Big thanks to our P&F for the wonderful disco we all enjoyed last night. It was really great to see so many families come along and get involved. I was particularly excited by the number of kids we had showing off their dancing skills. Who knew we had such a bunch of groovers? I think the P&F are now working on a Mum’s night out for Mother’s Day next term and another State of Origin Night (where we can all come and cheer for the maroons:)) Please remember you don’t have to come to P&F meetings to get involved, we are also very grateful for helpers at events too. We really appreciate those that can put their hands up and it is a great way to get to know each other as a bonus.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Our teachers are looking forward to catching up with parents on Monday and Tuesday afternoon/evening to discuss your child/children’s progress so far this term. It is a valuable time to understand how your child has settled into class routines and how they are engaging in the learning process. By this time in the term, we can certainly identify some progress with learning and we start to implement plans for the specific needs of our students. This meeting with you child’s class teacher/s is a wonderful opportunity to share in the successes your child has experienced this term already.

Learning at St Benny’s

As you know, our classrooms operate as flexible learning spaces where children have the opportunity to work in different ways including (but not limited to) at desks, in groups with others and working with hands on materials. Flexible learning spaces allow students to engage in learning activities at their developmental level as the concepts about small group work enhance the opportunity for teachers to adjust the learning experiences accordingly. There is a misconception that flexible learning spaces can be a bit of a free for all, kids doing what they like, where they like. This could not be further from how our spaces work. We use a framework for learning spaces that sets out learning behaviours for each of the ways of working. You may have heard your children talk about caves, waterholes, mountain tops, campfires, plains and nests. These are the names of a particular way of working rather than a specific space in the classroom and they allow the discussions about expectations to be focussed on learning behaviours rather than just behaviour generally. For example when we work in an activity with the learning behaviour expectation of a ‘Waterhole’, we know that we have independent work to do quietly but may refer to our peers in the group for assistance if needed. Learning behaviours for a ‘Campfire’ experience would include discussion and collaboration with expectations around noise level, participating to the best of your ability and taking turns. Have a chat to your kids about the learning behaviours for our ways of working in other areas and see if they can explain it to you. Our Preppies should be the only ones who won’t be able to articulate it fully yet.

Our staff are starting to discuss ways we can communicate more effectively about the learning in our classrooms and we are already coming up with some ideas I think you will find engaging and informative. We look forward to sharing these with you next term.

Sacramental Program

Thank you to Mrs Ros Baumann and Mr Nick Christie for coordinating the Sacramental Program in collaboration with our parish. It was lovely to be able to host a group here at school throughout the program. Today the group is enjoying a retreat experience with Fr Dave at the parish community centre along with all students who are completing the Sacramental Program. Our prayers are with this group as they journey forward in their faith experiences. This is a very special time where the students are making their own commitments to God and affirming the choice their parents made in their Baptism.

Looking forward to a fabulous final week of term ahead.

Cheers

Penny

Welcome to Week 9, where we had Year 1 Wallabies present a well polished assembly about the Third Week of Lent. They performed an excellent rendition of 'Joy Down in my Heart's. There has been a change to the roster, and Prep Bilbies will present out final assembly for the term next week at 8:45am on Monday, see you there!

Fr Dave Visit

Year 4 were lucky to have Fr Dave visit them during their Religious Education class to talk to them about Anointing of the Sick', one of the Sacraments. As well as talking about Anointing, the Dragonflies also asked Fr Dave many wonderful questions. All the students look forward to visits from Fr Dave, and it greatly enriches our RE program.

Sacramental Program

I am currently at our parish Sacramental Retreat Day with several of our Year 3 & 4  students who are undergoing preparation for the sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion. We wish these students all the best on their journey of faith in the next couple of weeks.

Project Compassion

If your family has raised any money for Project Compassion, we ask that the boxes be brought to the office by the end of the term so that we can make a school donation to Project Compassion. Thanks for any generous donations you have been able to give.

Fun Run

Finally, I'd like to invite all members within our community to our school Fun Run / Cross Country, next Friday, April 5, starting at 9:00am. It will be a great event, with many excited runners gearing up to participate and have fun in their races.

Have a great week and God bless,

Nick

The Parent/Teacher Interview bookings is now closed. We look forward to seeing you next week to discuss your child's progress 

Year 3 have been learning in Science about living and non-living. We set off to investigate what we could find around our school. We added another category “once living” as we found some eggplants in our garden that had fallen off the vine and were now non-living.

We are looking forward to some cooler and less wet weather to start planting our fruit and veg so we can harvest. We have designed a food collector in Design Technologies that we can use to collect our fresh produce. Here are some pictures of our hard work so far.

Campbell’s Coaches already provide a school bus service for St Benedict’s which caters for Kalynda Chase and Hervey’s Range Road. To assist Campbell’s Coaches in determining the need for any additional school bus routes in 2020 they require parents to phone and request that their area be included in the St Benedict’s school bus route. The bus company can then put through a submission to the Non State School Transport Assistance Scheme for consideration.

Contact Information: Campbell’s Coaches - 4774 5099