Playground Planning

At the end of last year, our leadership team met with  Play Consultant and Landscape Architect from Urban Play to discuss our growing needs for play options in our senior years. We were so excited about this company’s philosophy about play and about the products they use to create dynamic engaging and challenging concepts. We engaged with them to create a two year plan for building our specifically designed play space for our students in Years 4 - 6 (though our Year 3’s should get to use it this year too). We have just seen the first draft of plans with three concepts we can choose from. We have a little more discussion to have until we reach the final plan but we are already very excited about the components that will be in this playground. I look forward to sharing the plans with our students once I return from leave. The new playground will be built behind Teal and Orange Block above the low oval.

Writing Project

This year as part of our School Improvement Plan, we are engaging in a specific focus to improve our student’s writing. This is not about handwriting but about the creation of written texts eg. narratives, reports, persuasive essays etc. We have identified that while students seem to have some understanding about the process of writing (text structure), they do need further development with the skills of writing. For example

• Audience- considering who their reader will be, 
• Ideas- planning out their thoughts and including information and language /vocabulary that is relevant to the topic

Most classes from Years 2 -6 have been promoting writing success and building student confidence with writing over the last few weeks with lots of practice and explicit teaching of specific areas. We have already seen students being able to develop their ideas more deeply and think more about the different type of ‘voice’  you might use for different readers. We look forward to students reach levels of success they can celebrate.

Prep Enrolment 2023

Please be aware we are already over subscribed with Prep enrolments for 2023 so if you are a current family of our school, you need to ensure your sibling applications are in as soon as possible so we know how many places we have available for new families. We only guarantee a place for siblings in the first round of enrolment offers after interviews early next term. 

Have a fabulous week. I’ll see you all next term

Cheers

Penny

Welcome to the end of Week 7!  This Thursday and Friday I’ve been away at an APRE Cluster Meeting, with other APRE’s from around the diocese.  Throughout the 2 days we were presented with much information.  Many of the presentations have promoted much thought from myself.  Some of these include; reinvigorating the teaching of scripture (biblical texts) within our school; considering our schools Catholic Identity and enhancing this further, particularly in the area of developing spiritual spaces; the importance of prayer within our school and how this can be improved; and breaking open Pope Francis’ document, Fratelli Tutti to further inspire and challenge Catholic Education.  I look forward to bringing this back to school and sharing with staff and students to further enhance the Religious Education and Catholic Identity at St Benedict’s.

Project Compassion

Each week, Project Compassion has a video to show how they are supporting people and communities around the world.  Please see the link below to see one of the many projects around the world and to see where your donations might be spent.  This week's story takes us to India and is about a man named Biru.  If any of these stories inspire you to give any monetary funds to Caritas, we have collection boxes within classrooms and in the school office.

https://www.caritas.org.au/project-compassion/biru-story/

Pax,

Nick

After 2 weeks of this prolonged heat, many of the children are feeling tired and worn out.  You may be feeling quite weary too - which is totally ok.  Make sure you are taking time to rest and be re-energised.  The downhill run to the end of term is swift, though there much still to come.  Make sure to celebrate your journey so far, and shine a light on the positives. 

What ways does your family connect and recharge?  There is real value in “pushing pause” and letting some things go - even if just for a moment.  They will be there later, when you are refreshed and ready to tackle them with a full heart and spirit.  Children are only children once. Take time, be kind to yourself.  We learn from Jesus our teacher when he said “Come to me and I will give you rest” Matthew 11:28

P&F News

This week we held our annual general meeting (AGM).  It was lovely to finally have parents coming together and sharing their ideas on how we can come together as a community.  Congratulations to our two (2) Parent Coordinators on their nomination - Renee Neville and Tam McDonald.  Please don’t hesitate to reach out to them with ideas, questions or offers of assistance as the year progresses.

The proposed new structure of the P&F was shared - it is one that will see the P&F still keep its event and community focus happening each term, though will also move to a focus on engaging with the learning and teaching within our school.  From next term we will have 2 meetings a term (Week 2 & Week 6) with a live stream option through our parent FB Page offered also.

There will be more ideas to come next term around how this can take place, starting with the Celebration of Success open classroom mornings on a Friday after assembly.  Classes will invite parents to attend these celebrations of success.  Keep an eye out for your class newsletters for more information.  

Click on this link (here) for the minutes of the P&F Meeting.

Last week our students participated in a Stewardship Action Meeting with their class (see last week’s newsletter for more information!). As part of the meeting, each class decided on a sustainability goal for the term. Here are some wonderful examples…

Prep Wombats: Pick up at least 2 pieces of rubbish every day.

Year 1 Echidnas: Make sure we put our rubbish in the right bin! (Did you know we have bins for recycling, food waste, bottles/cans, soft plastics, and general rubbish!?)

Year 5/6 Jellyfish: Pack a litter free lunch to reduce the rubbish at school. 

Does your child know what their stewardship goal is for the term!? ? Could you think about having a stewardship goal at home with your children? Could you recycle, pack a litter free lunch, or compost your food waste? 

What is Student Voice?

At St Benedict’s we value student voice. Student voice is when students actively participate in decision making on things which shape their educational experiences, like they do in our Stewardship Action Meetings. At St Benedict’s we value the perspectives and opinions of students and act on them in a way that genuinely shapes learning and decision making at school. Along with the Stewardship Action Meetings, students and teachers design solutions together in project based learning, have choices in some of their learning experiences, and can often voice what space they would like to learn in. Our teachers at St Benedict’s spend time planning for, teaching, and supporting our students so they are capable of making smart learning choices. “Schools that focus on giving children and young people a voice, being active learners and developing strong character qualities that will enable them to succeed, thrive and contribute positively throughout life.”

Yours in Learning, 

Aleesha Rockemer 

(Learning and Teaching Adviser)