39-49 McLaren Road,NERANG,QLD,4211,Australia Phone: 07 5596 4188

Website: http://www.sb.qld.edu.au

Email: pnerang@bne.catholic.edu.au

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Term 3 Week 9

This Sunday is the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

In this Year of Mercy the readings this week take on a special significance. Unusually all three readings this week follow the same theme; God’s Mercy is generous and freely available.

In the First Reading from the book of Exodus Moses pleads with God to show mercy to the Israelites who have turned their backs on God. ‘So the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.’

In the Second Reading from St Paul’s letter to Timothy Paul explains how he was a sinner; ‘the greatest of them’ but Jesus chose him ‘to make me the evidence of his inexhaustible patience’. Paul’s story of conversion from persecutor and enemy of the Christians to their champion and teacher is evidence of the efficacy of God’s mercy.

In the Gospel we have three classic parables on forgiveness; the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son. Forgiveness and mercy are very closely related. The context to these parables is important; Jesus was accused of sharing his table and fellowship with sinners. These parables are his response to the accusation. They redefine relationships through a lens of mercy and forgiveness rather than, power or rules or authority.

This week take the time to reflect on these powerful reading and try looking through that lens of mercy and forgiveness?

Retirement Announcement

I wish to advise members of our school community that I will be retiring from the position of Principal of St Brigid’s at the end of this school year. I do so with mixed feelings but I believe that after 27 years of leading Catholic school communities, the last six at St Brigid’s, it is time for me to step down and allow another to lead this community during its next phase of development.

I believe that this is the appropriate time for another to assume the leadership of St Brigid’s as the significant financial challenges facing this community on my arrival six years ago are now resolved or under control. There will be other ongoing challenges for the incoming Principal to manage but a much improved financial position will allow a variety of options, plans and strategies to be developed and implemented to meet the educational and community needs of St Brigid’s over the next five to ten year period.

Brisbane Catholic Education will manage the process to appoint a new Principal. The position will be widely advertised. There will be a consultation process seeking community input on the attributes that the incoming principal would ideally display and there will be local representation on the interview panel.

What is on over the following week

Assembly prayer this week was led by Prep C whilst 2A will lead next week’s.

The monthly School Board Meeting will be held on this Wednesday Sept 7 commencing at 6 pm.

St Brigid’s will host Gold Coast Catholic Schools “Mission Australia” Mass on this Wednesday from 10:00 am.

Sara Carrigan will speak to Years 4-6 students about her life and sporting achievements in the MPA on Wednesday as an AST promotion. Amongst other awards Sara won a gold medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in the Women’s Road race.

The Queensland Fire Service will visit the Year 1 classes to deliver their Fire Education program on this Friday.

Years 2, 3, and 4 will celebrate their Buddy Mass on this Friday commencing at 9:15 am.

The monthly Parents and Friends’ Association meeting will be held on Tuesday September 13 commencing at 7pm.

St Brigid's Funky Fun Run will be held on Wednesday September 14 from 9 am.

Positive Behaviour For Learning (PB4L)

To coincide with Queensland Child Protection Week this week we are addressing our major Protective Behaviours over the last four weeks of this Term instead of focussing on a specific Positive Behaviour For Learning (PB4L).

This week we will be exploring our third Protective Behaviour; Keep telling until the behaviour stops. If a child reports to one adult and the behaviour continues tell another and keep telling as many adults as possible until the behaviour stops and the situation is resolved.

The Child Protection theme this year is ‘Protecting children is everybody’s business.’ Under this theme everybody needs to take responsibility for ensuring child protection and needs also to be prepared to listen to and be empathetic to children who want to share their feeling with trusted adults.

The Queensland Child Protection Week website has excellent resources, ideas and links.

Cybersafery at home is an important part of Child Protection

The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner maintains a comprehensive site for parents providing excellent advice on ways of protecting children whilst they are online.

