Newsletter

God, let me play well, but fairly.

Let the competition make me strong, but never hostile.

Forbid me from rejoicing in the adversity of others.

See me not when I am cheered, but when I bend to help my opponent up.

If I know victory, allow me to be happy.

If I lose, keep me from envy.

Remind me that sports are just games.

Help me to learn something that matters once the game is over.

And most of all, help me to be a good example to other athletes.

Amen.

Dear Parents and Caregivers, it was a wonderful celebration on Sunday when many of our students made their First Holy Communion. During a child's First Holy Communion it is the first time partaking in the Eucharist and accepting Jesus in their lives. The main reason why girls wear white First Communion dresses, and the boys wear presentable suits is because it is a holy and joyous occasion that celebrates the souls becoming the Body of Christ. Our children looked beautiful when they attended Mass on Sunday it is always a memorable step in their faith journey, and we are honoured to be present on this very sacred day.

CROSS COUNTRY FACTION CARNIVAL

There is always a buzz in the air as we prepare for the Cross-Country Faction Carnival. This is not an easy carnival to run, it takes great dedication and endurance to run the length of the course and complete the race. Our students have been practicing for months now and many our seeing how much they have improved. We have been blessed to have Mr Sam Harris training our students and giving them lots of encouragement.

Mr Harris has also run the running club every Tuesday this term free of charge to assist our students with the length of the race. This is a huge undertaking and I know the Sam loves helping our students to compete in all carnivals. We have seen so many students who struggled to run the race at the beginning of the term now find that through hard work they are starting to see great results.

ENROLMENTS

I have been delighted to meet our new and existing families for next year. I have been interviewing Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten enrolments for 2023. Our Kindergarten classes are filling quickly and presently we only have 9 spots left for 2023. I hope this is a timely reminder for existing families that if you have not enrolled your child with us next year and they are ready for kindergarten you may need to do so quickly so that you do not miss out for 2023.

BIRDS OF PREY

The Year Five Classes enjoyed a wonderful experience last Tuesday, as part of their Science and Literacy Programs, with a Birds of Prey Incursion. The children got up ‘close and personal’ with Falcons, Kites, Kestrels, Owls, and a Wedge Tailed Eagle! Much was learned about these often-maligned raptors. A special thank you to the Western Australian Birds of Prey Centre, for introducing our students to these amazing animals.

REPORTS

School reports will go live on Friday 24th June, this is week 9 of Term Two. This will give parents the opportunity to speak with class teachers if the need arises. When you receive your child’s report it is the perfect time to sit down with your child and read through the report together. Remember to always compliment your child on their improvements, every child achieves more through patience and love than criticism.

Discipline

In my role as Principal, I often come into contact with parents who are having difficulty managing challenging behaviour from their children. Parents often talk about punishment for inappropriate behaviour. I prefer to use the word discipline. Punishment teaches children to be resentful and guarantees a relationship based on fear and disrespect. Discipline is a learning process with the goal of teaching children self-discipline: to guide children to be cooperative and responsible for their own behaviours and actions. The following is one approach that can be used to discipline children effectively:

D - distracting the child.

I - ignoring misbehaviour when appropriate.

S - structuring the environment.

C - controlling the situation, not the child.

I - involving the child through choices and consequences.

P - planning time for loving.

L - letting go.

I - increasing your consistency.

N - noticing positive behaviour.

E - excluding the child with a time out.

Using these ideas as appropriate can greatly assist in changing unwanted behaviour and encouraging behaviour that is desired. Of all these, increasing consistency is the most important. Using the same consequences and techniques will reinforce what is expected and what will not be tolerated, and your child will soon realise that the boundaries are set and you mean what you say.

May God Bless you

Ms Paula Mackenzie, Principal

BIRDS OF PREY INCURSION:

The Year Five Classes enjoyed a wonderful experience last Tuesday, as part of their Science and Literacy Programs, with a Birds of Prey Incursion. The children got up ‘close and personal’ with Falcons, Kites, Kestrels, Owls, and a Wedge Tailed Eagle! Much was learned about these often-maligned raptors. A special thank you to the Western Australian Birds of Prey Centre, for introducing our students to these amazing animals.

St Vincent de Paul 2022 Winter Appeal

St Vincent de Paul Society is asking our wonderful St Brigid’s community if they would help in their 2022 Winter Appeal.

Below are a list of suggested items that would provide assistance to those in need.

· Blankets and sleeping bags.

· Jumpers, beanies, socks and gloves.

