Newsletter Term 1 Week 3 (Wednesday 15th February 2023)

Our Front Page with Stage One

Stage 1 were very fortunate to be able to welcome a special guest speaker via zoom last week. David is a civil engineer and was able to help students with their Science and Technology assessment design brief. Stage 1 were able to see pictures of the new Grafton bridge being built, the design process, materials that were used for the construction of the bridge and answered many questions from students. Stage 1 are very excited now to begin their design of a suspension bridge that crosses a large area and can hold the weight of a toy car.

Our Gospel Reflection

Our Gospel this Sunday comes from Matthew and continues from Chapter 5 where Jesus is talking to the crowds of people on the place now referred to as the Mount of Beatitudes. In this week's reading Jesus says that My command to you is: love your enemies, pray for your persecutors.

Family life teaches us many things. It is often at home that we learn practical skills such as cooking, riding a bike, and making repairs. Talk about some of the things that the members of your family have learned to do at home. We also learn about caring at home. Talk about times when you have learned a lesson about sharing, forgiving, or loving through an experience that happened at home.

Talk about how love is the most important thing a family can share with one another. Explain that it is the same in God’s family. Read aloud this Sunday’s Gospel, Matthew 5:38–48. Talk about how Jesus tried to teach his disciples how to love others beyond those who are closest to them. Jesus tells them to love even their enemies. As members of God’s family, we are called to do the same thing. Talk about some concrete ways you can “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”

Remind your children that Jesus does not expect us to be perfect. Jesus knows that we are human and will not always do everything correctly. Explain that what Jesus wants us to do is to love others as if they were Jesus himself. If we reach out in love to others, we are doing exactly what Jesus did. That is what perfection looks like. End this time together by praying the Act of Love.

From Our Principal

A well-known phrase, ‘life is not fair’ is so true of our world. The scenes of earthquake devastation in Turkey and Northern Syria are difficult to comprehend. People and families in some of these regions have lived in persecution for years and now are faced with further tragedy. Let us hope and pray the world powers stand up to be counted in support of both countries.

There are tough times and then there are tough times. As
hard as Covid was for us all, it must have been difficult for the world to live through an economic depression and a World War. Back then people had no choice but to be resilient and had no time to think if life was fair or not. They worked hard and were for ever grateful to have even the basic essentials. Blessings on the thousands of families who live in hope of finding loved ones under the earthquake rubble. They deserve their fair share.

Gratitude can so easily fade into the words of a sentence, yet gratitude is a word so defining. Willie Nelson the country music legend said, “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around." Our lives are busy enough and we may not take the time to reflect on our blessings such as having a healthy mind and body. Good health I believe is the most precious blessing of all and I have the greatest admiration for people who have chronic illness or who have to face a worst-case scenario. They are the real heroes in this complex world of ours. Let us count our blessings and always be grateful for what we have because our children will model and live a similar mindset. 

Meet n Greet

Many thanks to all families who were able to come along to our Meet n Greet session last Thursday. The staff greatly appreciate you were able to take the time and come and find out what is happening in St Brigid's this year. Congratulations to Jessica Godfrey who was the recipient of the $100 discount from her fees just for being in attendance.

Congratulations

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Sereena Zanuso, our Student Support Worker who along with her partner Curtis recently announced their engagement. We hope your future together is filled with infinite happiness, laughter and love. 

NAPLAN 2023

The annual NAPLAN test window has been moved to earlier in the year and will now take place in Term One. Students in Years 3 and 5 will sit the tests from Wednesday 15th to Friday 17th March 2023. More information will be sent to parents and carers in upcoming weeks.

Take care and have a wonderful week,

Tony

Assistant Principal News - Mission

Leaders Retreat 

Last week, our Year 6 students participated in a Leaders Retreat.  Retreats promote student discipleship and give students the opportunity to encounter Jesus. I would like to congratulate the Year 6 students on their investement and engagement throught the day. Students were led through different sessions aimed at reflecting and comparing their leadership to Jesus. What a wonderful group of leaders we have here at St Brigid's! 

Welcome Charlotte!

Welcome Charlotte Keane, our Youth Ministry Officer (YMO) here at St Brigid's. We are grateful that St Mary's Casino, allow Charlotte to join us each Tuesday. The role of a YMO is to draw young people into responsible participation in the life, mission and work of the Catholic faith community. 

