St Bernadette's Primary School Dundas Valley

From time to time, our school publishes documentation in regards to our policies and procedures. St Bernadette’s follows Catholic Education, Diocese of Parramatta (CEDP) direction in Safeguarding, Child Protection, Managing Complaints and Reportable Matters. As these Policies are in PDF format, they cannot be attached here, so over the next week, we will publish these policies in SkoolBag notifications. We are publishing these Policies as it is a requirement of our Compliance framework. 

Reportable Conduct refers to any behaviour relating to a child which causes significant emotional or psychological harm to a child. This behaviour may come from another child, staff member, parent or other adult in the community. 

Managing Complaints concerns complaints raised by parents/guardians, students, visitors, volunteers, community members and contractors expressing dissatisfaction with a service provided by CEDP, the behaviour and decisions of staff members or about CEDP practices, policies and procedures. The Policy contains information as to how these are handled fairly and with due process.

Safeguarding refers to the procedures that must be followed by staff members when responding to concerns relating to children and young persons.

Please look for our SkoolBag notifications in the coming weeks and read these policies as they relate to the safety of all our community members. 

Have a wonderful week, 

Jackie Willard

Assistant Principal

Hearing Our Lord's command: 'Invite the poor, the crippled, to the feast,' how do we respond as citizens of a nation which, in comparative global terms, is having a great feast? Jesus demands that we go well beyond an immigration policy which favours skilled and entrepreneurial people. They more than 'repay our courtesy' in terms of economic activity and social stability.

The majority of the poor and the crippled live in the subsistence villages, the refugee camps, and the squalor of the megacities of the Third World.

Heaven embossed invitations must be extended to such as those so that they may join in our national feast. Only then can we become the sort of people who, in the great Feast of Heaven, can join with those poor who are certain to be there.

We could pause for a moment to pray to put today's Gospel into effect so that we might hear Our Lord: 'Friend, join in the Feast. Be close to me.'

Year 3’s focus in Religious Education is why do people sometimes do the wrong thing?

We have looked at the Ten Commandments and how they were given to the Israelites. The students wondered about the commandments and then re-wrote them in their own words.

Last Wednesday 17th August some of our talented Year 6 children were involved in the Voice of Youth Cluster final. The three finalists from each school in the Rydalmere Cluster presented their Voice of Youth speeches to a packed audience.

Ian B, Isla M and Gameia Y represented St Bernadette’s and spoke extremely well. Ian spoke about the pressures of being an elite swimmer, Isla spoke about the benefits of dog training and Gameia spoke about women’s rights. These children were a credit to our school and we are very proud of their efforts.

Congratulations Ian, Isla and Gameia.

St Bernadette’s was represented by 34 children at the Cumberland Zone Athletics on Friday, 19th August. Once again it was great to be out and competing after so many disruptions over the past few years. Aside from a few drops of rain the weather was perfect for athletics and as always our children competed with enthusiasm and in great spirit.

Thank you to all of the parents who safely brought their children to and from the carnival, with special thanks to the parents who assisted me on Shot Put. Our Little As supervisor was very pleased with our performance!

There were some outstanding performances on the day, with 3 of our children successfully qualifying for the Diocesan Athletics Carnival on Friday, 2nd September at Homebush. We look forward to more news in a few weeks!

Congratulations to our 2022 Diocesan Team!

Shane F (1st - Discus)

Ayden H (1st Shot Put, 4th Discus)

Eamon N (1st 800m)

This week we have celebrated Book Week and what a fantastic few days it has been! The children were very excited to purchase books from the Book Fair to add to their home collection. Our school also received some lovely donations from families.

Thank you, these books will be a great addition to our library.

We enjoyed seeing the tremendous creativity our St Bernadette’s community has during the Book Parade. So many wonderful costumes, it was great fun identifying who everyone’s favourite characters were.

There was also a guessing competition. The infants children had to guess the amount of Pig the Pug treats and the primary children guessed the amount of pages in a very long novel. Congratulations to our winners:

Early Stage 1: Matias P

Stage 1: Oliver O

Stage 2: Chloe X

Stage 3: Alex C

On Thursday afternoon the students will work together in their SEL Bernie Buddy groups to answer questions in our Book Week trivia. Which Bernie Buddy group will win?

With great excitement we made our way out to Jamison Park at Penrith to spend a fun-filled day playing netball, umpiring, coaching and supporting our teams!

We had six teams take the court and once again our children played exceptionally well, representing St Bernadette’s in a positive manner. They displayed true sportsmanship by congratulating their opponents and thanking the umpires at the conclusion of each game.

A sincere thank you to our wonderful coaches and umpires. 

Your time and effort devoted to making the day a success is truly appreciated. 

Aaliyah Mapagu - Year 6 Girls Coach

Beth Nilan - Senior Boys Coach

Virginia Mapagu & Jeremy Fernandes - Year 5 Girls Coach

Isabella Woolley & Takara Cheng- Year 4 Boys Coaches

Madeleine Reicher & Olivia Nilan - Year 3 Girls & Boys Coaches

A special thanks to our umpires from St Patrick’s Marist High School Dundas who all did a wonderful job!

On behalf of our Stage 2 Cohort we would like to thank our St Bernadette's community for everyone's contribution to this fundraiser. We are pleased to announce we have raised $1190.

This donation will really help the students of St Joseph’s School at Woodburn.

If you wish to purchase any items from our school clothing pool, please email the school office via dundasvalley@parra.catholic.edu.au . If the items are available, they will be sent home with your child. We are no longer able to have uniforms paid for via QKR! app, as unfortunately refunds aren't able to be processed if your required uniforms aren't available.  Therefore all payments need to be processed via EFTPOS only in the school office.