Newsletter August 12th, 2025

This week the Catholic Church celebrates a special day to honour Mary, the mother of Jesus. Friday 15^th August is the Feast of the Assumption. This feast day commemorates that Mary, the mother of God, was assumed body and soul into heaven and reunited with her son Jesus.

The feast day of this holy and momentous event stems from the middle of the 5th Century when the Commemoration of the Mother of God was celebrated each year on 15 August in a shrine located near Jerusalem. More than 100 years later, the feast also commemorated the end of Mary’s time on earth and was known as the “Dormition of Our Lady.”

On Sunday 17th August at 10:30am Noah Cassar, Alice Fodor, Maeve Lakey and Ruby Tatchell and fellow candidates will celebrate the sacrament of Eucharist at St Brigid's Church. We keep all children in our thoughts and prayers as they continue their sacramental journey.

The school theme for National Science Week in 2025 is ‘Decoding the Universe – Exploring the unknown with nature’s hidden language.’ This theme invites students and educators across Australia to delve into the mysteries of the Universe by exploring the fundamental languages of nature, including mathematics and the groundbreaking field of quantum science.

Bullying No Way Week is Australia's key bullying prevention initiative for schools. It provides an opportunity for schools to create a shared understanding about bullying behaviours and share their bullying prevention policies and strategies.

The national week of action unites government, Catholic and independent schools and their communities across the country. Together, we can foster practical approaches to prevent bullying in Australian schools.

The theme for 2025 is 'Be bold. Be kind. Speak up.' It takes courage to spark change.

Please click on the following link for further information: https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/preventing-bullying/national-week-of-action

3-Way Conferences will take place this term on Tuesday 26th August and Tuesday 2nd September. 3-Way Conferences will be 10 minutes in duration. Given the nature of these meetings, it is expected that all students attend the conferences with their parents/carers. Families can book a suitable time through PAM/SIMON Everywhere. Bookings will be made available within the coming weeks.

On Friday 5th September, we are excited to welcome fathers and special people in our lives to our Father’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy. We will commence our celebration with breakfast from 8:30am in the Gathering Space. As this breakfast is for fathers and special people only, children are required to be dropped off to school from 8:30am as per usual. Following breakfast, our Liturgy will commence at 9:15am at St Brigid’s church and will be attended by the whole school.

Hot lunches will continue this week and take place each Friday via the online ordering system - Spriggy Schools on SZapp.

Volunteers

We have re-introduced a roster looking for volunteers to help prepare and serve lunches on each Friday. Ideally 3 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!

Term 3 Roster:

Please find below an updated menu.

Whole School Prayer/ Assembly will continue to take place on a fortnightly basis at St Brigid’s Church on Monday afternoons from 2:30pm.

Term 3 dates:

Monday 25th August, 2025 @2:30pm - Foundation A facilitating

Monday 8th September, 2025 @2:30pm - Year 2/3BW facilitating

Term 4 dates:

Monday 13th October, 2025 @2:30pm - Year 4/5S facilitating

Monday 27th October, 2025 @2:30pm - Foundation C facilitating

Monday 10th November, 2025@ 2:30pm - Year 2/3M facilitating

Monday 24th November, 2025 @ 2:30pm - Year 1S facilitating

Our next P&F meeting will take place on Monday 1st September 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.

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.

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.

Welcome to St Brigid's Primary School's Parent Access Module or PAM.

PAM is the home of your school related, student information and will be used for medical profiles, excursion/camp permissions, parent teacher interviews, absences, text notifications and daily messages.

Please follow the instructions below to set up your account.

Step 1:
You will need to set your own access password. To set your password click on the link below. This will take you to the PAM login page. Click on the 'Forgot Password?' link and follow the prompts.

PAM Login

Step 2:

Download the SIMON Everywhere app to access PAM on your preferred
device/s. Search 'SIMON everywhere' in the app store and download. Once
downloaded, click on the 3 lines in the top left corner, click on 'add school',
select 'St Brigid’s Primary School' then enter the login details that you set up
for PAM in Step 1.

Step 3:
Please complete the medical profile for each of your child/ren and upload any action plan if applicable. Please Note: It is the parents/guardians' responsibility to update their child/ren's profiles, to inform the school of any changes. This profile will be the main school medical reference for camps and excursions. 

If you are experiencing any difficulty with the setup process, please contact the office.

https://www.ballarat.catholic.org.au/parish/gordon