Newsletter December 9th, 2024

Dear Parents and Families,

This week, we look forward to acknowledging and celebrating our incredible Year 6 students. It feels like just yesterday they began their journey with us as Foundation students in 2018, and now, in 2024, they stand ready to take the next big step in their education.

We are so very proud of this remarkable group of children and we deeply appreciate their contributions to St. Brigid’s School. The joy, energy and leadership they’ve brought to our community is immeasurable. As they prepare to transition to secondary school, we wish them every success in the adventures ahead.

To our departing families, thank you for being an integral part of our school community. Your time, effort and support have left a lasting impact and we send you our best wishes for the future.

Congratulations and best wishes to the following Year 6 students:

Jacob Cabrie, Flynn Closter, Braxton Dart, Maya Filo, Kiara Grigg, Remi Jeandet, Charlotte Letcher, Esther Seketa & Kaylee Stancliffe.

Best wishes also to the following departing families:

 Closter family, Dart family, Filo family, Letcher family and Yearwood family.

We are very much looking forward to celebrating our upcoming Year 6 Graduation. Graduation will take place on Wednesday 11th December and will consist of a whole school end of Year Mass at 9:15am at St Brigid's Church (all welcome) followed by a dinner at Donegan’s Farm from 5:00pm.

We look forward to a wonderful week ahead.

Take care and God bless,

Jayne Bosworth

Principal

'Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all God has made.' Excerpt from St Brigid's Prayer

God of light,
shine brightly,
show us how to bring hope to others.

God of mercy,
help us to comfort people
and to share in their joy.

God of hope,
help us this Advent,
to share your light with others.

Amen.

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. We pay respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.

A big thank you to our St Brigid’s community for supporting our recent Christmas Carols event. The afternoon/evening was a huge success and feedback from our community and beyond has been overwhelmingly positive. A special thank you to Pete Mullane for his exceptional organisational skills in preparing for our event. Pete's efforts truly shone through in the script, music, performances and the overall atmosphere of the evening. A big thankyou to our performers who made our evening so special!

A special shout out to Nicci and Gunther Damons for their tireless efforts in setting up, preparing raffle prizes and organising the BBQ. A big thank you to Lyle Greenwood for his expertise in setting up the stage and microphones – this was crucial to the success of the event. Thank you to Rick Taylor, who ensured that our school was in tip-top shape - we are grateful for his attention to detail. Thank you also to our P&F for assisting with the organisation of our evening.

I am delighted to announce that our St Brigid’s class/staffing structure for 2025 is as follows:

2025 Class Structure:

Foundation C: 14 students
Foundation A: 13 students
Year 1 S: 17 students
Year 2/3 W: 23 students
Year 2/3 M: 22 students
Year 4/5 S: 24 students
Year 5/6 B: 23 students

Total: 136 Students

2025 St Brigid’s Staff Team:

Teachers have been working diligently on Semester 2 reports. I commend our teachers for the energy, thoroughness, sincerity and professionalism that they bring to their report writing processes.

As in Semester One, we will continue to use (PAM) Parent Access Module for delivering school reports. This online system provides parent’s access to a range of information specific to your child including mid and end of year reports.

Our end of year reports will be available on PAM from 4pm Tuesday 17th December, 2024.

Semester Two Formal Reports will include:

• Work Habits Table
• Level of attainment in the form of a dot on a continuum for the learning areas explicitly taught in Semester Two and in accordance with the Victorian Curriculum Achievement Standards:
• Religious Education
• English (Reading & Viewing, Writing, Speaking & Listening)
• Mathematics (Number & Algebra, Measurement & Geometry, Statistics & Probability)
• Technologies
• Humanities
• Capabilities (Ethical, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking and Intercultural)
• Physical Education
• Visual Arts
• Performing Arts
• Auslan
• Comment to celebrate your child’s achievements, in relation to their Personal and Social development and learning in Mathematics and English

All children are expected to be at school ready to begin by 8:55am. Arriving on time for school is important for a number of reasons.  The first 10 minutes of school is a vital time of the day when the day's routine and structure is established.  It is a time for ‘tuning in’ and focusing on the learning intentions for the day.

If your child is unwell or absent, you are required to notify the school as soon as possible on the day of absence, via a phone call through to the office or through our school Parent Access Module (PAM). If there has been no contact from the family in the morning of the absence, a sms from the office regarding your child’s absence from school will be sent. Upon receiving a sms, families are expected to phone through to the office to inform the school of their child’s absence.

Students who arrive late or leave early are expected to be signed in/out at the office by a responsible adult. 

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.

The senior students are holding a Pop-Up Secondhand Uniform Shop on Tuesday 10th December 8:45am-9:00am & 2:45pm - 3:00pm on this day.

Each item of clothing will be sold for a gold coin donation.

We are very grateful for the support received each year.  Thank you for your assistance with this.

We have many items of clothing in lost property. If your child is missing any uniform items, drink bottles, plastic containers, can you please collect asap.

Any items left in lost property will be donated to the Op Shop at the end of term. Thank you!

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.