Millie’s Leaving Class Presentation
What an emotional day, I think we made it clear just how sad we were to be loosing such a vibrant and loving teacher. We had 4 songs, presents galore and a few tears. Goodluck Mrs Guidi, to say you will be missed is an understatement.
Year 1 / 2 Sleep over
On the last Thursday before the end of term, the very excited Year 1/2 Class held their much anticipated sleepover. The troops arrived back at school at 4:30pm. We set up our beds and made paper planes. Mr Smith came and helped cook our yummy BBQ. Thanks to Mrs Atkinson who made some pesto pasta and the Mum’s who provided us with some fruit and veggies. It was delicious. At 6:30pm we got comfy on our beds and settled in to watch a movie. Mrs Schinzig tried to log into Netflix, however the internet was down… Thank you to Mrs Clayton who came to our rescue with some DVD’s!! After the movie, we farewelled some of our friends, and snuggled into our nice warm sleeping bags. It was an early start to the morning when Mrs Davies came ready with her frypan and cooked us pancakes for breakfast. We made ourselves a sandwich, choose one of the many snacks our Mum’s made and grabbed a piece of fruit ready for the day ahead. A huge thank you to Mr Smith, Mrs Davies and all the parents who provided or cooked us food. I’m sure their was some very tired children. Luckily it was the holidays!
Interschool Cross Country
The last week couple of weeks of Term Two were very busy on the sporting field. On Friday 28th June the students in Years 3-6 participated in the Winter Carnival in Katanning. For the first time our students combined with the students from St Patrick’s to play their chosen sport. We had teams combined in hockey, football, netball and soccer – the only team represented by just St Bernard’s students was the Year 4/5 footbal teaml. The students really enjoyed playing sports with some new found friends. A big thank you to Ashley Sanders, Courtney Tunui, Cameron Cant, Sandra Gianoli, Margie Davies and Mel Thomas for coaching or managing some of the teams. Thanks also to Felicity Clegg from St Patrick’s who organised the combined teams. We all look forward to getting back together next year and playing more fun games at the Winter Carnival.
On Tuesday 2nd July, St Bernard’s hosted the Interschool Cross Country at the Kojonup Golf Club. We were blessed with perfect weather and wonderful parent helpers, which helped to make the day a great success. The P&F did an amazing job catering for all the students and spectators. We are so lucky to be given permission by the Kojonup Golf Club to use their magnificent facilities and also to have Warren Porter offer his services to help set up the course in the morning. A big thank you to everyone who helped on the day.
There were fantastic running skills on display by all the competitors, but it was really hard keeping up with the runners from Frankland River, who won the day. Congratulations to Will Sibley who placed third in Intermediate Boys event and Joshua Sanders who placed second in the Senior Boys event.
The overall scores for the schools were:
1st– Frankland River 52
2nd– Cranbrook 20.5
3rd– Tambellup 19
4th– St Bernard’s 13.5
5th– Kendenup 11
6th– Broomehill 8
Finally, on Friday 5th July we were lucky to have Daniel Ebert from West Australian Football Commission run a football clinic with the students from Pre-Primary to Year 6. Students practised their handballs, kicks and marks and everyone enjoyed the session and learnt many new skills.
This term we are looking forward to having Mr Harry Cavoli teaching Physical Education to all students on Fridays while Mrs Marinoni is away on long service leave. Mr Cavoli will be teaching skills in athletics ready for our Faction Athletics Carnival on Friday 6th September and the Interschool Athletics Carnival in Cranbrook on Friday 20th September.
Photos from the above sporting events can be found on our school website
Josh Sanders – 2nd place Seniors and Will Sibley 3rd – Intermediates with their medals, fantastic finishes boys!
Winter Carnival
Footy Clinic
Student Pick Up at KDHS
When collecting students at KDHS, parents are asked to park near the tennis court and walk to the bus area to collect their children.
