Newsletter March 12th, 2024

A Prayer for St Patrick's Day

God our Father,

you sent Saint Patrick

to preach your glory to the people of Ireland.

By the help of his prayers,

may Christians proclaim your love to all people.

Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

Amen

Dear Parents and Families,

This 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 as many families as possible 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.

On Sunday, staff, students and families participating in our parade will need to meet no later than 10:00am ready for the parade to commence at 10:30am.  We will meet on the verge at the intersection of Stead and Stiglitz Streets, outside the Council’s Building (Fishbowl).

It is our preference that children from Foundation to Year 4 are accompanied by an adult/s to walk with them in the parade and children in Years 5 and 6 will need to be picked up promptly at the end of the parade. Please note the Autumn Festival including the parade is invitational and is not an official school event supervised by staff and therefore parents and adults are responsible for accompanying, supervising and collecting their children.

We are looking forward to a fabulous day together!

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

St Brigid's Primary School Ballan wishes to acknowledge respectfully the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live, work, learn, play and gather.

Our next P&F meeting will take place this 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.

This week, NAPLAN will commence 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.

NAPLAN Assessment Schedule:

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.

Reminders:

In preparation for our Sports Day, please ensure that:

• children who are booked to catch the bus to Mason’s Lane are at school no later than 8:15am. The bus will be leaving at 8:20am sharp!
• long - lasting sunscreen is applied to your child/ren before arriving at Mason's Lane
• your child/ren are wearing their St Brigid’s sports uniform and school hat
• your child/ren have a drink bottle, snacks, lunch (there will be no canteen on this day)
• you log into your PAM account to give permission for your child/ren to participate in this event

For further information regarding this day, please refer to the letter circulated via PAM.

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!

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 child tomorrow. 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.

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.