St Brigid's Catholic School Wynyard eNewsletter

From the Principal

Dear Parents/Carers

As we prepare for the events of Easter it is important to understand that Easter is one of the greatest celebrations in the Catholic Church because it is the completion of the Holy week that ends with the resurrection of Jesus. Easter celebrates the beginning and foundation of Christianity. Over the past week, children have shared the Easter story in their classrooms and discussed the significant events of Holy Week. I would like to thank families for their generosity in donating to our Easter raffle. Thank you to our office staff for preparing all the prizes.

At our whole school prayer gathering last week, the year four students shared what they had learnt during their ‘walking in someone else's shoes’ unit. We could all certainly take a step in other people's shoes sometimes and think from other people's perspectives. It is important to let our children know how special they are and that we are all different, blessed with our own special gifts. Helping and supporting children to accept differences, include others and be more like Jesus. Year four researched many disabilities/different abilities and discussed some of the impacts on people's everyday lives. They shared their understanding of how we are all different, we are all God’s children, and we all belong. Thank you, year four, for sharing and reminding us to accept, include, and care for everyone around us.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Les Allen for his contribution to the St Brigid’s Advisory Board. Les has been an active member of Catholic Education for over thirty years and has completed his time as Board Chair. I appreciate Les's support, and it is important that we work together toward the continued improvement of St Brigid’s. I would like to welcome Myles Britza as the new Chair Board and new board members Tara Frankcombe, Amanda Sharman and Ben Grubb.

Mrs Lewis is leaving the administration team this week, and I would like to thank her for the contribution and care she has shown toward the students and staff over the last five years. Kaicee has been a staff member since 2018, and we all wish her the very best in pursuing her future endeavours; we will certainly miss her. We would like to welcome Miss Kylie Lockett to the administrative team and school community.

This week four staff attended the ‘Teachers Matter’ conference in Hobart. Key presenters were certainly of a high standard, and it was excellent to listen to the evidence and research that supports the science of learning. Catholic Education Tasmania and the Catholic Education Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn are working closely to improve educational outcomes as a system. The CET insight project focuses on improving the three key foundations of teaching and learning:

A comprehensive, knowledge-rich Curriculum: that supports students’ growth in learning, knowing, and remembering - every day.
Cognitive Science (the Science of Learning): Developing our understanding of how people learn; overcoming the limits of working memory to maximise student learning and to build long-term memory in all key subjects.
High-impact Pedagogy: Regular and intensive coaching to assist our educators in actively applying the science of learning as we design highly efficient and effective teaching and learning methods in the classroom.

We look forward to being a first-wave school and working with instructional coaches.

Holy Thursday 6th April 7pm - Mass of the Lord's Supper at Burnie
Good Friday 7th April 10am - Stations of the Cross at Burnie
Good Friday 7th April 10.30am - Station of the Cross at Yolla
Good Friday 7th April 3pm - Passion of the Lord at Wynyard
Easter Vigil 8th April 7pm - Mass at Burnie
Easter Sunday 9th April 9.30am - Mass at Wynyard

I pray you all have a safe and restful holiday break, and please see the Easter Mass times below.

Yours in partnership
Charlene Best

St Brigid's Catholic School Students 1923

St Brigid's Catholic School Students 2023

Religious Education

Holy Week in the Catholic Church is very important, as we relflect on the mysteries of our faith: Christ's Last Supper, his crusifixtion and his resurrection from the dead. It is a time for us to reflect on all the good things in our lives, and as Christians, we live in hope.

Easter is a joyous celebration and our spiritual leader Pope Francis, invites us to live this time in the tradition of accompanying the Lord Jesus with faith and love. He invites us to learn from our Mother, the Virgin Mary, who followed her Son Jesus with the closenss of her heart, one soul with Him.

Pope Francis' message to us this Easter is - “May Our Lady help us stay close to Jesus, present in the people who suffer, are cast out, abandoned...I wish everyone a good journey toward Easter!”

Grades 5 and 6 visited our Parish Church and reflected on the Stations of the Cross.

Andrea Jaffray Morf

Deputy Principal

Year Four Reflection

This term in Grades Three & Four our Integrated Inquiry Unit ‘Someone Else's Shoes’, has had us look at how we can respect those who are different to us.

A disability is a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements, senses, or activities.

We have learnt about the limitations that some people face so that we are aware of how disabilities can impact people. We also learnt how we can help when help is needed.

We enjoyed learning how to fingerspell our names greetings and even the chorus of the song ‘We are Australian”’, using Auslan. The final task in this unit was to research a disability and present our findings on a poster.