Wildfire

It's almost time.... we are pumped to have Wildfire here on Monday and Tuesday! All students will engage in fun, interactive workshops and worship through song with Wildfire. A reminder that at 5pm on Monday evening Wildfire will be leading a worship hour infront of the Blessed Sacrament. All are invited to join us for this in the Church. The mission of Catholic Schools in the Lismore Diocese is to enable students to experience the fullness of life. The joy of the Gospel, fun and witness that Wildfire bring really does bring  John 10:10 to life “I came so that they may have life, life to the full”.

Here is a link to one of my favourite Wildfire songs!

Ash Wednesday Liturgy

Wednesday, the 22nd of February is Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. We extend a warm invitation for you to join us for our Ash Wednesday liturgy at 12.20 pm in the Parish Hall. Students will be actively involved in leading this liturgy. 

Opening School Mass

A reminder that our opening school mass is on Friday, 24th February at 9.30 am. Please join us at Our Lady of Sorrows Church to celebrate the beginning of the 2023 school year. School leaders will receive their badges and those students voted into the SRC (Student Representative Council) will aslo receive their badges. 

Kelli-Ann Bugden                                                                                                                                                                           Assistant Principal - Mission

Class Parents Required

Following on from last year, we would like to continue with our Class Parents for 2023. This is an integral role in ensuring greater connection between home and school and allow for all to be involved with your child's school. The role of the Class Parent includes:

• Welcoming new families to the class.

• Organising one social event for families or parents during the year eg. Picnic or coffee morning. This can be done as a class or Stage group

• Being the contact person for the class teacher who may be seeking help with a class activity.

• Celebrating births, marriages, World Teacher Day and class teacher’s birthday.

The Class Parents will be supported by our Parent Assembly Cluster Co-ordinator, Jo Kelly. Many thanks to those who have indicated already that they are happy to take on this role. Please see list of class parents and those classes still requiring class parents. Should you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact your child's class teacher.

Kindergarten - Belinda Grieve and Ashling Aherne

Year 1 - 

Year 2 - Natasha Allen and Alethea Aquilina

Year 3 - 

Year 4 -

Year 5 - 

Year 6 - 

School Community Forum (Parent Forum)

Last year our Parent Forum unanimously voted to take on the new Diocesan initiative of revamping our Parent Forum. From this year, our major parent body will be referred to as our School Community Forum.

One of the biggest changes will be that each meeting is open to all members of our community, not just Team Leaders as has been the case since 2001. Therefore all members of our school community are invited to our very first SCF Meeting to be held on Tuesday 21^st February in our School Library. Our meeting will commence at 3:30pm. Our Forum Executive of Gemma Habchi (Chairperson), Ali Goldthorpe (Secretary), Hayley Kennedy and Ashling Aherne (Joint Treasurers) would love to see as many as possible who can come along. Supervision will be in place to look after the little ones.

Please come along and discover how this restructuring is going to benefit all families in our school.

The following meeting in March will be our AGM and that will take place on Monday 14^th March at 6pm in our School Library.

Safe On Social Parent Presentation

With the ever increasing exposure to Social Media, this is a presentation that no parent or carer can afford to miss. We are delighted to have Madeleine West of Safe on Social come to our school on Monday 27^th February to deliver a presentation that will be engaging, entertaining and quite confronting. Madeleine will deliver information that primary school parents need to know about - YouTube, Instagram, Musical.ly, Snapchat, Roblox, Minecraft, Clash of Clans / Clash Royale, Online Gaming, Fortnite and other games and apps your children may be using now or in the future. Other areas that Madeleine will cover are:-

Using social media with awareness             Keeping personal information private
Online grooming                                                Posting and sharing photos
What is a digital footprint                              Cyber-bullying, harassment and how to report it
Strategies to build resilience                         Online gaming safety

Madeleine will be presenting to the students in Years 3 to 6 during school time and then will give her presentation to parents in the Stage 3 Rooms commencing with dinner from 6pm and the presentation to commence at 6:30pm. There will be child minding available to allow all parents to attend.

PLEASE REGISTER THROUGH THE LINK ON THE ATTACHED FLYER!! 

Don’t let someone tell you how good this evening was, witness it for yourself!!

Stormbirds 2023

Dear Families,

In 2023, St. Brigid's will again be offering the Stormbirds Program for students after the success of running the Program last year.

Stormbirds is a small group program based on the belief that change, loss and grief are a normal and natural part of life. It provides young people who have lived through a natural disaster the opportunity to examine the impact of this experience on their lives. This Program will be run over four consecutive weeks, with four, approximately 60-minute long sessions.  

