forward to seeing as many as possible at our Book Week Parade this Friday the 26th of August.

Tony (Principal)

Family Mass

We are so pleased to announce that our Family Weekend Masses will be commencing on Sunday 28th August at the 9am Parish Mass. Our students from Stage 2 will be leading the mass and we would like to see as many families as possible come along and celebrate. Following mass, all are invited to stay for a cuppa and enjoy the company of each other.

As a part of the mass, there will be Children's Liturgy, allowing our young ones the opportunity to have the message of our mass in a more child-friendly way. The children accompany their family into the church at the beginning of mass, and then following the welcome by Fr Erick, the children leave to go to the Parish Meeting Room to hear the Word at a level that they can understand. It is designed for children aged from 3 – 12 years and led by our teachers. The activity that follows the Gospel of the day, is age appropriate. 

The Family Mass will be held on the 4th Sunday of each month. Upcoming masses are as follows - Sunday 28th August, Sunday 23rd October and Sunday 27th November.

All families are most welcome to attend even if your child is not in Year 3 or Year 4.

CWA Education Grants for 2023

The Far North Coast Group of the CWA awards Education Grants each year to children entering Secondary studies, during Secondary studies, entering Tertiary level, or Developmental Disabilities Study. These Grants are now open for application by all students in the qualifying levels irrespective of academic achievement and are tenable for one year, however, recipients may re-apply each year if still within the category.

Application forms are available from our School Office and need to be returned to the office by the 19th of October.

The application form requests the applicant to obtain a citation from a community representative and a sepearate citation regarding their individual representation in school, community or sporting events.

All applications are treated in the strictest confidence and successful applicants will have the Education Grant paid by EFT to the account nominated on the application form in January 2023.

Reconciliation March

Last Friday our Indigenous students along with Stage 3, represented St Brigid's Primary School at the 2022 Kyogle Reconciliation March. It was a beautiful day and the students had a great time celebrating our wonderful community and the joys of ice-cream.  

My New Gallery

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ICAS

The ICAS Assessments are nearly completed now for this year.

Please note the following sitting dates:

 Science - 25 August; and finally Mathematics - 1 September.

Well done to all students who have participated and challenged themselves in these National and International Assessments.

Book Week Parade - 26th August

The CBCA 2022 Book Week theme is "Dreaming with eyes open...". We will be celebrating Book Week this week at St Brigid's. Our students will have the opportunity to check out the shortlisted books during their Library times this week.

Our school will finalise the week long celebration of Book Week with a Parade on:

Friday 26th August at 12.20pm 

We look forward to seeing the variety and flair of student's costumes at the Book Week Parade. Parents and friends are welcome to attend our celebration of Book Week at the parade.

Father's Day Stall

Each child will have the opportunity to visit the St Brigid's Father’s Day stall next Thursday 1st September. Prices range from $1 to $6.
Students must have money on the day to purchase. Each child who purchases a gift will go into the draw for some great prizes. 

Father's Day Breakfast

All dads, grand-dads, uncles and favourite friends are invited to come and have breakfast next Friday 2nd September to celebrate Father's Day. Start the day on a positive note with a bacon and egg roll or sausage sandwich before heading off to work.  Hope to see you there.

COMPASS Update

The Diocese of Lismore Catholic Schools Ltd is implementing a new financial management system to all catholic schools in the Diocese. The changes are part of a diocesan-wide shift to new systems that provide stronger accounting and reporting capacity for schools. These changes bring the Diocese of Lismore in line with the same or similar systems used by most dioceses in Australia.

A number of schools will be converted each term and the process is scheduled to be completed by mid 2023. Our school will transition at the beginning of Term 4 2022, and as such, there will be some changes to school fee billing and payment methods.

What is changing?

There will be two preferred payment methods from October 2022 onwards:
 Bpay - The school Bpay biller code and your individual Bpay reference number will be advised early in Term 4.
 CompassPay – Compass is our new student management system with a mobile interface. More information about Compass and CompassPay will be sent to you in the coming weeks

Payments via direct deposit will be phased out and should cease by the end of 2022. Parents can still pay ‘over the counter’, if they choose.

What’s next?

From 2023, school fees will be billed at the beginning of each Term along with the school building levy. All other levies will be billed in full in Term 1.

Please do not hesitate to contact Lani in our school office if you have any concerns or questions regarding the above.

Save The Date - Saturday 17th September

Start organising your tables for our St Brigid's Parent Forum Trivia Night on Saturday 17th September. As in the past, this is an exciting night for all with lots of fun, laughter and prizes. The theme for the evening will be "Finals Fever." Keep an eye out for further information and how to book a table. 

Second Hand Uniform Give Aways

Thanks so much to everyone who has donated uniform items to our Second Hand Uniform Clothing Pool. Due to your generosity, there has been a huge stockpile of uniforms gathered and so, for the remainder of the term, all second hand uniforms will be "free". There is everything available except for the school jacket and all items are in very good order and condition. 

If you would like something, please just contact the school office with the required item and size and this will be arranged to be sent home. The Uniform Shop is open each Monday from 2pm if you would prefer to browse yourself.

Canteen Update - Sushi and Vietnamese Rolls

Our canteen will now be offering sushi and Vietnamese rolls as a healthy lunch choice each Monday. Due to ordering requirements and freshness, all orders for these must be placed by Thursday of the week prior so that they can be delivered fresh to our school each Monday ready for consumption.

