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Hi everyone,
Wow, what a whirlwind we have had this year and already we have reached the end of our second year. As this is the last newsletter for the year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our school community for all that you added to helping us work towards the school we aspire to be. We have many wonderful families who contribute so much in terms of volunteering with various events or attending P & F Meetings or working on our School Board. It has been a challenging year for many families too, especially considering the floods at the beginning of the year. For many of us, this was such a long time ago now, but for too many others it is still a daily reality getting back on track from that time.
As a school community we have grown considerable not just in numbers but also in developing our own identity and we are certainly starting to be considered very positively in the wider community. Next year we officially double in size from our first year. In our first year, we had seven classes, next year we will have 14 classes and this flows through with numbers of children doubling from our first year and our staff too. Next year our class teachers will be:
Prep Bilbies- Mrs Charley Favalli
Prep Platypus- Mrs Caitlin Smith
Prep Koalas- Miss Jess Smitt
Year 1 Echidnas- Mrs Lizzy Christie
Year 1 Possums- Ms Kandis Orr
Year 1 Wallabies- Mrs Gabby Torrens
Year 2 Curlews- Miss Pierina Massatto
Year 2 Lorikeets- Mrs Ros Baumann
Year 2 Kingfishers- Mrs Laura King
Year 3 Kookaburras- Miss Cienna Jewell
Year 3 /4 Emus- Mrs Rhylie Matthiesen
Year 4 Dragonflies- Miss Samantha Garbutt
Year 5 Turtles- Miss Meghan Durnford
Year 5 /6 Crocodiles- Miss Rebecca Curley
Music- Miss Adriana DiBella
We also welcome a number of new school officers including Domenic Figg, Tayla Bolton, Dana Kern, Amanda Ackland, Jess Lemmon and Sharni Wight. April Hanson will also be joining Belinda in the Tuckshop more officially on a Friday.
Next year we will be introducing another specialist lesson in Technology and we are currently advertising to fill this role. Mr Christie will be in the office full-time as we have a number of initiatives we’d like to roll out.
One of those will be the PEACE Initiative where we will be drawing on the Benedictine motto- ‘Pax- ora et Labora’ meaning Peace, Pray and Work. We will break down the word PEACE to focus on the attributes that contribute to a harmonious community- Positivity, Empathy, Accepting, Caring, Engaged to highlight how each of us can contribute every day to making the world a better place.
Essentially, we now have 4.5 days of school left with school finishing on Friday at 12.00pm. This last week is one of celebration starting with our End of Year Liturgy and Rite of Passage for our Year 6 students on Monday at 9.00am. We hope to see as many of you there as possible. On Tuesday, we will have our Step Up/ Transition Day where all students will gather in their new class with their new class group for the morning session. Please note that Miss Meghan Durnford in Year 5 and Miss Samantha Garbutt in Year 4 will not be able to be here that day due to prior commitments but the classes will still have a Step Up Experience. We are looking forward to our O’Holy Night on Wednesday 4 December at 6.00pm where each class will share some hymns or Christmas Carols they have been learning. All in all, a lovely finish to the year.
Please enjoy a wonderful break. Best wishes to all our families who are moving onto new adventures. May the Christmas season be merry and full of joy for you all.
Cheers
Penny
We’ve reached the final newsletter of the year, and what a huge year we’ve had! Looking back on our year, there are so many things that we can be very proud of! I’d like to mention 4 of my highlight, aligned with our 4 school values:
Stewardship - We have so many wonderful ‘green’ initiatives here at St Benedict’s, but one that stands out to me was our EcoFest organised by our 5/6 Turtles. They did such a good job of organising a wonderful event, which showcased not just the work they have done in helping the environment, but the work that EVERY class has done, AS WELL AS what members of our community are doing to sustain our natural environment.
Community - Our P&F have done a wonderful job in organising many wonderful community events. Even casting our minds back to the floods at the start of the year, they were instrumental in the sausage sizzle provided to all students on their first day back. One event that I didn’t get to but hear was a hit was our Burgers by the Billabong, supported beautifully by our families. I look forward to the great work our P&F are sure to do next year!
Love - I see our students and teachers show a great love and support for one another every day, it’s something special about our school. I wanted to share a story however about one small action with has stuck with me. At the Mission Market Stalls a boy was lent some money from a friend ($2). He went a spent $1.50, and with the last 50c he had, he bought a chocolate for his friend to say thanks. I just thought it was very touching and a very genuine act of love.
Learning - Learning is what we do best at St Benedict’s. I’ve been fortunate to teach music and drama this year, and I loved working with some of our older students to prepare poems and group dramas for the Eisteddfod. I was very proud of the students who were able to get up and show off the things they have learnt.
Of course, this is only a very brief snapshot, but I truly believe we can be proud of the community we are building at St Benedict’s.
I would urge everyone if they are able to attend some of our events in the last week, including our End of Year Liturgy on Monday and O Holy Night Christmas Carols event on Wednesday night.
I wish you all a very happy and holy Christmas break, and look forward to seeing you back in 2020!
Have a great week and God bless,
Nick
Year 1 Wallabies have been writing a letter to Santa, painting christmas craft, and creating an advent wrath. We discussed how advent wrath is about doing kind acts and deeds for other.
