Newsletter February 27th, 2024

A reminder that next Friday 8th March is a Student Free Day. On this day, staff will participate in professional learning focusing on Learning and Teaching. Throughout the last year we have had a strong focus on Learning & Teaching at St Brigid’s with the ultimate aim of collectively shaping our pedagogy of Explicit Direct Instruction. This year we will continue to build our knowledge and experience in the Structured Literacy approach to learning and as a staff, we are always on a learning journey, knowing that by continuing to improve upon our skills, we will positively impact student outcomes.

On Friday 8th March, we are very fortunate to welcome Shane Pearson to St Brigid’s. Shane is a speech pathologist who is passionate about effective evidence-based literacy instruction including classroom practice and intensive intervention. He is now part of the leadership team at Brandon Park Primary School and leads its whole-school literacy teaching and intervention team.

During our time with Shane, we will engage in professional learning focusing on strengthening our collective knowledge in word reading and spelling, including morphology (units of meanings in words), phonology (understanding of sounds) and orthography (spelling patterns).

On Sunday 17th March, the Ballan Autumn Festival will take place! As a school, we are very excited to again be a part of this wonderful community event. We would love for families and staff members to join us for the parade. Rather than have a specific theme for the 2024 Festival, the focus is on celebrating ‘who we are’ as a community: the people, places, culture and history, environment, and autumn colours. The goal is to add more meaning, context, and diversity to the presentation of the Parade.

This year we are asking children, families and staff parading with St Brigid’s to wear our school colours – blue/gold. This could be in the form of blue/gold clothing, crazy hair, face paint, etc. We look forward to seeing as many children and families as possible.

Our first Parents and Friends meeting for 2024 will take place on Monday 4th March from 3.15pm - 4.00pm in our school Library. An active P&F committee allows families the opportunity to play a valuable part in providing social and fundraising activities.  Please attend this meeting if you are interested in joining our P&F committee. Any help would be greatly appreciated as all funds raised contribute to resources and materials to support your children in their holistic development.

On Friday the 15th March the St Brigid’s students will be participating in the annual inter-school sports competition at Mason’s Lane in Bacchus Marsh. The children need to be at the venue and ready to go by 8:45am for a 9:00am start and the day is usually finished by about 2:30pm once presentations have been made.

Although our sports day doesn't take place at school, it is considered an essential learning day where we would request that all children attend. The students compete against other children of similar ages from other schools and this is a great way for us all to practice the skills of responsibility, resilience and being a good sport.

You are all invited to cheer on your children and their classmates as they compete in the events. It is usually a lovely day for a picnic lunch and the children really do appreciate their family members being there. We would appreciate that all students attending the sports day with their family stay after all the events have been run so that they can participate in the awards presentations.

We are providing transportation by bus to Mason's Lane departing from school and returning to school by 3pm. This is for ESSENTIAL TRAVEL ONLY, if both parents or guardians are unable to attend and or drop and collect their child/ren. An activity permission form has been sent via PAM. 

Assemblies will commence this week. As we now have specialist classes on a Friday afternoon, we will need to move assembly to Friday mornings from 9:00am - 9:20am. 

Assembly Schedule Term 1

Assembly Schedule Term 2

This year, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) will take place in March from Wednesday 13th March - Monday 25th March for students in Years 3 and 5.

This year, students will complete NAPLAN online. NAPLAN online brings many new opportunities for students and teachers that are limited or not possible with paper-based tests. The year three Writing test is the only test that will continue as a pen and paper assessment this year. It is through the Online National Assessment Platform that we will administer the tests. Children will complete the tests via a secure locked down browser on a suitable device.

Next week, year 3 and 5 children will participate in a NAPLAN practice test. 

All of the timetabled events (to date) for the school year can be found on our school calendar which can be accessed through PAM and via this newsletter.

Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct summer uniform to school each day including bringing the St Brigid’s school bag to and from school daily. A navy wide brim hat is also required, which stays at school for the Term. If your child does not have a hat to wear they will need to play in the sheltered area only during breaks. 

Children are able to wear sports uniform each Wednesday and on classroom nominated sports day as directed by your child’s classroom teacher. Given the nature of Physical Education lessons, on Wednesday’s children can wear either correct sports shorts or pants.

We are currently exploring options regarding rain coats. More details to follow regarding these items.

Just a reminder that there will be no hot lunches in Term 1! Hot lunches will resume again in Term 2. If you are able to assist with hot lunches on a Friday, please contact the school office.

As in past years we will once again be conducting our Annual Easter Egg Raffle. All families are asked to donate an Easter related item for our raffle. Raffle tickets for the Easter Raffle will be sent home with the eldest in the coming weeks. The raffles will be drawn on the last day of Term 1, Thursday 28th March 2024.

SZappp Mobile Application is a fantastic way for communicating and making information or resources available to our St Brigid's school community. 

Please follow the instructions in the below guide on how to install the SZappp and register an email account for communication.