Dear Parents and Carers,
- Term 2 Welcome
It’s exciting to welcome everyone back to Term 2 at St Bernard’s! I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday and is ready to go with another busy term of learning and activities. Staff commenced on Monday with a Professional Learning day at St Matthew’s Primary School in Narrogin, joining with staff from St Matthew’s, St Brigid’s in Collie and St Patrick’s in Katanning. On Tuesday it was lovely to welcome our students back for the start of term.
Highlights for this term include the Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion which will take place on Thursday 23rd May and Sunday 23rd June respectively. Please pray for our students in Year 3/4 who are preparing for these special occasions.
We currently have lots of excited students – and staff – preparing for Year 5/6 camp which takes place at Woodman Point camp ground in South Fremantle next Wednesday to Friday. Camp gives our student leadership group an amazing opportunity for team building, forging stronger relationships and problem solving – as well as having lots of fun! Highlights of the camp include a visit to Fremantle Prison, archery, raft building and, of course, camp food!
Gymnastics is happening in Physical Education for the first six weeks of this term, closely followed by the Cross Country Carnival and the Winter Carnival in Katanning. We also have NAPLAN assessments in Week 3 for Year 3 and Year 5 students, as well as oral language presentations later in the term. Due to the Kojonup Speech and Drama Festival not being held this year, our students will be taking part in a mini speech and drama festival with students from St Patrick’s in Katanning in Week 6. More details will be shared once we have them to hand. A final important date to note is school photos on Thursday 20th June. For a full copy of our calendar please refer to our website – https://stbernards.wa.edu.au/ – also available via the Connected App.
- ANZAC Day
Our whole school attended the ANZAC Day service at KDHS on the last day of Term 1. Oldest student, Elizabeth Mathwin, and youngest student, Oliver Shepherd, laid the wreath and our school captains, Zara Jenkins and Marietta Diallo, read the prayer and the Ode respectively. I was so proud of all our students who represented their school with such pride and respect at this service. During the holidays, Year 6 students Josh Sanders, Marietta Diallo, Elizabeth Mathwin, Zara Jenkins and Sophia Chitty represented St Bernard’s in the community march and service. Josh and Marietta laid the wreath on behalf of the school. My thanks to these students and their families for supporting this event and to our teachers, Ms Melanie Thomas and Ms Esther Kerr, for supporting the students on the day.
- Project Compassion
We have had a couple of Project Compassion boxes returned to the office this week: Grace Perry and Poppy Atkinson returned the Perry family box and Matt Cant is pictured holding his family’s box. Both were full of coins and very heavy! This is a timely reminder that Project Compassion boxes are due back to the office, and classroom boxes will be collected, ready to send back to Caritas next Friday. All funds raised support Caritas mission activities in communities less fortunate than our own in Australia and around the world. Please send your box back by next Friday, with any contribution you are able to make being gratefully received.
- Easter Liturgies and P&F Easter Raffle
The last week of Term 1 saw our Holy Week liturgies presented by each class. This was a beautiful faith journey, starting with the K/PP class who told us the story of Palm Sunday, and ending with the Year 1/2 class and the story of Jesus’ resurrection. Fr Francis joined us for this last liturgy and blessed us with holy water. The Easter season in the Church continues for another four weeks, marking the time that Jesus spent among his disciples after his resurrection. Prayer table cloths were changed at our Monday Gathering assembly from purple, which is the colour for the preparation seasons of Lent and Advent to white, which is the colour for the two great celebratory seasons of the Church: Easter and Christmas.
Thank you to our P&F for organising the Easter Raffle and to our P&F president Mrs Leonie Smith for conducting the draw on the last Friday afternoon of Term 1. Some very excited children got to take home their Easter eggs early and it was lovely to see that each child received at least one egg.
- Uniform
The first two weeks of this term will be a transition period in which students can wear winter or summer uniform (not a combination of both). From Week 3 full winter uniform is required. This includes a tie worn with either a short or long-sleeved shirt, long pants for boys and pants or skirt for girls, grey socks for boys, white socks or tights for girls and black leather shoes or boots (for boys). Sport uniform includes the school tracksuit and white ankle socks with sports shoes. The uniform shop is open each assembly Friday before school and orders can be left at the front office. Please support your children by sending them in the correct uniform, helping to create a sense of pride in their school. If you need assistance please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Finally, please keep Fr Francis in your prayers as he deals with the death of his grandmother in the Philippines and prepares for shoulder surgery in the next few weeks.
Until next time, God Bless,
Mrs Sharon Marino
Principal
