St Bernadette's Primary School Dundas Valley

You may notice your child coming home and saying “I did another assessment today”. It is this time of year that teachers start preparing for their Semester Two reports and they are assessing whether their students have achieved the Stage outcomes they have been learning about. 

Assessment can take all different forms. They may be completed online (PAT-R or PAT-M), as a stand-alone assessment completed on a separate piece of paper or they may have multiple pieces of day - to - day work assessed. You will know how grades for Key Learning Areas have been achieved based on the rubric or marking criteria attached to that task. You would have seen many examples of these in the Semester One Work Sample folder that came home with your child’s report.  

If you have a question or concern about the grade your child has achieved, you should approach the classroom teacher who can explain how a grade was awarded. If you are still unsure or have further questions, you can email the office and request a meeting with Lisa or myself.  

I want to take this opportunity to thank all our teaching staff for the hard work they have put into developing quality teaching and learning activities for the students and assessing them according to their abilities. 

Have a wonderful week,

Jackie Willard

Assistant Principal

Standing in the Humus of Life

This parable begins ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray’. But only one of them actually prayed: ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner’. The other informs God how well he is doing in the piety stakes. Notice that he strings together a whole lot of verbs, all in the first person singular! This means he is in mortal danger of staying in the first person singular after death, which is Hellish.

The other is said to be ‘humble’. I like the English companion word: ‘humus’. He is well-grounded, knows where he is standing, sometimes in the manure of life.

It takes courage and humility to admit to God exactly where we stand. We can do so in Confession, or less formally simply praying: ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner’.

We could pause for a moment to humbly pray so that we may hope to hear Our Lord say: ‘This woman, this man, this boy, this girl, went home at rights with God.’

First Reconciliation Lessons

There will be six compulsory lessons in the school hall in term 4.

Each week you may choose to attend the Thursday or Friday Lesson.

Arrival in school hall 4:55pm for 5:00pm start, sharp

Finish in the church 6:20pm (parent to enter church and collect child/ren)

Week 2 - Lesson 1: Thurs 20th or Fri 21st October

Week 3 - Lesson 2: Thurs 27th or Fri 28th October

Week 4 - Lesson 3: Thurs 3rd or Fri 4th November

Week 5 - Lesson 4: Thurs 10th or Fri 11th November

Week 6 - Lesson 5: Thurs 17th or Fri 18th November

Week 7 - Lesson 6: Thurs 24th or Fri 25th November

Compulsory practice in the church

Sunday 27th, November: 3:00pm - 4:30pm

First Reconciliation in the church

Week 8 - Wednesday, 30th November: 6:30pm

For enquiries, please contact Lauren at stbernadettedvsp@hotmail.com

Please notify our office as soon as possible, if you know that you may be leaving St Bernadette’s at the end of this year. As you know, you are required to give ten week's notice if you are leaving. Please contact our office for a copy of a leaving form that must be completed.

We thank you for your ongoing support.

A reminder that children are to be wearing summer uniform this term.

With some days still a little cooler in weather, please make sure your child brings their school jacket with them to school.

Please see below image of the uniform as a reminder. If you need to purchase new uniforms they are to be purchased from Lowes at Carlingford Court.  If you needed to purchase a second hand uniform from the clothing pool, please email the school office the items that are required.

In the last week of term 3, I was away for most of it because I was representing our school playing softball for the Mackillop team in the NSW PSSA Championships. There were 13 teams in the competition made up of Catholic, public and independent schools. I played 12 games over 3 days but our last game got washed out. Mackillop won 7/11 games and we came 5th overall. I didn’t know any of the girls on my team but I had played against the majority of them the weekend before at the U14 softball state championships. I hit 4 home runs, one of them being my first ever. I had a fun week playing a sport I love, meeting new people and representing our school. There were 156 girls that competed in the tournament and 12 were selected for the NSW PSSA softball team which sadly I didn't make.

By Renee T

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.