Newsletter March 5th, 2024

Dear Parents and Families,

Yesterday we welcomed Professor Pasi Salhberg and Director of Future Schools Australia, Dave Runge to St Brigid’s.

Professor Sahlberg is a Finnish education expert, author and professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Previously, he has worked as a professor of practice at Harvard University at the World Bank, and as the director of the Centre for International Mobility in Finland.

Dave Runge works with educational organisations across Australia and internationally to build new systems and create innovative outcomes. As Director of Future Schools, Dave collaborates closely with executive leadership teams, boards, associations, and educational organisations, providing invaluable guidance to support educators to discover, design and implement innovative solutions.

Professor Salhberg and Mr Runge will work in partnership with Catholic Education Ballarat to co-design and implement our forthcoming Strategic Plan, marking a significant step in our journey towards becoming a high-performing system of Catholic schools.

Take care and God bless,

Jayne Bosworth

'Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all God has made.'

Excerpt from St Brigid's Prayer

Please see below a letter from Bishop Paul titled, Appointments to Parishes in the Ballarat Region.

Hello Everyone,

On December 6, following discussions with priests and parishioners, I announced that we would have four ministry districts in the Ballarat region.

After further consultations, I am now able to make appointments of priests to serve in these groups of parishes. The following appointments will take effect on April 10, 2024.

Ballarat Cathedral Parish, Ballarat North Parish and Beaufort Parish

Administrator: Fr Edward Moloney

Assistant Priests: Fr James McKay, Fr Francis Kureeckal MST

Ballarat East Parish, Bungaree Parish and Gordon Parish

     Parish Priest: Fr Justin Driscoll                Assistant Priest: Fr Matthew Restall

 Redan Parish, Sebastopol Parish and Linton Parish

    Parish Priest: Fr Concord Bagaoisan OSJ    Assistant Priest: Fr Eladio Lizada OSJ

 Wendouree Parish, Creswick Parish and Daylesford Parish

     Parish Priest: Fr Marcello Colasante

In view of Fr Matthew Restall’s appointment to the Ballarat East, Bungaree and Gordon Parishes, I have appointed Fr Sajan Mathew as Assistant Priest in the Paul VI Parish in the Wimmera-Mallee.

The priests who are currently serving in these parishes will continue in their current appointments until April 10, when the new appointments will take effect. I hope this advance planning will be helpful in allowing time to prepare for the transition to the new arrangements.

I thank everyone who has been involved in the consultations over the past few months. I thank the priests for their readiness to serve in the various parish communities.

God bless you all.

Bishop Paul

A reminder that this 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.

This Friday, 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).

Camp Australia will be open on this day. Please see flyer for booking details.

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.

Thank you to our parents who attended our first P&F meeting yesterday. Our next P&F meeting will take place on Thursday 14th 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. 

If your child/ren requires bus travel please contact the school office 5368 1015 by 3pm this Thursday 7th March. After this time the bus may be unavailable. 

Assemblies have commenced this term. 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

On Assembly days, members of our St Brigid’s community are invited to meet  at the front gate at 8:15am for a leisurely walk. This will be  a great opportunity for you and your child to connect with other members of our school community. This walk will include stopping  at a local cafe for a hot or cold drink!

Our first Step, Sip & Socialise gathering will take place on Friday 22nd March!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.