· Shower gels, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush and paste.

· Food items such as tuna, muesli bars, Up and Go’s, two minute noodles, jellybeans and fruit cups.

Please bring any donations to the Mackillop hall by end of term 2 Friday the 1st of July 2022.

St Brigid’s Complaints Procedure:

St Brigid’s Primary School is committed to providing quality education to all students in a safe, inclusive and caring learning environment. We value working together with parents and families as critical partners in student learning outcomes and welcome suggestions, feedback and comments from parents, students, or staff, and takes all complaints and concerns seriously.

Effective communication is the key to building a positive relationship between home and school and plays an important part in the education of your child. You should feel confident that we will listen and respond to your concerns, and effectively manage and resolve complaints.

Issues may arise during your child’s schooling, and these are more productively resolved if you raise them with the school directly, as early as possible. If you are not sure who to speak to, you can start with your child’s teacher. For some matters, it may be appropriate to talk directly to the school’s assistant principal’s or the principal. If you have approached your child’s school but haven’t been able to resolve the issue, you may request the assistance of the Director of Catholic Education or Congregational Leader, although all issues of dispute or complaint must be addressed in the first instance at the school level. Please see link

https://stbrigidsms.wa.edu.au/our-school/policies/

Reading with Your Child:

Whether you’re reading a classic novel or fairy tales before bed, reading aloud to your children can significantly benefit your child’s learning. When your children are old enough to start reading to you, don’t stop reading to them. There are benefits to reading as well as being read to.

While children are reading or listening to stories, they are developing their thinking skills, learning new vocabulary and experiencing new language patterns. It is the perfect time to ask questions, make predictions, give opionions, learn new words and suggest solutions to possible problems presented in the story.

Sometimes you will have to take on the role of the listener while they read aloud to you, sounding out words and finding meaning in the sentences, but enjoy those precious moments of reading to your child.

Reading to your child:

· Supports cognitive development

· Improves language skills

· Supports academic success

· Helps to develop a special bond with your child

· Develops reading comprehension

· Inspires imagination and creativity

· Cultivates a lifelong love or reading

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.“ (Dr Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!)

SWIMMING LESSONS (Yr 3 – Yr 6)

I remind all Year 3 to Year 6 parents that swimming lessons will be taking place over the first two weeks of Term 3 commencing Wednesday 20 July 2022. Swimming enrolment forms have been sent today and are to be returned to the classroom teacher by Monday 27 June. During swimming lesson weeks, students are to wear their sport uniform to school with their bather’s underneath. Students are required to bring their thongs to wear to and from the pool – students will not be allowed to wear their thongs for the entire day.

· Online Interm Swimming Enrolment Form: https://www.education.wa.edu.au/interm-swimming?redirect=%2Fswimming-lessons

On Sunday 12th June the Year 4 students celebrated their First Holy Communion at Saint Brigid’s Parish. The community enjoyed a heart felt ceremony with the students speaking beautifully and reverently. Many thanks to the Parish, Father Benny and Father Rodrigo, the St Brigid’s staff and parents for making this a truly memorable occasion.

On Friday 24th of June at 12:30pm parents are invited to celebrate Mass with the St Brigid’s School community in the Mary McKillop Hall. We will be celebrating the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Like any religious consecration, one made to the Sacred Heart is an extension of our baptismal commitment. In the waters of baptism, we put on Christ — anointed with the Holy Spirit to live as a new creation in the life of the Blessed Trinity — to embrace the goodness of the Gospel. Consecrating ourselves to the Sacred Heart is a personal and loving way to renew and live our baptismal vows. We acknowledge Jesus’ sovereignty in our lives, pledging our love back to Him who has so graciously and sacrificially loved us.

The Mass will highlight ways in which we give God our day: its prayer, work, joy and sufferings. This oblation of the heart renews our consecration and reminds us to live in holy mindfulness that what we do, say, value and embrace should be a worthy return to the Lord who has done so much for us.

How do fathers figure in?

• Mike Kelly (Eureka Street)

There are many gems and reflections on ‘fathering’ in Pope Francis’s apostolic letter, Patris Corde ‘With a Father’s Heart’, in which he nominates 2021 as the year to honour the fatherhood of St Joseph. Francis’s letter is inclusive, encompassing the scope of fatherhood and the responsibilities fathering entails. ‘Fathers are not born, but made’, Francis says. ‘A man does not become a father simply by bringing a child into the world, but by taking up the responsibility to care for that child’.

