Principal's Message

As we commence another busy week, let us take a moment to keep members of our community who are unwell in our prayers and thoughts. Last week, I informed the children that our Performing Arts teacher Mr Pete Mullane has recently had surgery on his hip and is currently resting at home. Pete is recovering well and in really good spirits. In Pete’s absence, Ms Tam Wilson will be teaching Performing Arts on Monday’s. Tam has had extensive experience teaching Performing Arts and is already known to the children through her work as a Casual Relief Teacher at St Brigid’s.

As communicated last term, Ricky Whitcher has commenced in the role of Behaviour Support Practitioner through Ready Steady Achieve. This is a very exciting new chapter in Ricky’s career and we wish him all the best in his new position. Part of Ricky’s role at St Brigid’s was Learning Diversity Leader and I’m pleased to inform you that Year 2/3B teacher, Nicole Brightly has stepped into the role of Learning Diversity Leader at St Brigid’s.

Recently, we conducted interviews for the Year 5/6 Classroom Teacher position at St Brigid’s. I am pleased to inform you that Mrs Krystal Conlan has been appointed to this position. Krystal has had extensive experience as a classroom teacher and is committed to providing differentiated learning experiences to assist students to meet learning goals. Krystal is constantly developing her knowledge of evidence-based approaches in order to tailor lessons to meet students’ individual needs. Krystal has recently delivered a small-group targeted Literacy Intervention program to senior students, and observed significant improvements in their reading skills.  Krystal will commence at St Brigid’s as a Year 5/6 classroom teacher next week.

On Friday, members of our school leadership team will be visiting St Paul's Catholic Primary School in Mildura to see Structured Literacy in action. Structured Literacy is an approach to literacy instruction that applies a systematic, cumulative, explicit and diagnostic methodology to the teaching of phonology, sound symbol, syllables, morphology, syntax and semantics.

We are looking forward to observing the amazing work that is taking place at St Paul's and we know we will gain many valuable insights during our visit that we can bring back to St Brigid’s.

I look forward to seeing you at 3 - Way Conferences next week.