St Brigid’s School acknowledges the Bibbulmun people as the traditional custodians of the land upon which our school is situated.

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Community Members,

Our first Board meeting was held last Tuesday, 14 February, at 7.00pm. The 2017 School Board consists of the following members of our community: Principal Andrew Kelly Parish Priest Fr Roshan Chairperson Mr John Bookless Secretary Mrs Susie White Treasurer Mrs Maria Bruers P&F Rep Mrs Alice Morgan Parish Rep Mrs Linda Vowles Board Member Mrs Shannon Butler-Fraser Board Member Mrs Simone Taylor

I look forward to working alongside the members of the School Board to ensure that our children are the recipients of the best Catholic education we are able to possibly give. I realise that it is not always easy to find time in the busyness of our lives, but our children certainly deserve, and will benefit from, whatever time and support we are able to give.

I look forward to a very productive year with the Board working with the Leadership Team, P&F Association, and staff in promoting our goal of ‘Expect Great Things’ in all areas of our school.

Swimming Lessons My sincere thanks to Mr. Ternent for coordinating our swimming lessons for this term. I thank the teachers, students and parents for their support too! Along with learning to improve their swimming skills, the students will enjoy life lessons in organisation and resiliency.

Wisdom from the Classrooms Each morning once I have completed my morning duty I enjoy visiting classrooms. It is

always a delight to see the buzz of excitement emanating from your children as they work

with their teacher and classmates. It amazes me the conversations I have and the learning

that takes place. I enjoy the children’s input and am delighted at the fabulous

opportunities our students enjoy. Our dedicated staff have been working hard on creating

areas of curiosity and investigation through the use of technology. You will definitely hear

more about this at our Parent/Teacher meetings.

2017 School Fees Annual School Fee Statements have been sent home with today’s newsletter. If you have a Health Care Card, or a Parenting Payment Single Card and you are the sole parent responsible for paying school fees, you are entitled to a reduction in tuition fees. Please present your card to the office and sign the declaration form before 31 March

2017, to enable the school to receive a rebate for the discount you will be offered.

Andrew Kelly Principal

16 Feb 2017 Term 1 Week 3

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a

new and right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

Create a clean heart in me, God.

Dust off the unmindful activity that

constantly collects there.

De-clutter my heart from harsh judgements

and negativity.

Wash away my resistance to working

through difficult relationships.

Rinse off my un-loving so the beauty of my

generous and kind heart

can shine forth.

Remove whatever keeps

me from following in Your

compassionate footsteps.

Amen.

St Brigid’s Parish Sunday Mass times

19 Feb 5.00pm 26 Feb 9.00am 5 Mar 5.00pm

12 Mar 9.00am

17 Feb—Fri

Chantal O’Day

20 Feb—Mon

Georgie Reape

17 Feb—Fri

Abbie Fetter

20 Feb—Mon

Michelle Finch

Hayley Stone

Winter Uniform Pre Order forms are enclosed with this newsletter.

Please complete and return at your earliest convenience, so we can ensure orders arrive in time for Term 2.

Uniform Shop is open next Tuesday afternoon from 2.45-3.15pm.

Howdy Sports Lovers! Next week our intrepid PP, Yr1, Yr2 and Yr3 classes venture off to our town pool to complete their In-Term Swimming Lessons. This has been a long time coming due to the pool renovations and the unexpected difficulty of locating qualified and available instructors. I know all our students will be fabulous participants in their lessons and I hope they thoroughly enjoy the experience. I know my Yr1 child is certainly looking forward to it! Just a reminder for students to wear their bathers to school underneath their uniform so they can have a smooth transition to and from the pool. Finally, Mrs Sharon Gardner is very kindly offering swimming training sessions each Monday and Wednesday until our swimming carnival on Friday, 10 March. These sessions will begin at 3:15 and finish at 4pm and children are asked to bring goggles, towel, pool entry and a water bottle. If your child is under 10 years of age you are required to remain at the pool to supervise. As always, please pop in to chat about any of the above. Finally, we are about to finalise the details for our Big Bash Cricket Evening on 17th March commencing at 4:30pm and ask any interested parents to please see me ASAP so I can formalise the teams. Thank you! Mr T

A BIG thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who helped make last weekend’s darts function such a roaring success. I hope that it was FUN and perhaps you got to meet new people and have a laugh! So many contributed, but I would like to make special mention of Bek Troode, who worked tirelessly before, during and after the weekend. You are amazing Bek! Early estimates suggest we made approximately $2,300; a truly incredible amount and worth all the time and effort. Our next fundraising activity will be Saturday, 11 March, at the Shire Family Movie Event, The BFG . St B’s are doing the catering! We would ask for donations of slices/biscuits/brownies, and we will be cooking carbonara, stuffed spuds, pulled pork rolls and children’s tasting plates, plus cold and hot drinks. Please call me to volunteer on the night (0417 902 096) or look for more details on the FaceBook page! I would like to welcome Alice Morgan as an executive member the Committee as the new P&F Board Representative. So pleased to have you on “Board” Alice! Our next P&F meeting is Monday, 27 February , 9am in the school library. Cheerio, Sharon

Calling all Milo Cricketers!