There are a multitude of flavours to choose from as can be seen from the attached flyer. A single sushi roll pack will be $4.50, a twin sushi roll pack will be $7 and a full-size Vietnamese roll will be $4. Sachets of soy sauce will be available free of charge.

Please note that all orders and money must be in to the school office by Thursday of each week. In order for our school to have the sushi delivered we must have a minimum order of $50. If we do not have sufficient orders by Thursday of each week, all orders will be refunded and families notified.   

Free Mental Health Sessions

Kyogle & Villages, Parent/Carer Session
Date: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:45 pm AEST
Location: Online webinar
Registration: https://bit.ly/3BT65rC
Parents, Carers, and Community Members in NSW are invited to attend free mental health education sessions giving practical strategies to support children and young people who have been impacted by natural disasters.

School Photos

School Photos are now scheduled for Friday 16th September. 

If anyone requires a replacement photo form or sibling photo form, please collect from the office. 

Tell Them From Me

In the coming weeks, we will be inviting students, teachers, teacher assistants, and parents to provide feedback on their experience of our school using an online survey. The surveys are an important part of our whole school evaluation and planning process.

We would like to invite you to complete the 'Tell Them From Me' (TTFM) Partners in Learning survey. As we value the role of parents and carers within our school community we would greatly appreciate your feedback. The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and wellbeing here at St Brigid's Primary School.

The survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. Please access the survey through the following link:-

http://tellthemfromme.com/y66dc

Sports News

Football Gala Day

On Friday 19th August, 13 of our Year 6 students competed in the Football(soccer) Gala Day in Lismore. Their first game saw them come up against St Francis Xavier Ballina, they lost this game 3 - 0 but showed some amazing talents on the field playing like a true team, especially  only having trained twice before the day. In the second game we played OLHC and came away with a 1-0 win. In our third game we played against a very competitive team from St Carthage's, we went to the half time break only being down by 1 goal. The second half saw very strong defence by all the St Brigid’s students, they all gave 100% losing the game 2-0 with the final goal being scored 10 seconds before the end of the match. We didn’t make the finals on the day but showed amazing team spirit for our small school. We ended up playing a friendly match against St Mary's, Casino which ended in a nil all draw. Thanks to Miss Bugden and Mrs Myers for a great day and a big thanks to Pete Fowler, Grayson Marychurch, Courtney Farrell and Isabelle Wiber who helped transport our students across to Lismore for the day.

Positive Behaviour 4 Learning

Focus for Week 6:  

 We come to school every day so that we don’t miss out on our learning and always put effort into everything we do.

2023 Enrolments

Enrolments for any class for 2023 are currently being finalised. Please, if you know of anyone intending to join the St Brigid's community for 2023, ask them to get their enrolment applications in now! 

Our staffing allocation will be based on our enrolments at Census, taken at the start of August. Please do not hesitate to contact our Principal, Mr Hunter, if you have any questions or would like to inquire about enrolling here at St Brigid's for 2023 or even sooner.

Happy Birthday to You

Wishing the following children all the very best for their special day this week:-

26 August - Ella Walters

27 August - Adam Bryant

29 August - Igziah Anthony

Student Awards

Congratulations to the following students who have shown tremendous effort and were presented with awards at last week's  assembly:

Kindergarten:- Milla Flanagan, Abi Allen, Amelia Stieler

Year 1:- Frankie Lindsay, Tom Booth

Year 2:- Lola Lindsay, Ella Garred, Danny Kennedy

Year 3:- Lily Harris, Jacqui Smith, Elsie Laarhoven

Year 4:- Noah Schneider, Hannah Kennelly

Year 5:- Dominic Bennett, Aleyah Frith

Principal Awards - Hamish Laarhoven, Kirrah Lees

Making Jesus Real Awards - Marshall Brooks, Tess Carrington, Eamon McCormack, Frankie Miller, Evie Howes, Alyanna Clarke

Family Connect Services

Is the rising cost of living stressing you out?

Money Smart can help you.  They help Australians take control of their money with free tools, tips and guidance.  Go online to moneysmart.gov.au to access:
* tips on managing your money
* accessing financial counselling
* planning for the future
* urgent help if you’re struggling or in a crisis
* understanding options if you’re having trouble paying your bills
* budget planners and calculators

Our Family Connect worker Aanaminda Makeig can also connect you with local services to assist. Min is at St Brigid’s each Wednesday. You can contact Min on 0427 620 667  or email aananinda.makeig@socialfutures.org.au

Min can also give families a helping hand regarding:
* Parenting challenges
* Accessing NDIS
* Linking to housing support
* Help with accessing welfare supports
* Accessing counselling services
* Linking to domestic violence supports
* Finding culturally appropriate support

Aanaminda (Min) Makeig - 0427 620 667  or aanaminda.makeig@socialfutures.org.au

Upcoming Dates

AUGUST 

Friday 26th - Book Week Parade 12.20pm

Sunday 28th - Family Mass @ 9am

SEPTEMBER

Friday 2nd - Father's Day Breakfast

Friday 16th - School Photos

Saturday 17th - Parent Forum Trivia night

Friday 23rd - Pupil Free Day