The bus area is for buses only and parents are asked to keep this area free in the interest of child safety.
P & F News
7th August P and F Meeting – 9.00am
Uniform Shop
The uniform shop will be open Friday 2nd August from 8.30 – 9.00 am before the assembly for all your WINTER uniform requirements.
If you are unable to make it on the day the Uniform Shop is open, please fill out a uniform shop order form and leave it with Admin and the Uniform ladies will collate it for you. This can then be picked up either on the Friday when uniform shop is open or from Admin.
Term 3 – Monday Morning Canteen Volunteer
Ebony Macri – Canteen helper for Term 3. Thankyou so MUCH! Much appreciated
Term Dates
Term 3 dates are Tuesday 23rd July – Friday 27th September (SCHOOL CLOSED – 23rd August Friday)
Items to Give Away / Rehome
Please see left side veranda of admin, these are items we no longer need, please feel free to take.
From the Board Chair
Welcome back to Term Three!
I’d like to take this opportunity on behalf of the School Board to say that I hope you had a safe and happy school holiday and well done on the completion of Semester One. I hope you enjoyed some great extra family time over the last few weeks and that your family is settling back into Term Three nicely.
We would like to let you know that as a result of feedback from members of the school community, spearheaded by Kate Clayton, the Board has given ‘in principle support’ for an all weather play area over the basketball court. We are currently investigating a range of options and will keep you posted through the planning process.
Additionally, if any of you are considering contributing to the school at the Board level please express your interest with any of your Board members or administration staff. I look forward to seeing you around St Bernard’s soon.
Should you wish to contact me with suggestions, issues or ideas in relation to our school to be discussed with the Board please call on 0429883348 or email jameseyres1@gmail.com.
James Eyres – Board Chairperson
MacqLit and MiniLit – Did you know….
Our MiniLit and MacqLit literacy acceleration programs have been running for a term, so it’s a good time for an update.
Literacy skills are fundamental to a student’s progress throughout school. The ability to read and write underpins their learning in other key learning areas such as Maths, Science, Health and Humanities & Social Sciences. Students who have developed their literacy skills to a functional level are able to further develop and extend their learning and capabilities in all other learning areas, such as the Arts, Languages, Technologies and Physical Education.
St Bernard’s students and their families are fortunate to have access to the MiniLit and MaqLit literacy acceleration programs. Two staff members co-ordinate these programs full-time at our school: Mrs Kaylene Smart runs the MiniLit program for students in Years 1-3 and Mrs Margie Davies runs the MacqLit program for students in Years 3-6.
MiniLit and MacqLit both operate as acceleration programs to help students fast-track the development of their literacy skills. Both programs focus on developing and embedding core literacy skills such as decoding, fluency and comprehension.
Students benefit from attending their regular classroom literacy lessons, as well as MiniLit or MacqLit lessons, which are fun, fast-paced and engaging. A rolling timetable means most students do not miss out on the same lessons each week to attend MiniLit or MacqLit lessons.
MiniLit and MacqLit are run at many schools in WA, as well as nationally and internationally. It is an evidence-based, research initiative developed at Macquarie University. Closer to home, St Patrick’s School in Katanning runs the MiniLit, MacqLit and InitiaLit programs, and St Joseph’s College in Albany has just begun MacqLit after investigating the model we are running here at St Bernard’s.
Both the MiniLit and MacqLit programs regularly collect student data to track progress and Mrs Smart and Mrs Davies work closely with the classroom teachers to ensure the students are receiving targeted teaching at their point of need. The programs complement our whole-school focus on improving all students’ literacy skills through the implementation of the Literacy Dedicated Time (LDT) block each day and the PLD spelling program in all classrooms.
After one term, we have seen amazing growth in all our MiniLit and MacqLit students and I regularly hear excited, engaged students working in the MiniLit room with Mrs Smart in the admin block.
If you would like to know more, check out the links below and please don’t hesitate to come and see me if you have any queries or concerns.