Bridgetown Cricket Club is having a Milo Cricket Coaching Clinic on Saturday February 25th at the

Bridgetown Football Oval from 9am -10am. All new and past Milo Cricketers welcome. No experience

necessary. Milo cricket is designed for ages 5-11 and is an introduction to the game of cricket.

For further information please contact Cherie on 0428763540 Notices Accompanying

this Newsletter

Article Distribution

Winter Uniform Order

Canteen Roster

Significant Dates Calendar 2017

School Fees 2017

All families

All families

All families

All families

Once the weather cools, we will start researching what seasonal vegetables

can be grown and then we will plant seedlings with each class. This year in

place of the Yearbook, we will be publishing a St Brigid’s Cookbook based

on what we grow and cook in our vegetable gardens. We will also get the

worm farm and compost bin up and running shortly.

Week Date Time Event

4 20 - 24 Feb Swimming lessons PP-Y3

5 27 Feb 9.00am P&F Meeting

5 27 Feb-3 Mar Swimming lessons PP-Y3

6 6 Mar PUBLIC HOLIDAY

8 Mar 9.00am Yr5 Class Mass

10 Mar St Brigid’s School Swimming Carnival-Bridgetown

12 Mar 9.00am Staff, Board, P&F Commissioning Mass

Gabrielle Ward

Brooke Rutten

James Fisk

Congratulations to our newly elected student leaders for 2017.

From left: Henry, Opal, Rachel, Heidi, Rori and Kallan. Henry and

Heidi have been elected as our Head Boy and Head Girl for 2017.

Opal, Rachel, Rori and Kallan have been elected to the council for

semester One. They will all be assigned a ministry and these six

students will be commissioned at the Staff Commissioning Mass on

Sunday, 12 March, at 9.00am.

MERIT CERTIFICATE HONOUR BOARD 10 FEBRUARY 2017 Pre Primary – Sophie and Jacob Year One – Jett , Annalise and George Year Two – Mackenzie, Charlie and Ken Year Three – Toby and Xanthe Year Four – Chiranat and Declan Year Five – Thomas and Gemma Year Six – Rori and Heidi

Congratulations to our Merit Award recipients ! Our next assembly will be on Wednesday, 15 March, at 2.20pm. Brigid the Bear will be back from Long Service Leave and is looking forward to going home with someone special as part of Making Jesus Real in our school and community!

Visitors – Sign -In Schools have a ‘duty of care’ to students, staff, parents and visitors on the site. To fulfil our ‘duty of care’ to everyone on the school site, all visitors to the school are required to sign in at the front office. This includes parent helpers. Although this procedure may appear a burden, it will ensure that the school can account for all individuals in the event of an emergency and it will help us increase our ability to protect any student, staff or parent on the site. The sign-in book is situated in the front office.

Year One Our focus for the beginning of the term has been developing confidence when working in our new classroom environment. We have discussed 'start' and 'stop' behaviours as part of our school's Behaviour Management Plan. In English, the children have been learning the routines for 'Reading Groups' and 'Investigations'. These procedures will become more formalised in Week Seven.

The first Religious Education unit is 'We Make Choices' and we have been discussing and wondering about God. The main story about Jesus in this unit is 'Jesus Chooses his Four Disciples' and the children will be participating in Godly play sessions around this part of the Bible. Leading on from this we will be working on 'Friends Together' and our Lent/Easter unit, 'A Special Holy Time'. Integration of Religious Education into English and Visual Arts supports the children's understanding of new concepts.

We have been learning strategies for sounding out words such as 'sound boxes' and 'coloured sounds' to develop an understanding of new sounds. The children have been all focusing on the same sounds to learn these strategies, however, from next week they will be learning individualised sounds applying the strategies they have been practising. In Mathematics we have been developing an understanding about the different tools we can use. Comparing and numbers and the verbal counting sequence will lead on to developing and applying mental maths strategies, counting in twos, fives and tens, and developing an understanding of the parts of a whole number. We mostly use concrete objects and sometimes draw our understanding of new concepts. In Measurement, the children will continue to learn about the seasons and length.

From top left to top right: Year Three students practise differentiating the ur/er/ir sounds in our morning spelling session. Mr Parkinson teaching Music with Kindy. Lots of Drama in Pre Primary and the Year One class playing maths games.