Term 1, Week 10 2025

Wow! It’s hard to believe we’re already nearing the end of Term 1. What a busy and successful term it has been! Our wonderful students have settled beautifully into their new classes—building connections with their teachers and peers, exploring their learning spaces, and engaging in many exciting and enriching experiences. As always, we are incredibly grateful to you, our parent and carer community, for your ongoing support and for entrusting us with the care and education of your children.

On Wednesday, 20 students from Years 3-6 represented our school at the SACPSSA Swimming Carnival held at the SA Aquatics Centre. It was fantastic to see the way our students encouraged, cheered and supported their peers, as well as demonstrated excellent teamwork skills throughout the carnival. Next week, 19 students from Years 4-6 will be attending the SAPSASA Athletics Carnival at the SA Athletics Stadium. We wish these students luck and know that they too will represent the school with pride.

 As we approach the end of term, we also draw closer to Holy Week and Easter. As a school, we will be observing Holy Week in our community next week. Holy Week is an important week in the Catholic church calendar. It begins with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and concludes with Jesus’ death on Good Friday. When we come back to school in Term 2, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. Classes will be involved in a number of Holy Week activities next week. 

Also on Tuesday this week, Anna and Chibuifem from the Year 4/5 classes celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation at Holy Spirit Church. This is an important step in their faith journeys and we congratulate them on their achievement.

Finally, tomorrow we look forward to our very first Wellbeing day! This is the cumulation of an 18-month project we have participated in, with a focus on students and staff wellbeing. We invite our students to dress in casual clothes and bring a gold coin donation for Caritas plus 50c to enjoy a Zooper Dooper! The day will be spent with students participating in wellbeing activities in their house teams. Many thanks to Marlo Draper and Donna Lagana for their leadership in this space.

As we look ahead to Term 2, we would like to advise families that Monday 28^th of April (First Day of Term 2) will be a student free day due to Staff Professional Development.  We are also very excited about the upcoming commencement of our building project and whilst the start date is still unclear, it is important for you to know that once the earth works begin, the gravel carpark will close permanently. This means that during drop-off and pick-up times, families will need to use the kiss-and-drop zone or park in the surrounding streets and walk onto the school grounds. We understand this will be an adjustment, and we appreciate your cooperation in following parking regulations to ensure the safety of all our students.

Enjoy the holidays when they get here and a happy and blessed Easter to you all,

Michelle, Matt and Ben

In Year 6 this term we have been working on persuasive writing, to convince our peers about the importance of donating to project compassion. We presented our work with a speech to the whole class. Here is some of our work. We had to include powerful adjectives, rhetorical questions, high modality verbs and facts to make our arguments more convincing. We hope it convinces you too! 

Caritas helps all the countries that need help, but they can’t do it alone. We need your help, so the poor countries have clean water, food, and shelter. I think we need to raise more money all around South Australia. Donate now and after you donate you will feel so good about yourself and what you just did. -Adut

Imagine a world where not enough people are being heard, where 733 million people are affected by hunger, where 150 million people are homeless, and the cause of all this is poverty. This is our world of 8 billion people where 700 million are unable to reach daily needs, earning $2.15 cents or less. This is our world, the world we live in today, but what have we done? Absolutely nothing! There is one fundraiser working hard, a fundraiser that has helped approximately 1.5 million people. Shouldn’t we support this? we can and will support those in need. Through caritas Australia. -Saina

Together we must make a difference. Write to your local council on why we must start donating maybe even start a city or state competition on who can raise the most money. Maybe talk to your parents about donating online, and even start a school fundraiser.-Shanaya

If you donate $5 to Caritas you can help provide disabled people in Vietnam, If you donate $153 you can help provide basic necessities to people in The democratic republic of Congo, If you donate $500 you can provide a hygiene training course for a whole community in Samoa and last of all if you donate $2,000 you can provide a whole 5,000 LITRE water tank in Samoa. Just remember every dime that you donate counts. -Adut

Harmony Day Concert and Parade

On Friday, 21st March, we came together for another year, to celebrate the incredible diversity and inclusivity within our school community!

The morning was filled with smiles, colour, and song as our students took to the stage with confidence and energy. Our school community enjoyed a wonderful variety of performances, featuring songs and stories from Nepal to the Solomon Islands, Japan to the West Indies, India to Uganda, and beyond! We are incredibly proud of our amazing student performers.

A particularly beautiful moment was seeing our students from Pakistan and the Solomon Islands sing their national anthems with such pride.

The cultural parade was a highlight for many, with students beaming as they proudly represented their heritage in colourful traditional attire—made even more special by the many parents who joined in!

A heartfelt thank you to our families for your support and for providing the incredible morning tea spread.

Harmony Day is always a reminder of how fortunate we are to be part of such a beautiful and diverse community. This year’s celebrations left us feeling prouder than ever to belong to St Bernadette’s School!