St Bernadette's Primary School

NEWSLETTER | TERM 3 | WEEK 9 I 13 September 2024

Good afternoon all,

A HUGE thank you to all families for coming along to support staff and students on Thursday night - it is always very special when our whole community comes together to celebrate learning and the wonderful efforts of our kids! We all have so much to feel very, very proud of!

After attending my own children's Open Night on Wednesday evening and then ours yesterday, there is no doubt how much children need opportunities to showcase their work and be proud of their achievements here at school. We acknowledge that for parents to return to school after a busy, tiring workday while wrestling all the family into the car on time, is a MASSIVE effort, so well done and thank you!

I would also like to extend a very special thank you and congratulations to our wonderful staff, on all the time, care and effort they gave to setting up the Open Night displays for families, after another BIG term. The generosity and hard work of the St Bernadette's staff is incredibly special, and it is important that we never take these events for granted and remember to show appreciation - a simple email, card or personal thank you to staff really goes a long way.

A shoutout to the P&F organisers and parents who volunteered to cook a sausage sizzle on the night. Their selfless service to our school doesn't go unnoticed and is highly prized. Many thanks again for providing such a great service to families - it makes such a difference to not have to worry about what to feed the kids!

Yesterday afternoon we held our Jumps and Throws Assembly and congratulations to all the students who competed and did their best. Here at St Bernadette's the physical development of all our children is a very important aspect of school life. In addition to developing important coordination skills, physical activity impacts greatly on the social, emotional, and cognitive development of children, laying the foundation for a more active and healthy life well into adulthood.

School holidays are a great opportunity for families to get active so time to get the bikes and scooters ready, the bathers out, and head for bike paths, parks, climbing equipment, the pool, beach, or anywhere your kids can move their body! My kids and I spend a fair bit of time at the Point Walter bike park where I know a number of our students enjoy going. If you get the opportunity and are feeling a bit daring, it is a lot of fun!

R U OK Day

Being mentally healthy during childhood means reaching developmental and emotional milestones and learning healthy social /emotional skills that support our kids to cope when life presents difficulties and setbacks.

Healthy kids are generally happy kids - at home, in school, and in their communities. It is the role of parents and all significant adults in a child's life to meet their physical, social, emotional, and learning needs.

While we know a child's mental health can be affected by their family history and significant life events, it is never too late for parents, families and schools to do their very best to support, encourage, and let kids know that we are all here for them, and they are not alone.

When schools and families work closely together, in a spirit of mutual respect, cooperation and trust, and shared care and concern, a child's opportunity for developing positive mental health greatly increases.

Healthy, happy kids = healthy, happy adults. May we all recommit to our children, each and every day, adjusting our parenting where we need to, learning from mistakes made, modelling the skills our kids need to love themselves and to get along with others. This requires that we as adults, keep working on our own mental health also.

Thanks again to all those in our own community who look out for others, who reach out in friendship, and who are a positive influence in our community.

A huge thank you to Kristy, Caitlin, Quinn and our whole team for rocking up before 7am and for all their planning and organisation of the Athletics Carnival today. Once again, while days like this are about the physical activity, healthy competition and team spirit, they are also about celebrating our kids and community as a whole. Just being together, enjoying each other's company, enjoying the weather and enjoying the excitement of the day is so awesome and creates wonderful memories for our kids.

A reminder that it will be an EARLY CLOSE on Tuesday the 17th September, to allow for K-6 parent - teacher meetings.

A few important reminders regarding these meetings:

Please be on time to collect your child at 12.00pm.
Please mark your meeting time/s in your diary and set a reminder for yourself.
Please respect the importance of turning up on time and finishing your meeting within the 10 minute timeslot allocated.
Please give some thought and planning to the supervision of other siblings while you are meeting with the teacher.

To maximise this opportunity, please be prepared to listen carefully, to ask questions and to focus primarily on your child's learning progress. It is expected that you would have already met with or spoken to your child's teacher about any other matters of concern, prior to this meeting.

After your meeting, when communicating with your child, it is very important that you give them positive feedback and encouragement. If they still have work to do, or if they are perhaps not performing as you had hoped, try to let them know that you are proud of them, that you believe in them, that they can be proud of their efforts so far, that there is still a term to keep working hard and do their best, and so on.

While it would be easier in many respects to stay here rather than attend a conference, it is important that staff engage in ongoing professional learning. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to listen to new ideas; however, I am also mindful that my absence will particularly impact the workload of my two Assistant Principal's and Admin staff. Parents are therefore asked to please support them and all staff in the last week of what has been another busy term, by reading the newsletter and noting important dates and times and avoiding unnecessary emails or phone calls to the office.

I would like to take this opportunity of sincerely thanking you all for your ongoing support and encouragement - it means a lot and motivates me to continue giving my very best for the good of our whole school community.

Leadership is a tough gig at times but having the support of this wonderful community makes the opportunity to help kids grow and flourish as learners and as people, a powerful driver.

Take care everyone and I hope the school holidays give you all some opportunities to relax and enjoy some family time together.

Regards and best wishes

Geordie

Congratulations

We had a fantastic Athletics Carnival today, the weather was beautiful and everyone had loads of fun! Congratulations to the overall winners, Charity Faction and Pius for winning the Cheer Award! Also, a very well done to the following students.

Parent interview times will close at 12pm Monday

Interviews are IN PERSON and will be 10 minutes long, the teacher will begin to conclude the interview after 8 minutes.

For the smooth running of this event, it is important that we all keep to this schedule and end the appointment in a timely manner. If you think you will need more time, please discuss this with your teacher at the appointment.

To make the most of your appointments, parents may wish to consider the following questions:

1. What are your child's strengths?

2. Where would you like to see your child develop further this year?

3. What are your child's interests?

4. Is there anything in your child's life outside school that could be impacting on their educational development?

5. Is there anything in your child’s report you would like to talk about?

If you have any further enquiries or if you need to cancel at short notice, please contact the school office on 08-9593-4066

Please book your time on the link below, using the event code uvrkm

Bookings

Year 7 2027

A reminder to families that the Year 7 2027 intake at Kolbe Catholic College & Mother Teresa Catholic College will commence from January 2025. Please ensure that your applications are submitted as soon as possible.

Lost Property

Please check the lost property box before the end of term, it is full of all sorts - jackets, hats, water bottles and lunchboxes.

Online absentee forms

Please do not use our online absentee forms to send messages to teachers, this is for attendance notifications only. Should you wish to contact a teacher, please email admin@stbernadettes.wa.edu.au.

Some awesome Netball News!

On Saturday Poppy, Piper, Grace, Ruby and Martha from Year 5 and 6 made their first Netball Grand Final in their first year of having finals! They went through the season completely undefeated!

Poppy scored the first goal of the game, and they never looked back – winning 23 to 11 at the final siren!

Basketball Program Years 2 - 6

We are so excited to have Ricky Grace Basketball back at Bernie's in Term 4! Classes will run on Wednesday mornings, 7.45 - 8.35am. This is a very popular program and spaces are limited. Please register your child as per below as soon as possible to secure a spot:

The Crew Rockingham

HOW YOU CAN HELP - PAPER BAGS. Every week, The Crew need over 150 paper bags for their food hampers. If you have any extras lying around, they'd love to have them.

You can drop off donations directly to The Crew on Thursdays and Fridays until 1pm or drop them into the collection bin outside Year 2R.