I recommend to parents the iParents page which offers 7 ways to manage web-connected devices in the home and lists many tools parents can use to protect children using web-connected devices at home.

Possibly the most important piece of advice on the page is -

Remember

No parental control is 100% fail safe. Keep children’s trust by using these tools openly at home.

Click on the following link to access the Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner’s iParent web page

https://www.esafety.gov.au/education-resources/iparent/7-ways-infographic

Staffing News

Mrs Annie Hudson will commence twelve months leave at the end of this term. Many of you would know Mrs Hudson through her work as the teacher’s assistant in Prep C for the past few years. Mrs Hudson has held other positions at St Brigid's since commencing here over 20 years ago. Mrs Hudson has seen the school grow and develop over a significant period but has made a difficult decision to take up alternative employment in another city.

I wish Mrs Hudson all the very best in her new adventure and assure her that our prayers and thoughts will be with her.

Thought for the week

“Sociologists, advertisers, stock market analysts – everyone wants to know what happens when the generation born glued to screens has to look up and interact with the world.”

Jessica Contrera

Parish News

This week in writing I confirm the news about my appointment as the parish priest of Zillmere. About the time of the appointment I will inform you as soon as it will be announced.

Father Ken Howell asked me to invite you to a very special meeting: New Parish Priest – Consultation meeting Wednesday 21 September 7pm. To assist the Archbishop and his consultors to appreciate the needs of the Nerang Parish into the future, parishioners are invited to this meeting [run by Fr Ken Howell from the Archdiocesan Consultors] to discuss both the strengths of the Parish and the challenges that a new Parish Priest will face into the future.

Next weekend we will have the Annual Catholic Campaign in St Brigid’s Parish

The Annual Catholic Campaign is an initiative which streamlines the Archdiocese of Brisbane appeals into one in-parish campaign. This fundraising process has become more efficient for parishes and schools, which in turn has fostered stronger support for the major areas of need in the Archdiocese.

4 major areas of need for the Church today

The Archbishop invites your support for the current major areas of need in the local Church:

1. Priests Foundation caring for retirement and health of priests

2. supporting Catholic social services

3. Holy Spirit Seminary educating seminarians for our future parishes

4. MacKillop Fund providing education bursaries to children in critical circumstances

For further information https://catholicfoundation.org.au/how-we-help/annual-catholic-campaign/

Kevin BIanchi Principal

APRE NEWS

Prayer on Assembly

Thank you to Mrs Sweeny and the students in Year Prep C for their prayers on assembly this week which extended on the learning they are doing in class. We loved hearing about where our Preps ‘see and hear God’ in our world.

Prayer in Week 10 will be led by 2A.

Gold Coast Mission Mass

On Wednesday this week (10.00am), St Brigid’s will be hosting the first Gold Coast Mission Mass. Students and staff from Catholic schools on the Coast have been invited to participate in a show of solidarity with children in need around the world. This year’s theme for World Mission Month is ‘Just as you did it to one of the least of these….you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:40).We hope that this Mass will lay the foundation for future annual Masses in an effort to promote the good work of Catholic Mission which is to ‘reach out and give life’ as a community, in a spirit of generosity, compassion and mercy. Parents/caregivers are welcome to attend.

Buddy Masses

Years 2, 3 and 4 will celebrate their special Mass together this Friday at 9.15am.

The prayer and worship life of the school is valued at St Brigid’s and staff always take time to ensure that their students are actively involved. If you have some time, you’re most welcome come along to your child’s Buddy Mass.

Excellent Teaching and Learning – Language of Learning

At St Brigid’s we share a common language of learning. By this we mean that teachers and students practice a common language when talking about their learning and themselves as learners.

When teachers are clear about the intent of the curriculum, and can effectively communicate this to their students, this maximises the impact on student learning and progress, leading to student success and is fundamental to shifting students’ expectation of their ability.

This term our teaching staff have engaged in Professional Learning in the following areas of the Australian Curriculum.

