Newsletter January 31st, 2023

Jayne Bosworth

'Inspire us to act justly and to reverence all God has made.'

Excerpt from St Brigid's Prayer

All of the timetabled events (to date) for the school year can be found on our school calendar which can be accessed through PAM and via this newsletter.

This year we will be participating in a swimming program from Foundation - Year 6 at the new Salt Water Swim School in Bacchus Marsh. This will consist of a 5 day intensive swimming program, where children will participate in a 30 minute lesson each day.

Swimming and water safety is included in the Health and Physical Education Curriculum from Foundation to Level 10. This means that schools must ensure that they are implementing a swimming and water safety program that meets the requirements of the curriculum. Development of knowledge and skills relating to survival swimming and basic water safety can significantly reduce a child’s drowning risk and enhance community safety.

Class groupings attending are as follows:

• Year 3/4W; Year 5/6WA; Year 5/6B - Monday 27th February - Friday 3rd March - 
• F/1 C; F/1R; Year 2/3B - during Term 4 (TBA)

Further information regarding times of lessons and travel details will be sent via PAM later this week. 

Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct uniform to school each day. The St Brigid’s uniform consists of the following:

A reminder to please label clothing, lunchboxes, containers, bags and water bottles!

Performing Arts will take place on Tuesday’s with Visual Arts and Physical Education taking place on Wednesday’s.  All children will need to wear their sports uniform on a Wednesday. Please ensure your child has an art smock (or old shirt etc) for Visual Arts.

As you are aware PAM accounts have undergone a significant upgrade over the school holidays. All families should have received an email asking to reset your password on your PAM account.  

It is important that once you have logged into PAM to update your child's medical profile details. 

Shortly activity permissions will be available on PAM for various classroom events and withour permission your child may not be able to participate. 

If you have not received this email or you cannot log in to PAM please either email administration@sbballan.catholic.edu.au or call Jodie in the school office 53681015 asap for assistance.

Parents and families will be provided with the opportunity to touch base with their child’s classroom teacher through our Parent/Teacher conversations that will take place in Week 6 – Tuesday 28th February and Wednesday 1st March. The conversations will take onsite at St Brigid’s.

Booking details including interview times will be circulated within the coming week.

Information regarding Friday assemblies in the Multipurpose Room will be circulated within the coming weeks. 

At St Brigid’s this year, we have a number of students with severe food allergies and therefore, in alignment with our anaphylaxis policy, we encourage parents to avoid sending foods that contain nuts to school. This includes peanut paste, nut spreads such as Nutella and fruit and nut bars.

We acknowledge that due to food processing practices it is impractical to eliminate nuts or nut products entirely from an environment where there is food.  Many food packaging labels include the phrase ‘may contain traces of nuts’.  These foods are acceptable.  Thank you for your understanding and support of our school policies.

On Monday 30th January, our staff joined with those from St. Alipius, Ballarat East and St Michael’s, Daylesford to participate in a professional learning day facilitated by Corwin Australia. This day launched the third year of a three year commitment where we will focus on Visible Learning. One way to think about Visible Learning is children taking ownership of their own learning.

Visible Learning is the result of the research undertaken by John Hattie to understand what provides the most success in learning.  It is based on over 68,000 studies and 25 million students.

Our Visible Learning overarching goals for this year include:

• Continuing to develop a shared understanding of the type of learners our school is aspiring to have through learning dispositions, explicitly teach these and provide opportunities for students to reflect on them regularly;
• Share assessment information with students, and provide processes and opportunities for students to articulate where they are at in their learning, how they are progressing and their next steps;
• Develop the use of success criteria in learning to provide challenge for all learners and make these visible to learners throughout the lesson;
• Continue to articulate a clear picture of the type of feedback culture and practice our school aspires to have, linking feedback to the use of learning intentions and success criteria and making this visible to learners.

We look forward to sharing our Visible Learning journey with you this year!

All children are expected to be at school ready to begin by 9:00am. Arriving on time for school is important. The first 10 minutes of school is a vital time of the day when the day's routine and structure is established. It is a time for ‘tuning in’ and focusing on the learning intentions for the day. It is very difficult for children arriving late to ‘catch up on this missed information. Parents are expected to phone through to the office the child’s absence on the day, or through our school Parent Access Module (PAM). If there has been no contact from the family in the morning of the absence, a sms from the office confirming the child’s absence from school will be sent.

2023 School Fee statements were sent out to families at the end of last year, are being sent home again today with your child and attached for your reference.

Payment options are via direct debit, EFTPOS at the school office, cash, cheque, credit card or internet banking. An early payment discount of $100 is offered where the family fee account is paid in full by 17th February.

Direct debits are available as 22 x fortnightly, 10 x monthly, or 4 x termly payments. Payments will commence on the 16th February. Please see the attached Fee Deduction Schedule and Direct Debit Authorisation Form for further information. Hard copies of this form are also available from the school office. Please return your form by Friday 3rd February.

In all Ballarat Diocesan Catholic Primary Schools, a Family Fee Assistance Scheme is available to families eligible for a means tested Health Care Card, Centrelink Pensioner Concession Card or Veteran Affairs Pensioner Card. The scheme is available to both catholic and non-Catholic families and reduces the cost of the Family Tuition Fee and Capital Levy to a combined maximum of $520 per year ($10 per week). The Curriculum Levy, Technology Levy and Excursion and Camp costs are then added to this to give a total fee amount for the year.

The Victorian Government offers a Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) providing payments to assist eligible families to cover the costs of camps, sporting events and excursions.

If you hold a valid means-tested concession card you may be eligible for CSEF. The allowance will be paid to the school to use towards expenses related to camps, excursions, or sporting activities for the benefit of your child.

The annual CSEF amount per student is currently $125 for primary school students.

Please see the school office for further information regarding Family Fee Assistance and the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF).

The Conveyance Allowance assists families with the cost of transporting their children to and from school. To be eligible to receive a conveyance allowance you must:

Be aged between five years (by 30 April in the year that the allowance is sought) and 21 years.

Live more than 4.8km by the shortest practicable route from the nearest Catholic school attended, or, live more than 4.8 km from the nearest bus service.

Further information regarding the Conveyance Allowance can be found in the link below. If you believe you are eligible, please contact the school office.

 https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/conveyance-allowance/policy

Currently, two school buses operate to and from St Brigid's School Ballan

Bus 1 serves Greendale

Bus 2 serves the Mt. Wallace and Bunding areas

To be eligible to use the bus service, students must live at least 4.8 km from the school on the bus route. If eligible, parents are required to complete and sign a permission form to access the service. Hard copies are available from the school office. Students who already travel on these services and will have previously completed the form, do not need to complete a new application. Due to insurance issues, non-bus travellers who need to use the bus occasionally must complete an adhoc travel form at least two days before the date of intended travel.  The bus service is organised via Ballan Primary School bus co-ordinator Kelly Leehane 53681072.

Please note the following recent changes to the Department of Education and Training’s Code Red Day policy and procedures.

Any school bus routes that are within, or pass-through, weather districts where the fire danger is determined to be Code Red will be cancelled. Based on the experience of the 2019 Code Red day in Mallee and Northern Country weather districts, the Department has decided that all school bus routes will be cancelled on future Code Red determined days in impacted weather districts. The Department’s primary rationale for making this policy change is to protect and preserve the lives of students, staff and education communities by taking the most prudent approach to the risk posed by the most catastrophic bushfire conditions.

Mass Times:

Korobeit Sat 6.30pm ~ Creswick 8.45am ~ Daylesford 10.30am