What a lovely week it has been for our students settling in to their second week back at school. While the rain has been wonderful and we are looking forward to more, the sunshine has allowed the students to get out and enjoy the play spaces. This week we started our specialist lessons again with the addition of a Technology class. This new specialist lesson has been introduced to enhance the learning experiences for our students in the area of Digital Literacy and Design Technology. Technology will still be taught in each classroom as well as it integrates so beautifully with many of our other learning areas. While some of our younger students were a little challenged with meeting so many new teachers, most enjoyed the diversity of new people, new rooms and new subjects.

Over the next few weeks we will have a number of teachers away each week for various professional training sessions they need to do. Each year teachers are released from the classroom duties to attend sessions about meeting the specific needs of students with disabilities eg. Autism Spectrum Disorder, Social Emotional Disorder just to name a few. Teachers will also be released from class to conduct planning sessions with their year level colleagues for the next term’s learning. While having teachers away from classrooms is essential for the professional development we consistently require and to have opportunities to work collaboratively, it can be challenging for some students. Your children’s teachers will mostly advise you through their class newsletter when they have a planned absence coming up so this would be a good time to chat to your children about their expectations. 

Next week we have our lessons starting with Life Education and Healthy Harold. Each class will have an opportunity to visit the van and engage in lessons about healthy life choices or friendship type lessons. We always find this type of learning quite engaging for the kids and trust that they will enjoy the visit. 

Next Tuesday, 11 February we have our Annual General meeting for the P&F where we will elect a new executive committee. The meeting starts at 7.00pm. We will have our regular meeting after the AGM. It would be great to see as many parents there as we can. The meeting will be in our staffroom which is at the back of the Administration building.

Have a fabulous weekend, see you next week

Cheers

Penny

It’s been great to return to a bit of normality this week and everyone seems to be settling in wonderfully.

Starting next week, I will be visiting classrooms to join in with them during their daily contemplative practice.  Part of our Benedictine charism is that we are a contemplative place and the practice of Christian meditation is one that our whole school participates in on a daily basis.  In our society, time is often filled with business, noise and things to do. The teaching of Christian meditation seeks to help our students and provide them with a spiritual practice that creates a positive impact on their wellbeing.  Stillness and silence is the key to meditation, and allows students the chance to simply ‘be’. I would encourage all families to speak to their children about meditation. You may have even noticed last year that our school prayer card also had on it ‘How to Meditate’, you may even want to give it a try yourself!  I look forward to hopefully visiting all classrooms and meditating with them!

DATE CLAIMER

Our Beginning Year Liturgy will take place on Friday Week 4 (21/02) at 9:00am in ‘The Hall’, led by by Fr Dave Lancini, our Parish Priest.  We’d like to extend a warm welcome to all of our St Benedict’s community for this event.  Here we will be launching our ‘Way of PEACE’ initiative - stay tuned in the coming weeks for more information about this!

SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM

We have several students enrolled in this years Sacramental program being run through the Good Shepherd Parish.  The sacraments of Confirmation, Reconciliation and the Eucharist are all parts of the ‘initiation’ process of the Catholic Church.  I’d like to wish these students and their families all the best on their Sacramental Journey. It’s also a great reminder to our community that we are part of the Ministerial Region of the Good Shepherd, led by the wonderful Fr Dave. 

Ryan Community Centre Good Shepherd Community Centre

Sunday 9:30am Saturday 6:00pm

Sunday 5:00pm Sunday 7:30am 

Have a great week and God bless,

Nick 



PREP OPEN DAY

We invite all potential Prep families to St Benedict’s in 2021 to attend our Prep Open Day on Thursday 19th March from 9:00-10:00am.  We invite you to attend with your child starting Prep in 2021 and have a tour of our school led by our senior teachers.  You will also be encouraged to book your Prep enrollment interview for 2021 at this time. If you are unable to attend this day, our Principal will be running tours on the following times:

Monday 23rd & 30th March, 9:00-10:00am AND 

Thursday 25 March and 2nd April, 4:30-5:30pm.

Zones of Regulation - social and emotional learning

In our classrooms the students have been introduced to the Zones and what they are.  Stories about different feelings have been shared, followed by discussions about why it is important to know how we are feeling.  Students have learned what each of the four zones are, and how their feelings can be categorized into a particular zone.

It would be very helpful if students could be given the opportunity to reinforce their knowledge of the zones at home.  Why not ask them to talk you through what the zones are over a family meal one night this week?