Newsletter March 5th, 2025

Lenten Prayer God,

You created us as one human family, to care for our brothers and sisters throughout the world.

We pray that during this time of Lent, we will listen to Pope Francis’ call for ‘justice, fairness and respect for every human being.’

Help us to work together to ensure that all people share in the fruits of the earth.

Give us the wisdom to see Lent as an opportunity to act to end poverty so that all people may live their lives in justice and dignity.

We make this prayer in Jesus’ name.

Amen

“ASPIRE NOT TO HAVE MORE, BUT TO BE MORE!”

Dear Parents, Carers and Families,

Today is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of the Lenten season, a time of reflection and spiritual renewal in the Christian calendar.

Ash Wednesday holds significant importance, signifying a period of fasting and prayer observed by many believers. Grounded in ancient Jewish traditions of penance and fasting, this day is symbolised by the application of ashes on the forehead, representing the dust from which God made us.

Today we attended Mass at St. Brigid’s Church. This was a wonderful opportunity to embark on our journey of spiritual growth and understanding, marking the commencement of Lent and reflecting on the true essence of Ash Wednesday.

Have a wonderful week.

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

Our first Parents and Friends meeting for 2025 took place this week. An active P&F committee allows families the opportunity to play a valuable part in providing social and fundraising activities. 

P&F meetings will take place in our school Library from 3:15pm - 4:00pm on the following dates:

• Term 1:
  Monday 24th March, 2025
  
  
• Term 2:
  Monday 5th May, 2025
  Monday 2nd June, 2025
  
  
• Term 3:
  Monday 4th August, 2025
  Monday 1st September, 2025
  
  
• Term 4:
  Monday 20th October, 2025
  Monday 17th November, 2025

Starting next week - Week 7, we will be introducing a Health component to our specialist program every Wednesday. As part of this, students will continue their Physical Education lessons, which are currently held on Tuesdays. To accommodate this, from next week, students will be required to wear their sports uniform on both Tuesday and Wednesday each week until the end of the year.

STEM classes will now take place for Foundation - Year 6 each Friday and will consist of 45 minute lessons.

As previously communicated, Friday 7th March and Tuesday 11th March are Student Free Days. On Friday 7th March, staff will participate in comprehensive First Aid training and on Tuesday 11th March staff will participate in Professional Learning focusing on Structured Literacy facilitated by the Catholic Education Flare Primary Literacy Team.

On Sunday 16th 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 2025 Festival, our focus is on celebrating ‘who we are’ as a community: the people, places, culture and history, environment, and our autumn colours. Our goals are 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 something that symbolises our beautiful school - this might be as simple as wearing our school colours – blue/gold 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 Wednesday 19th March, 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 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 you are able to assist with events on the day, please contact Andrea Byvoet - abyvoet@sbballan.catholic.edu.au. Please note that all volunteers must hold a current WWC check.

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 shortly.

The raffles will be drawn on the last day of Term 1, Friday 4th April, 2025.

Please find below information in relation to the $400 School Saving Bonus.

The $400 is only available to be applied to school activities.  It cannot be paid out in cash.

Please click on the link below should you require any additional information.

https://www.vic.gov.au/receiving-school-saving-bonus

This year, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) will take place in March from Wednesday 12th March - Monday 24th 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.

In week 5, our Year 3 & 5 students will participate in a NAPLAN practice test and although the results of the practice tests will not be distributed, it is a great opportunity for the children to have a go prior to NAPLAN.

NAPLAN Testing schedule attached.

https://www.nap.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/naplan-information-brochure-for-parents-and-carers.pdf

Again this year, students from Year 1-6 will be participating in the Inform & Empower Cyber Safety & Digital Wellbeing program. This means that our classes will be tuning in to live streamed incursions (with their teachers) every term that focus on healthy and safe digital habits. The incursion content is all written and delivered by qualified teachers who are endorsed by the eSafety Commissioner as a Trusted eSafety Provider.

These sessions aim to help children better navigate the online world and become more aware, clever, brave and kind. They will focus on topics including navigating unwanted contact, cyberbullying, help-seeking strategies, unsafe content, balancing screen time with "green time" and sharing personal information.

The following website will provide you with further information regarding Inform and Empower.

https://www.informandempower.com.au/

Suzanne Beaver will again be at St Brigids every Tuesday this year. 

Suzanne is available for individual sessions with children. Common issues addressed are managing strong emotions, self esteem, friendship issues, anxiety, and family challenges such as illness, grief and separation.

Suzanne is also available for individual sessions with parents. Topics can include a range of parenting challenges, i.e. managing strong emotions, school reluctance, helping your child form strong friendships, and helping your child to navigate family separation.

Suzanne can also assist you in finding the right external support for your child and family.

This is a great service provided right here at school. Please don't hesitate to contact Suzanne with any concerns you might have. Contact Suzanne by phone on a Tuesday or by email any day sbeaver@sbballan.catholic.edu.au.

You can also access the service through the office or your classroom teacher.

Whole School Prayer/ Assembly will commence in Week 4 and will take place on a fortnightly basis at St Brigid’s Church. To ensure uninterrupted Literacy time and as specialist classes will take place each Friday, we will need to move assembly to Monday afternoons from 2:30pm.

This term we will have three assemblies:

• Monday 3rd March, 2025 @ 2:30pm - Year 5/6B facilitating
• Monday 17th March, 2025 @ 2:30pm - Year 1S facilitating

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.

All children are expected to be at school ready to begin by 8:55am. Arriving on time for school is important. 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. It is very difficult for children arriving late to ‘catch up on this missed information. Parents are expected to phone through to the office the child’s absence on the day, 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 confirming the child’s absence from school will be sent.

Over the weekend, children from our Parish who have commenced their sacramental journey were acknowledged as part of their preparation for the sacrament of Reconciliation. We keep the children in our thoughts and prayers and look forward to celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation at St Brigid’s Church on Tuesday March 18th at 5.30pm.

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.