Newsletter March 12th, 2025

Spanning across the six weeks of Lent each year, Project Compassion brings thousands of Australian schools, parishes and supporters together to raise funds for people living in some of the most vulnerable communities across the world.

This week, we enter the first week of Lent with the Project Compassion story about Toefuata'iga.

Toefuata'iga story, Samoa

Toefuata'iga, a 13-year-old student in Samoa, faced severe challenges and disruptions to her learning due to water scarcity. Toefuata'iga and her classmates faced frequent early school dismissals and missed lessons due to a lack of clean water. Teachers often had to leave the school to fetch water from nearby homes, adding strain to the staff and local community. The absence of a reliable water source also led to compromised hygiene, increasing the risk of dehydration and waterborne diseases, which affected students' health.

Despite being surrounded by water, many Samoans struggle with consistent access to clean drinking water, and resort to relying on rainwater or neighbours who have access to a water pipeline.

Climate change is leading to longer, drier periods. The Samoan Water Authority pipeline frequently needs to be shut down due to natural disasters and maintenance.

After Caritas Australia’s partner Caritas Samoa installed a 10,000 litre water tank at her school, Toefuata'iga and her classmates saw improved health and more consistent class attendance.

Please click on the following website to explore further Toefuata'iga story and the work of Project Compassion.

https://www.caritas.org.au/project-compassion/toefuataiga-story

Last week we received the wonderful news of the birth of Harvey Robert Tiley, Karen Tiley’s beautiful grandson.

Big congratulations to Karen, Alan, Josh, Emily and big sisters Chelsea & Ava– we are so happy for you all!

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.  All funds raised contribute to resources and materials to support your children in their holistic development.

At our first meeting, we explored the possibility of assigning key roles within the SAC. We are now inviting expressions of interest for the following positions:

P&F Chair

• Facilitate P&F meetings.
• Collaborate and liaise with the Principal to plan and coordinate the school calendar of events.
• Organize and oversee volunteer involvement.

Administration

• Manage incoming and outgoing correspondence.
• Record and maintain minutes of meetings.

Treasurer

• Collaborate and liaise with St Brigid’s Finance Officer.
• Provide financial updates and reports to the P&F.

If you are interested in any of these roles, please fill out an expression of interest via the survey below. Your involvement is invaluable in supporting our school community!

Survey Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FVPPNHF

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 this 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 this 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.

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 at 8:15am sharp 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 have not given permission by Tues 18th March, your child/ren will not be able to travel on the bus. 

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.

Hot lunches will recommence Friday 2nd May via the online ordering system - Spriggy Schools on SZapp.

Volunteers

We will re-introduce a roster looking for volunteers to help prepare and serve lunches on each Friday. Ideally 2 helpers are required.

If you are available to help out on a Friday between 11.30am-1.00pm please contact the school office with your dates (valid Working with Children Check is required).

The children really enjoy hot lunches and this can only happen with the help of volunteers!

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.

The last one for this term will be on:

• 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.

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.