Positive and engaged fathers who value women and treat everyone with respect are needed today more than ever. To quote Francis, ‘In our world where psychological, verbal and physical violence towards women is so evident, Joseph appears as the figure of a respectful and sensitive man’, ‘creatively courageous’, who models a ‘freedom from possessiveness’.

I’m sure many of us would love to see Saint Joseph, and the qualities he represents, as an exemplar for fatherhood. However, despite all the worldwide churches, institutes, schools and religious orders dedicated to Joseph, he has always seemed to be in the background, never centre stage. Francis laments the failures of fathering for many children across the globe. ‘Our world today needs fathers’. While the response to the Pope’s letter has been largely devotional, his letter deserves wider reflection on how our society is responding to the challenges of fatherhood in 2021. There are many signs that fatherhood in Australia is changing for the better. There is now abundant evidence that dads are spending more time at home with their kids. The advent of father support blogs regularly featuring famous dads and websites like ‘Stayin on Track’ with resources for Aboriginal dads by Aboriginal men, and new ‘father friendly’ education websites, all herald the big cultural shift that is taking place.

Particularly hopeful is the growing acknowledgement that the interests of mothers, fathers and children can be aligned in ways that work for everyone. A great example of this is the campaign for gender equality, with parental leave widely regarded as beneficial all round, lifting women’s capacity to return to work, bonding fathers and children and enabling savings on child care.

'Like Saint Joseph, "the man who goes unnoticed" as Francis calls him, there are countless dads in all types of families who are transforming fatherhood.'

There are signs, too, that reflect a new understanding of the importance of fathering across the community services sector. This is the sector that grapples with family violence, the safety of children, youth homelessness and youth crime on a day-to-day basis — where the need for caring and responsible fathers is most apparent. Where ‘working with parents’ seldom means working with fathers. I often sense that there is no easy way for the community sector to talk about fathers. There is a wariness about venturing into areas that are seen as fraught with complexities — where there is no common understanding of what a ‘home’ constitutes and no universal appreciation of the importance of nurturing and compassionate fathering.

The community sector acknowledges that it is largely reactive and crisis driven in its response to social problems like homelessness and family violence. Agencies chiefly depend on government resources to do earlier work with fathers — resources that are largely locked into remedial programs. Early intervention with fathers is still a long way off for many organisations. And while there has been a surge in research on fathering in recent times, this has not yet been translated into effective policy. There is a glaring absence of policies and action (at all levels of governance) aimed at supporting fathers with their roles and responsibilities. For instance, it is rare to find policies that speak to the importance of fathers in raising boys to respect mothers and women.

Yet there is a growing realisation within the community sector, informed by new research, that approaches aimed at supporting fathers can provide lasting benefits for mothers, children and families. The sector’s report The Voice of Parents with Melbourne University shows that missed opportunities to engage fathers can unfairly leave the burden of responsibility solely on women and miss precious opportunities to benefit children. Agencies like Anglicare, Uniting Care and Kids First are taking up the challenge with their Caring Dads programs, tailored for fathers, who are changing their behaviour for the sake of their children. And Relationships Australia’s Support For Fathers has developed new tools to help agencies in their work with families. Despite the daunting challenges, there is much to be hopeful about. Like Saint Joseph, ‘the man who goes unnoticed’ as Francis calls him, there are countless dads in all types of families who are transforming fatherhood — working from home, sharing the ups and downs of parenthood with their partners, raising their kids to respect all others, and like Joseph are ‘creatively courageous’ in tackling the challenges of our time.

Mike Kelly is a Geelong social worker with a special interest in fatherhood and early intervention with vulnerable families.

TERM ONE

Monday 31st January – Friday 8th April

Pupil Free Days - 8th March & 8th April

TERM TWO

Tuesday 26th April – Friday 1 July

Pupil Free Days – 5th & 6th May

TERM THREE

Monday the 18th July – Friday 23 September

Pupil Free Days - 12th August

TERM FOUR

Monday 10th October – Friday 9th December

Pupil Free Days - 10th October

The LifeLink organisation was established by the Archdiocese of Perth in 1994 to provide for the ongoing financial and promotional support of agencies established or assisted by the Church. LifeLink’s agencies deliver professional services & caring support to thousands of people in need throughout Western Australia each year.

We have added an indigenous flare to it, we’ve called it ‘Faith in Action’ combining our

catholic religion with aboriginal spirituality to make these amazing pieces of artwork.

Our interpretation of the two blending together. They are displayed in our office hallway.

