St Bernadette's Primary Dundas

Congratulations to the 18 children who received Confirmation during a special Mass last Thursday evening. May God bless them abundantly as they move forward in their life with Jesus.  

There will be an information evening for the First Reconciliation /First Holy Communion program on Thursday 17th Oct, 2019 at 6:45pm in the Creative Arts Room of St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School.  First Reconciliation is for children in Year 2 or above. Baptism is required for the Sacrament.

Lessons begin in Term 4, with First Reconciliation being on the 4th Dec. Lessons then continue for First Holy Communion in Term 1 - 2020, with 1st Communion some time in Term 2.

A note will also go home with the Year 2 children in Week 10 of this term.

For more info please contact the Parish office 9871 4414  

Last week our Stage 3 teachers participated in Peer Review. This is a spot check conducted by CEDP in accordance with NESA. During this process Corinne and Linda had to present programs and samples of work in the areas of English and Mathematics to prove that we are following the NSW Curriculum in their classrooms. This is an annual practice where the school only has two weeks notice about the Key Learning Area and Stage to be reviewed. 

I’m proud to say that we were found compliant for another year. Congratulations to Anthony, Corinne and Linda for such a professional presentation.

This week our leadership team presented work we are doing around our whole school goals in Religious Education, Literacy and Numeracy at our Term 3 Action Plan Meeting. During this time we met with teams from St Patrick’s Parramatta and St Monica’s North Parramatta and discuss how we are meeting the projections made at the beginning of the year.

These meetings are a great way to share and gather insights into how best to support student learning and engagement. 

We welcome our new Assistant Principal (AP) Mrs Jacquie Willard. Jacquie comes to us from St John’s at Riverstone where she has currently led learning in her AP role. She will begin with us Term 1 2020. 

Anthony will remain as Assistant Principal until the end of the year. 

There are always times when things don’t go to plan or a question needs to be asked regarding your child’s learning.

Remember that your child’s teacher is always the first point of contact. Anthony and I are always willing to meet to address your concerns however if you feel an issue needs escalating. For these appointments please contact the front office to schedule a day and time.

Any feedback is an important way to ensure open communication and enables us to move forward especially if things can be done to build better relationships between home and school.

When using Drive Through please ensure that you (the driver) stays in the car or the Rangers /Police will consider it as parking which is an offence for which you can be booked between the designated times. Also please don’t call your child to the road side of the car or behind your car to place items into the boot as this puts your child at risk of being crushed between cars or being run over by fast moving traffic along Cox Crescent.

Also please be patient with other drivers whose child may take a little longer to get into the car and buckled up. By pulling around other cars or backing up to get out of the line is not safe. There is no after school event that is worth putting a life at risk.

Thanking you in advance for your support.

When your child is going to be absent from school please ensure you notify us with an explanation. You can provide this through the following methods;

• an absentee form via our Skool Bag App, email the school directly at dundasvalley@parra.catholic.edu.au or send in a hand written note. 

It is important that you give a reason for the absence on the same day or on their first day back at school.

If you do not provide the school with a valid reason this will be recorded as 'unexplained'. We will send home a letter asking for an explanation, however if this note is not returned in a timely manner it will remain marked as 'unexplained'.

Thank you for your co-operation in this matter. 

Attendance Rate: 82.6% - To unpack this a little more, this means that 82.6% of our students have an attendance rate of 90% -100%. 

The Voice of Youth is an annual public speaking competition, which has been held in the Parramatta Diocese for the past 32 years. It involves all Year 6 students across the 60 western Sydney Catholic schools. This year the Year 6 students composed and delivered speeches of very high quality to a panel of judges and Years 4, 5 and 6. The judges had a very difficult job in selecting our school finalists, however the three chosen to represent our school at the Cluster Final were: 

Amelia - Wealth - Is it as good as it sounds?

Kiara - Don't Discount Disabilities

Daniel B - Why are Superpowers bad?

We were all very proud of these three people, who represented themselves and our school skillfully and confidently against students from Christ the King Primary School, North Rocks, St Mary’s Primary School, Rydalmere and St Monica’s Primary School, North Parramatta.

Congratulations to Kiara who was awarded 2nd place.

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 special mention to our Year 6 girls who actually won their pool on the day. 

Congratulations to the Year 6 girls and their coach!

A sincere thank you to our wonderful coaches and umpires. 

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

Ella Browne - Year 6 Girls Coach

Rorie Loo - Year 5 Girls Coach

Sidney Afeaki - Year 4 Coach

Virginia Mapagu - Year 3 Girls Coach

Charlotte Gillies - Senior Boys Coach

Miss Steph - Junior Boys Coach

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

Students in Year 6 participated in the 2019 ANSTO Shorebirds Competition to create a public awareness poster for a threatened shorebird found in Australia.This activity required learning and thinking about the different threats to shorebirds and their coastal and wetland habitats. It also enabled students to reflect on their contribution to this growing issue, and how they could encourage others to take action to prevent further environmental impact. Congratulations to Mia V, whose poster has been commended by the judges and will be displayed in the Open Day for the Australian Synchrotron, our scientific research facility in Clayton, Melbourne, on 20 October 2019.

A massive thank you to all the parents who contributed their time in helping with the stall. From the wrapping in the mornings and evenings, to manning the stall, your time and efforts are very much appreciated. The children were all so excited to pick their dads and grandads some gifts to help celebrate their special day. A total of $1039.42 was raised for the stall ! Thank you to our school community for all their support.

A very special thank you to Jenny Lampard for coordinating the breakfast BBQ hosted on Friday August 30th. A sincere thank you to all the volunteers who helped make such a delicious breakfast BBQ and all the generous donations of muffins and pastries from our wonderful families were much appreciated.  It was so lovely to see many dads, grandads and families in our school community share a hot breakfast with the children and explore their classrooms that morning. We hope you all had a fabulous Father’s day!

Just a friendly reminder that our colour fun run is being held at school this Friday! There are a number of events happening at school on Friday starting at 12:30pm and we hope to see you all there for an explosion of colour! Please remember that it is mufti, and the children must wear closed shoes, and preferably a white shirt or clothes you don’t mind getting coloured powder on.

Our canteen day will be held this Friday 13th September. We will be having lots of colourful treats on offer from $0.50 - $2.00

Summer stock available now:

Girls Dresses in size 5, 6, 8, 12 and 14 $10 each

Boys shirts in all sizes $5 each

Boys shorts in all sizes $5 each

Sport shorts in all sizes $5 each

To purchase, please text Cathy on 0416 048169 with your requirements.