We invite parents, carers and teachers to nominate students who might benefit from Stormbirds Program via the link below:

https://forms.gle/dAtxSm5uT1JNrLNB9

If you, or a teacher, nominate your child to participate in Stormbirds, a Permission Form and Information Letter further outlining the Program will be sent home with your child.

Kind Regards,

Sereena Zanuso, Student Support Worker. 

Family Connect Services

A Message from Nikki Devine our Family Connect Worker

As your school’s Family Connect worker, I am here to support families to access the services they might need to help their family thrive. I can assist families in a wide range of areas including NDIS, housing, counselling, parenting programs, supporting parents of children with anxiety through mental health struggles, family violence, addiction services and many other services that families may need from time to time.

I have a background in social work and youth work and have worked extensively in community projects. I am a qualified practitioner in many programs including Mental health first aid, Bringing up great kids and Tuning into Teens.

I care deeply about promoting family wellbeing and can help families access a wide range of support services. I welcome any of our parents/carers to make contact with me if they would like more information about the help and support I can provide.

Nikki 0429 216 841 or Nicole.devine@socialfutures.org.au

From the Wellbeing Team

This week’s strength is: HUMOUR

The ability to be playful, bring smiles to others, and be light-hearted.
Is humour a particular strength belonging to you or someone in your family? How does humour help you or your loved ones handle difficult situations?

BPay - Preferred Payment Option

Account Payments - For families wishing to make one off or regular payments to your Fee Account, our preferred payment option is BPAY. 

The school's BPAY Biller Code is:   395004

Individual reference numbers will appear on your statement, which is automatically emailed at the end of the month. 

Positive Behaviour 4 Learning (PB4L)

Welcome to all our families in 2023. PB4L is a whole school framework that helps us create positive learning environments for all students at St Brigid's.

The PB4L framework is a research based and proactive school wide system that establishes clear behaviour expectations.

Our school wide expectations at St Brigid's are:

We are SAFE       We display EFFORT     We show RESPECT    We display SELF-RESPONSIBILITY

During the year ALL classes spend time teaching the school wide expectations.

Students who adhere to these expectations throughout each term are able to participate in our Term Rewards Day. These activitiies vary and the students have the opportunity of nominating and deciding upon which particuliar activity that they would like to take part in on Rewards Day.

Focus for Week 3:  We come to school every day so that we don’t miss out on learning because learning is important. 

Sports News

Congratulations to Carter Hudson who was successful in his 50 metre Backstroke event at Zone Swimming last Monday. Carter will now head to Kempsey on the 3rd of March to compete at the Diocesan carnival. All the best, Carter! 

Good luck to the following students who will participate in the Winter Sports trials this week:

Rugby League - Tahnesha Walker, Noah Laarhoven, Normy Presbury

Rugby Union - Van Smith

Netball - Chelsea Hyde

Yours in sport,

Lee Love

Games Club

Students now have the opportunity to attend a Games club in the library each Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. These groups are run by our teacher’s aides for the first half of lunch and a different activity is offered each day. Below is a list of the activities on offer:

Monday-  Lego

Tuesday - Cards and board games

Wednesday - Guided drawing, colouring and reading

Thank you to our wonderful support staff for running these groups. 

Happy Birthday to You

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

February                                                                                                                               16th - Syra Halt                                                                                                                  18th - Wyatt Brown    

Student Awards - Week 2, Term 1 2023

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

Kindergarten:- Jahlissa McCormick, Niarah Walker

Year 1:- George Marychurch, Zion Dowd

Year 2:- Ryder Newman, Oscar Setnik

Year 3:- Shekinah Howes, Caden Brown, Danny Kennedy

Year 4:- Paityn Fear, Ted Standfield, Millea Rixon

Year 5:- Belle Clarke, Scarlett Connell

Year 6:- Haven Capps, Dominic Bennett, All of Year 6

Principal Awards: - Ryder Newman, Stanley Holloway

Upcoming Dates

FEBRUARY

Monday 20th - Wildfire 10:10 Experience

Tuesday 21st - School Community Forum 3:30pm in Library

Wednesday 22nd - Ash Wednesday Liturgy @ 12.20pm, Parish Hall. 

Friday 24th - Opening School Mass and Presentation of Badges

Sunday 26th - Parish Family Mass

MARCH

Monday 6th - Staff Development Day / Pupil Free Day

Tuesday 7th - Stage 2 Sacrament of Reconciliation 6pm

Monday 13th - Sushi Day

Tuesday 14th - School Community Forum AGM 6pm

Wednesday 15th to Friday 17th - NAPLAN Online for Years 3 and 5

Friday 17th - Year 1 Showcase