All students involved should be extremely proud of their artwork because we are.

If you have placed an on line order through QuickCliq and your child is unwell or the canteen is closed, you MUST cancel your order before the cut off time of 9.00am by going on line and following these instructions:

Log into your QuickCliq account -> click Active/Cancel order -> Scroll to the right -> click Cancel against the order.

Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays are the busiest days for the canteen. If you can't help for the entire day, that's not a problem, we would be grateful if you could help between the hours of 11.15am to 12.30pm. As a "thank you" for your help, the canteen will provide you with lunch, a cold drink and bottomless cups of tea/coffee. Please call into the canteen and have a chat with Kylie (our canteen manager) to let her know when you are available.

Uniform Shop Opening Hours

Monday 8.00am till 10.00am

Wednesday 1.30pm till 3.30pm

Uniform Order Forms can be emailed to uniform@stbrigidsms.wa.edu.au or contact Mrs Jo-Anne Vellis during open hours only on 6216 3865.

ONLINE UNIFORM ORDER FORM

If you need to place an order please click the below link, complete the form and either sent it to uniform@stbrigidsms.wa.edu.au or alternatively you can send the form in with your student to be handed into the office.
https://stbrigidsms.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Uniform-Order-form-2022.pdf

Please note: Children in years 3 to six should be wearing their school ties as this is part of our winter uniform. As part of this uniform all students should wear clean and polished black leather lace-up shoes. For more information, please see our Uniform Guidelines at https://stbrigidsms.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Uniform-Guideline-Booklet-2022.pdf

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Due to the interest shown in previous years, we will once again be offering the St Brigid’s Running Club Program’ again in 2022. The program will begin on Tuesday of Week 4 (17th May), and will not only prepare students for the Inter House Cross Country Carnival, but also promote an active lifestyle and encourage participation.

The essential details are listed below;

When: Every Tuesday 3:15pm – 3:45pm

Where: St Brigid’s Primary School, Middle Swan (Meet in the undercover area at the main school oval)

Cost: Free

Year Groups: Pre Primary – Year 6

Equipment:

Students will need to bring running attire and running shoes/joggers, and get changed into their attire at the conclusion of the school day, before ‘Running Club’ commences. Students who wear sports uniform on a Tuesday, may participate in their sports uniform.

Parental Support:

This initiative is one which will be a success if we have the full support of the parents who have their children involved. It is expected that each student’s behaviour is of the highest standard and students must maintain this standard of behaviour throughout the program or they will not be able to continue participating in the program.

This will include ensuring that students are to be picked up no later than 3:50pm at the conclusion of ‘Running Club’ and that participating students stay off the play equipment/stay out of the sand pit areas.

I thank you very much in advance for your support, and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact myself via email, samuelharris1@cewa.edu.au or in person at school.

I hope that we can continue this enjoyable and productive program for the students of our school.

Kind regards

Mr Samuel Harris

Physical Education Teacher

Parents, we are here to support you and your children in before and after school hours! We offer a secure, safe and exciting environment for your children to thrive and be a part of a socialized group.

Please note an enrolment form and 1 days' notice is to be given to make your casual bookings for your children.

We are here to help! Enrolment forms are now online https://www.helpinghandsnetwork.com.au/register/#.

Vacancies Available Now!

P: 0484302073

E: stbrigidsmiddleswan@helpinghandsnetwork.com.au

Mercedes College | A College for every girl in the heart of your city!

We have limited places available in all year groups for 2023 and are currently interviewing for 2024 & 2025. If you are considering enrolling your daughter at Mercedes College, please visit our website at www.mercedes.wa.edu.au to request a prospectus, to enrol online or book a tour of our campus. Please contact our Enrolments Officer, Mrs Nicole Kirk on 9323 1323 if you require further information.

School Holiday Athletics Clinic for boys and girls aged 8 to 16 years. Tues 5th & Wed 6th July 2022 . WA Athletics Stadium. 9am-3pm. $95 per day. Or $170 for both days. Includes a T-Shirt or Shoe Bag or Cap and also a certificate. CHOOSE ANY 4 EVENTS PER DAY! More Info: http://sprintingfast.com/

Service, Courage, Peace, Acceptance

Email: admin@stbrigidsms.wa.edu.au
Website: www.stbrigidsms.wa.edu.au/
Location: 20 Toodyay Road, Middle Swan WA, Australia
Phone: 92501592
Facebook: facebook.com/stbrigidsms
Twitter: @stbrigidsms