Health and Physical Education.

Humanities and Social Sciences

Technologies.

Teaching and Learning of Literacy across the curriculum.

Religious Education.

All teachers have been focusing on understanding the curriculum intent so that they are able to define exactly, for themselves and for their students, the surface, deep and conceptual knowledge and understanding that students need to learn.

When students are clear about what needs to be achieved, (the Learning Intention) they take more responsibility for their learning, know where to focus their efforts (the Success Criteria) and become partners in their learning. Learning Intentions and Success Criteria can be seen in classrooms around our school.

It is, however parents, families and carers who have the most influence on their children. When families are actively involved in their children’s education, children usually enjoy school and achieve better results.

This section of the Australian Curriculum website provides information for families and carers about their children and the Australian Curriculum.

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources-and-support/parent-information/introduction

Belinda Kingston

APRE

APA NEWS

Photo Days - Term 4

Our photo days this year have been booked for Thursday 27th and Friday 28th October. We are again using the fully online system Netpix. This process is the same as 2015 and involves online ordering rather than the use of photo envelopes.

If you are unable to access the internet at home for ordering, please drop into the school's front office. A computer will be available for you. Orders can be paid for with a credit card, money order or cheque.

If you have any questions please feel free to pop into the office for assistance.

Julie Rey APA

PASTORAL CARE

DATE CLAIMERS

Date Event Friday 9 September 2016 Buddy Mass Yr 2/Yr 3/Yr 4 9:15am Tuesday 13 September 2016 P&F Meeting 7:00pm Wednesday 14 September 2016 St Brigid's Funky Fun Run Friday 16 September 2016 Last Day of Term 3 Monday 3 October 2016 Queen's Birthday Public Holiday Tuesday 4 October 2016 First Day of Term 4 Monday 17 October 2016 Pupil Free Day Tuesday 18 October 2016 P&F Meeting 7:00pm Friday 21 October 2016 Grandparents Day 8:40am - 10:40am

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to those in the St Brigid's community who celebrate their birthday this week:

Sarah A, Emily K, Kristy-Lee Y, Lily M, Tori T, Jerome D

PB4L

Robo's Message of the Week

Keep telling until the behaviour stops.

Robo Awards

Charlotte 2C, Emma 1B, Meg C 3B, William 2B, Jayden 1B, Sarah 2B, Mia R 4A, Genevieve 4C, Elle K 4C, Layla B 4A.

GUIDANCE COUNSELLOR NEWS

Hello Parents/Guardians,

Leading up this week, St Brigid's staff have been promoting the message of safety to our students.

This week is Queensland Child Protection Week (i.e. 4th - 10th September). It is a week that highlights that child protection is everyone's business. Please have a look at the attachment for the Key Messages promoted.

For more information please go to the link http://childprotectionweek.org.au/

Queensland Child Protection Week

childprotectionweek.org.au

Untitled on Queensland Child Protection Week ... Queensland Child Protection Week. 4 - 10 September 2016

Thank you for your support!

Danae Ford

Guidance Counsellor

SPORTS REPORT - MR GUDGEON

Catholic Schools' Athletics and Ball Games

Congratulations to our Catholic Schools' Athletics and Ball Games teams that represented St Brigid's at last week's carnivals. Your behaviour, teams spirit and sportsmanship was exemplary. Well Done.

Our students were very competitive at both competitions and a large number of students were rewarded for their efforts with place ribbons.

St Brigid's started the day with a bang in the 800 metre event with Matthew L (MJ) snatching 1st, Jacinta D placing 4th, Taj S placing 2nd, and Blake B 4th.

There were other great individual and team efforts on the day, including;

* Nick H 1st in the shotput

* Taj S 2nd in the shotput

* Noah S 3rd in the shotput

* Ava W placing 4th in the sprint finals

* Blake B qualifying for 200m and 100m sprint finals and finished 2nd in 200m

* 11yrs girls relay placed 4th

* A number of other students also received place ribbons in heats... Well Done.

