Filter Content
Dear Parents and Friends,
“Now these three remain: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13
When “life happens,” people are tempted to give up hope. It must feel like that for many who are burdened by the current global health crisis and the loneliness, uncertainty and loss that lock down brings.
Last year, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres said, “more than ever before, we need solidarity, hope and the political will to see this crisis through together. Calling for global solidarity, Mr. Guterres continued, “Our human family is stressed, and the social fabric is being torn. People are suffering, sick and scared, we need hope!”
As Catholics, we focus on faith in Jesus and loving God and our neighbours, but do we really value and nurture ‘hope’? Hope is what sustains us as we persevere, remaining steadfast in times of hardship and discouragement.
Hope is not wishful thinking or passive waiting. It means intentional, purposeful living; and it is something we experience before the “bad stuff” happens. We live hopeful lives.
Most of us have a GPS installed on our phones or in our cars. The GPS system shows us the path we want to go to. However, the system requires that we put in the right information about the end of the journey, our destination. The GPS knows our starting point. When we enter the destination, it calculates the route, a path for us to follow. And if we make a wrong turn, it will recalculate the route for us.
Similarly, we strive to discern our life’s path, knowing where we are and looking to our destination. This looking means making conscious, deliberate, intentional choices to move in the direction of our destination. When “life happens” and we get blown off course, however, we can make the necessary adjustments to get back on course. Or do we?
Thomas Merton was one of the more influential spiritual writers of the last century. He wrote a now-famous prayer that seems appropriate for those times when we are experiencing the despair of a global pandemic that has taken our lives off course of life and we are not sure which way things will turn.
“My Lord, God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does, in fact, please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.”
Now that you’re thinking about hope, here are some questions to consider:
- What is one area of your life that is marked by some degree of despair?
- What would it look like for you to upgrade from despair to hope?
- What promise of God will help you maintain hope?
- What can you do this week to remember further back so you can hope further ahead?
Hope is a gift we can give each other through our words and actions. Let it serve as the beacon of light that focuses us on the work ahead and navigates us through this moment of anxiety and despair. For in our post COVID-19 world, we will emerge stronger, better prepared and more united in our quest to serve the students of St Brigid's
Stay safe. Practice social distancing. Keep hope alive.
Yours in Faith, Justice and Learning
END OF TERM 3
As we come to the end of what has been a very difficult term for everyone, I extend a sincere thanks to each of you. To the many of you who have passed on your thanks to your children's teachers or have emailed to acknowledge the work of our incredible staff, we very much appreciate your kind words.
The staff have had to adapt to teaching and supporting students through an online platform and I know they are looking forward to returning to the preferred way of teaching, in the classroom' face to face', when it is safe to do so. I thank all of our staff who have gone above and beyond in many ways to ensure that every student is supported.
It is with a heart full of hope that I look towards Term 4. Hope that our community stays safe and well; hope for a holiday break that renews you all with the passion to return to remote learning for a few weeks, followed by the return of face to face teaching and learning; hope for the opportunity to gather with loved ones and as community once more with safety; hope that 70% of the State’s eligible adult population will be fully vaccinated by the middle of October; hope that the return to our classrooms is a smooth and joy-filled process for all students and their families.
|
5-22 Oct 2021 |
Schools remain at Level 4 restrictions (remote learning). If a Local Government Area comes out of stay-at-home orders during this time, schools in that area will return to face-to-face learning under Level 3 COVID restrictions. |
|
25 October 2021 |
Kindergarten and Year 1 will return to face-to-face learning with Level 3 COVID restrictions on school sites. |
|
1 November 2021 |
Years 2, 6 will return to face-to-face learning with Level 3 COVID restrictions on school sites. |
|
8 November 2021 |
Years 3, 4, 5 will return to face-to-face learning with Level 3 COVID restrictions on school sites. |
SUMMER UNIFORM
We welcome the students back to school after the pupil vacation and lockdown in full summer uniform.
GIRLS’ SUMMER UNIFORM
- Green check dress with red tie or bottle green culottes with white peter pan collared shirt
- Short white fold down socks
- Black leather shoes
- Green school hat
- Green school bag
- Green school jumper or cardigan
- Red or bottle green hair ties
BOYS’ SUMMER UNIFORM
- White short sleeve collared shirt
- Grey stubbie shorts
- Short turn over grey socks with school stripes
- Black leather shoes
- Green school hat
- Green school bag
- Green school jumper or cardigan
NAPLAN RESULTS FOR YEAR 3 AND 5
Today the 2021 NAPLAN results were sent home to families via the post.
The NSW Education Standards Authority administers NAPLAN for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) in NSW.
NAPLAN assesses aspects of literacy including reading, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and writing, as well as numeracy.
NAPLAN tests are designed to provide you, your child and their teachers with information about how your child’s learning is progressing, and if they need support to improve their literacy and numeracy skills.
NAPLAN results provide information to teachers and parents on what students know and can do. NAPLAN is a point in time diagnostic test. Teachers are best placed to provide insight into students’ educational progress.
For information to assist in understanding your child’s test results visit http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/understanding-the-curriculum/naplan
HIGH IMPORTANCE - UPDATING OF PERSONAL DETAILS
It is very important that you advise the school office, in writing/email, of any changes in details especially address / email address / phone numbers. This is essential during contract tracing. Last week I found that some important emails regarding COVID-19 Contact Status bounced back to me. Please attend to this as a matter of priority.
COVID-19 UPDATE FOR THE END OF TERM 3
To the Miller family for the lovely gesture of buying the staff a gift voucher. We very much appreciate your thoughtfulness.
Thank you too for the many emails of gratitude that have been sent via the school office.