Thankyou to all staff, parents, and students for your contributions. Our Catholic Schools Carnivals are a great way of bringing schools and the community together in sharing a fun and active event.

Simon Gudgeon PE Teacher and Sport Coordinator

THE ARTS

Singing Club

Singing Club and Twist and Shout junior group resume this week. All welcome.

LOTE NEWS

Writing Letters to Japan

Years 5 and 6 students have finished writing their letters to Musashino Gakuen Primary School in Tokyo. These letters have been decorated beautifully. Many year 6 students have written their letters in Hiragana (Japanese alphabet).

Mariko Saito LOTE

ACTIVE SCHOOL TRAVEL

Welcome to Week 9. We thank the parents and families who have been travelling actively, great to see! We will draw out 2 lucky winners next Monday at assembly. One boy and one girl! $100 voucher to be won!

Jude Kilby, our special coffee lady, can't make it this week, but she will be back for week 10.

We congratulate 4B on winning the Green Boot! Well done 4B!

OSHC

OSHC Vacation Care - September Holidays

Please refer to the attached information for our upcoming Vacation Care program.

Our Booking form is also attached for your convenience.

Margot Lowrie

OSHC Coordinator

TUCKSHOP

Tuckshop orders made over the counter must be in by 9.00am Orders made through Flexischools mustbe in by 9.15am.

Please note that there is a fee of 10c per bag when ordering lunches

over the counter if you need the tuckshop to supply a bag.

Sushi is only available on Fridays. Sushi orders must be in by 9am on the Thursday prior to ensure that we receive our orders for Friday. Ordering Sushi on Friday is not possible due to having the sushi freshly made and delivered that morning.

We are always in need of volunteers in the tuckshop. It is a nice way to spend the morning with a few fellow mothers/friends having a cuppa and doing a good deed at the same time. If you would like to come and volunteer in the tuckshop please see the Tuckshop Convenor Helene, she is happy to talk to you. Children get a big thrill seeing a member of their family working in tuckshop!

Helene Fahey Tuckshop Convenor

P & F COMMITTEE

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY NEWS

Be Sun Safe

Visitor's Register

The Visitor's Register is located at Reception and all parents and visitors are required to sign in and out.

This is an essential document that keeps the school informed of all visitors and contractors who are on site at any particular point in time.

be SAFE be WELL

CLASS NEWS

Prep News

Year 1 News

Year 2 News

This week Year Two will commence assessment. If you plan to go away before the end of term, please let your child's teacher know so that assessment can be organised. Most portfolios have been returned, thank you. We will soon begin filing student work from Term Three into these portfolios.

An important aspect of writing any genre is the editing phase. Now that the children have almost finished their narratives, their focus is to edit what they have written. Ask your child if he or she can identify the type of things that a good editor looks for in their writing. Good editors read their writing once, twice or maybe even three times to check for mistakes. They read their work to see that it a) makes sense; b) add a word/s to improve it; c) delete any unsuitable words. Children should be able to identify that people and place's names are a type of noun and that these names need a capital letter. Capital letters are used at the beginning of a sentence. Full stops indicate the end of a sentence. Good editors look for spelling mistakes that they can fix, especially sight words and other words that are in their dictionaries or displayed around the room. Children are encouraged to take ownership and responsibility for their writing so that they become more independent and confident knowing that they are progressing as talented young writers.

Currently in Maths, telling time to the quarter-hour, using the language of 'past' and 'to' is one of our major focuses. The best way to teach any concept is to connect this learning to real life situations, so if you have time please ask your child to read the time at quarter past and at a quarter intervals. For instance you could say, "I would like you to be ready at a quarter past 8. What will the hour hand be on? What will the minute hand be on?"

"Dinner is at 6:15. What will the hour hand be on? What will the minute hand be on?"

A more difficult question could be, "If we leave the shops at 4 o'clock and it takes us 15 minutes to get home, what time will we arrive home?"

Below is a link to some ‘Time’ games that are educational and fun.

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/measures.htm#Time

Finally please join us, if you can, at 9:15 this Friday for our Year 2,3,4 Buddy Mass.

Year 3 News

This Term we have produced a still image for Father’s Day as a fridge magnet. The children were required to think about their fathers' characteristics – likes, passions, hobbies, enjoyment, entertainment etc. and to bring in an item that depicted their father’s interests. Another student then took the photo, a caption was added and the photos printed onto magnetic paper. It was lovely to share with our students the beautiful messages and images each child created especially for Father’s Day. HAPPY FATHERS’ DAY TO ALL THE DADS AND MALES IN OUR LIVES WHO CARE, LOVE AND SUPPORT OUR CHILDREN. WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED YOUR SPECIAL DAY AND WERE TREATED LIKE A KING.

Media Arts covers two years, with a curriculum introduced in Year 3 and expected by the end of Year 4. The term ‘Media Arts’ is derived from ‘media’ or mass produced material and ‘arts’ referring to something visual. We have been reviewing the ‘elements’ and ‘representations’ of media arts, these include language - sequence of events/main idea/story boarding, characteristics, lighting, audience, and sound. Our aim is for children to become familiar with these skills through reviewing and applying them to create their own media arts.

Year 3 continue to work on using our Learning Intention to cue students into the purpose of our learning for each lesson. We then explicitly show children the Success Criteria to explain how we know if we are successful in the area being taught and then ask children to set personal goals from the success criteria so each child is able to work on becoming successful in an achievable area, for example – using adjectives, developing better vocabulary or using punctuation accurately.

Parents, family and friends are invited to our Grade 2/3/4 Buddy Mass on Friday morning at 9.15 a.m. in St. Brigid’s Church. We will be celebrating Spring and God’s call to spread the ‘Good News’.

Year 4 News

Wow we are in our last two weeks of Term 3! Our students are working hard at finishing off our units of work and we applaud them for this. Some students are struggling writing their narratives. They have the structure of a narrative, but the content is not what we are after. Students need to write these in 3rd person using some historical content. The narrative is based on a group of Aboriginal children who go on an adventure.

Congratulations to our Ball games and our Athletics students who represented our school last Thursday!

Year 5 News

The last 2 weeks of the school term is a very important time for all students who will be given extended classroom time to complete assignment tasks before the end of this term. It is important that your child attend as many school days as possible and come prepared and ready to complete these set assignment tasks.

On Wednesday 7 September we are lucky enough to have Olympic Cycling Gold Medallist, Sara Carrigan, come and talk to the students about Active School Travel. It is an honour for both students and staff to have such an illustrious sportsperson speak to us about the importance of Active School Travel.

Notes have gone home about the 2016 Inaugural Funky Run which will be held on Wednesday 14 September 2016. This is a major fundraiser for this year and we hope all Year 5 students will be involved in this great activity.

Year 6 News

This week in Year 6 we had the opportunity to celebrate Mass with our Year 1 buddies. Both year levels participated reverently and it was great to see the leadership skills of our students in guiding the younger children in the parts of the Mass. We were very impressed with the energy of the Year 1 students in their singing of the new school song!

This week many of the students will be delivering their 'Elect Me' speech. After marking the written component, we can see that the majority are taking on the feedback given after their rough copy to improve the standard of their work. There are still some who need more encouragement to put the effort in as their writing showed little progress throughout the whole process. Parents are a valuable source of feedback so please ask your child to practise their speech in front of you and let them know if any areas are unclear or could be more convincing. It is then up to them to make the necessary changes.

On Wednesday this week we will be celebrating the Mission Mass at St Brigid's church with Year 6 students from other Catholic schools on the coast. You are very welcome to attend. Details will be in this newsletter.