R U OK DAY CELEBRATIONS
We hope you enjoyed your day off from supporting your child/children with remote learning last Thursday 9 september, while our Year 6 Leadership Team took on the responsibilty of teaching the students for the day. This allowed our teachers to plan the learning for Term 4 and we hope it gave our parents and carers an opportubity to rest and take a much needed 'break'. Thank you to Year 6 for their willingness and creativity in putting together some engaging videos for the students. Please enjoy some snapshots from the day.
Term 4 REMOTE LEARNING- Please note the CHANGES
There will be significant changes to how we deliver remote learning starting from Week 1 next term. In line with NSW public health orders, we will remain in Phase 4 Restrictions for the first 3 weeks of Term 4 for the whle school. If all goes to plan, we will welcome back Kindergarten and Year 1 on October 25 (Week 4), then we will welcome back Year 2 and year 6 on November 1st (Week 5), followed by Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 on November 8 (Week 6). While in remote learning next term, please be aware of the following changes:
Small Group Instructional Zooms: There will be a focus on small group INSTRUCTIONAL Zooms next term. Teachers will group the students and meet with them via Zoom to explicitly model the learning. Teachers will inform students of when they will have their small group. During small group Zooms, parents can take a break from supporting their child as the teacher's job is to instruct during these small groups and to see what each student is able to understand and do more independently.
WRITING FOCUS: Teachers will be having a targeted focus on writing next term in line with our collaborative inquiry. If your child has an exercise book at home, they will need this to activly participate in the small groups. If they don't have one, could you please purchase one over the holidays for them to use for next term. There will be a focus on pen to paper rather than writing on a device.
Friday Whole class Wellbeing Zoom: Teachers and students will share in prayer, weekly awards will be announced and students will participate in an engagement activity
Friday Non-digital Task Day: Students will be provided with a matrix of non-digital tasks on Fridays after their wellbeing Zoom meeting. 1 group may be asked to stay back for their small group instruction following the wellbeing Zoom
Teacher Planning Time: Fridays from 1:00pm-3:00pm. Teachers will be offline from 1:00pm on Fridays as this is their planning time. If one of your child's teachers does not work on a Friday, they will take their planning time on another day during the week and they will notify their students of this on either Seesaw or Google Classroom. Teachers will ensure students are provided with learning tasks during this time.
YEAR 6 SHORT STORY COMPETITION
Our Year 6 students have entered a short story competition during lockdown and they have worked hard on their entries. It was great to see your creativity and your ability to hand in a DRAFT, receive feedback from your teachers and then respond to that feedback by making changes to improve your story, well done Year 6. Here are some stories for you to read over the holidays:
FAREWELLS
There were many class FAREWELL PARTIES celebrated on Zoom this week. We all said GOODBYE and WE WILL MISS YOU to the following students:
Marcella, Orlando and Rafael Specogna
Laine and Miles Watson
GOODBYE and GOOD LUCK to Mrs Thatcher who has moved to Albury to take up a permanent teaching position and GOODBYE and THANK YOU Mr Cervonaro from Year 6 as Mr C will be teaching Year 2 fulltime from Term 4.
We wish our students and Mrs Thatcher all the very best at their new schools and hope they keep in touch.
Congratulations to the following students on receiving their awards.
Week 8 - Term 3
| CLASS | LEARNING AWARD | LEADER OF THE WEEK | |
| Kindergarten | Elliott G & Xavier D B | Jaxson M | |
| Year 1 | Ruby K | Jonas T | |
| Year 2 | Hugh S | Paulo DV J | |
| Year 3 | Florence M | Ryan T | |
| Year 4 | Zachariah C | Miles W | |
| Year 5 | William C | Samuel S | |
| Year 6 | Reginald T | Starrsi D | |
Week 9 - Term 3
| CLASS | LEARNING AWARD | LEADER OF THE WEEK | |
| Kindergarten | Evie W | Sebastian T | |
| Year 1 | Laine W | Lucas S | |
| Year 2 | Lachlan C | Millie A-B | |
| Year 3 | Zlata K | Simon C | |
| Year 4 | Reed B | Eliza P | |
| Year 5 | Tully D | Mason M | |
| Year 6 | Quentin M | Eden S | |
Week 10 - Term 3
| CLASS | LEARNING AWARD | LEADER OF THE WEEK | |
| Kindergarten | Joshua M & Liana D S | Ava Y | |
| Year 1 | Veronica A | Mia W | |
| Year 2 | David M | Rafael S | |
| Year 3 | Harley S | Rhiley A | |
| Year 4 | Amelia E-B | Nahla O | |
| Year 5 | Raen G | Grace D | |
| Year 6 | Charlotte W | Chris H | |
Happy Birthday to the following students celebrating during Weeks 9, 10 and the student vacation period.
We hope you have a great birthday!
| Kinder | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 6 |
| Sofia H | Vita K | Leo O | Ali S | Rio M | Ariel L |
| Hurley M | Charlotte F | Macy G | Dara A | ||
| Gisele M | David M | ||||
| Charlie E-B | |||||
| Rafael S | |||||
| Hugh S | |||||
| Arielle N | |||||
| Ella D |
LAWN MOWING ROSTER
| Date | Mower 1 | Mower 2 |
| 10 October 2021 | Thomas M | Adam T |
We are still looking for a few more volunteers. If you can help please contact John Harman on 0419 993 133 or dabeers@bigpond.com
SAVE THE DATE - P&F EVENTS
|
DATE |
EVENT |
|
6 Nov 2021 |
Working Bee and BBQ Lunch 10:30am – 12:00 tbc |
|
2 Dec 2021 |
Christmas Concert and family picnic- tbc |
St Brigid’s Gwynneville
PARISH WEBSITE
DIOCESAN WEBSITE
Please visit the Catholic Diocese of Wollongong website for further information.