OFFICE NEWS

Term 3 Fees

Term 3 fees were due for payment Friday 29 July 2016, please pay any outstanding monies or contact Jo Duran via email jduran@bne.catholic.edu.au if you wish to set up a payment plan or require an extension.

Administration of Medication

Student Medication Request forms must be completed by a parent/caregiver

and handed to the school office in order to authorise the administration of medication to a student.

Students are not to keep medication in their school bags (except for asthma sprays).

ALL MEDICATION, including paracetamol, store bought creams etc must be current (not past it's expiry date) and provided to the office in the original container with a pharmacy label stating the student's name and the required dosage.

Please see below an extract from Brisbane Catholic Education's Medication Policy:

Medication to Students: Routine, Emergency and Over the Counter

For any prescribed medication, the following information is to be provided on the pharmacy label:

• name of the person authorised to take the medication • dosage

• date and time to be taken, and • medical practitioner

Lost Property

Lost property is located at the back of the administration

building. Please clearly label all of your children's clothing and property so that it can be returned to your child's classroom if they misplace it.

FOUND

A children's watch has been found. Please contact Mrs Fearnley for details.

As the end of Term approaches, please check the Lost Property box for any missing items. It tends to overflow with jumpers at the end of Winter. All items will be passed on to charity if not collected by the end of Week 10.

Student Absences

When leaving a message on the School Absences Line - please clearly state the following:

Student's full name

Class

Reason for absence - VERY IMPORTANT

Expected duration of absence

Please call the School Absences Line prior to 9am on the day of the absence.

Have you changed your contact details?

We must have current phone numbers and addresses for parents and caregivers in our database so that we are able to contact you quickly and easily if required. If you have changed any of your details, please complete a Change of Details form and submit it to the office ASAP.

Parent Portal and BCE Connect App

Access to the Parent Portal is via the school website under the Community Access tab.

This year parents will be able to set up Parent Portal access and also reset passwords themselves (use link below). Your username will be the email address that you provided to the school, ie. the address that your fee statement is sent to.

Please contact the Office if you have any queries in relation to this.

Users need to select the BCE blue box then 'Forgotten Password/First-Time Login' icon from the Login screen identified in the screen shot below:

Please be advised that when using the new reset function, you only have 15 minutes once receiving the new temporary password via email to use it and enter in a new password. If still having problems, we suggest trying the following:

• Clear cache and cookies.• Close browser and reopen to login again.• Ensure the email address you are using to log in is the same address we have on our system. i.e. the address your fee statement is sent to. Thanks for your patience with this.

Once you have accessed the Parent Portal, you may like to download our BCE Connect App from any App Store. You will need your log on details from the Portal to access the App. The App contains the same information as the Parent Portal but may be more accessible being on your mobile phone. Search for St Brigid's Nerang once you have downloaded the App.

Click here to access the Parent Portal

COMMUNITY NEWS

Marymount College Reunion

MARYMOUNT COLLEGE REUNION - CLASS OF 1976, 1986, 1996 & 2006

Catch up with your classmates, and see how Marymount College looks today

DATE: Saturday 10 September 2016

TIME: 3:30pm - 6:00pm

COST: $30

BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL: Click here to book

INCLUDES: Canapés and drinks

Worldwide Marriage Encounter

A weekend away for married couples in peaceful, picturesque surroundings - away from the distractions of everyday living. Take time out of your busy schedule to invest in your most precious asset...your Marriage! This is a unique opportunity to recharge your relationship batteries, refocus on each other and fall in love all over again!

Our next weekend will be held from 14 to 16 October 2016.

Watch our video

Venue: Santa Teresa Spirituality Centre, Ormiston (on Brisbane's bayside)

For bookings/details contact: Maria and David Murphy 07 3342 1456

dandmmurphy@optusnet.com.au

http://www.wwme.org.au

Advertise Your Business

Advertise your buiness on the Electronic School Newsletter with a link to your website.

If you are interested please call Aust News on 07 3330 1606.