Term 1, Week 2 2025

Reception News - Building Relationships and Embracing Kindness

This term, our Reception classes have been focusing on building strong, positive relationships with each other. We've been learning about kindness, friendship, and how to create a welcoming, supportive environment for everyone.

To celebrate these values, we created our Cloud of Kindness. The children have shared their ideas of what kindness looks like and have enjoyed practicing acts of kindness with one another. We’ve also been discussing the importance of friendships and the qualities that make a good friend. Our Cup of Friendship represents all the wonderful elements of friendship, such as love, laughter, acceptance, and happiness, which we continue to encourage in our classroom every day.

As part of our journey to understand each other better, we have been learning about our families and how they are all unique and special. The children have shared stories and pictures of their families, which has helped us appreciate the different ways families can look and how every family is a source of love and support.

In addition to these important lessons, we have been learning about our school and class rules and routines, helping the children feel secure and confident in their daily activities. This has been an essential part of making sure that every child feels safe and valued as they settle into school life.

In our Religious Education lessons, we have been exploring the Four Dominican Pillars: Prayer, Study, Community, and Service. The children have been learning how to put these values into practice in their own lives and how we use them at St. Bernadette’s School to guide our interactions with one another.

We are so proud of how much the children have embraced these themes and are excited to see them continue to grow in kindness, friendship, and understanding throughout the year.

What an amazing start to the school year we have had! It has been such a joy to see our students return and welcome 22 new Receptions along with 14 students across years 1-6. We officially welcome Ben Regester (Assistant Principal: Learning and Inclusion) and Chelsea Foord (Reception) who have joined our wonderful learning community. We have also enjoyed reconnecting with you, our parent / carers after the long break – if you have not yet come and said hello, please do so!

Last week we began the school year with our Opening School Mass for 2025. The mass was led by Fr Joseph and the Year 6D class who did a fantastic job in leading our songs, presenting symbols, and delivering readings. Well done to Mrs Draper and all the students involved, especially our Year 4/5 altar servers!

The Staff Commissioning ceremony also took place during this mass, where all staff members renewed their commitment to the students and families of the St Bernadette’s community. This is something that takes places in all Catholic schools across South Australia each year and it highlights just how special Catholic education is!

Coming up next week are our parent / teacher connection meetings. These meetings are very important as we want to actively foster positive relationships with all our families.  We also want you to know your child’s teacher well and for you to feel that you are very much in partnership with them throughout your child’s learning time at St Bernadette’s. These meetings are a time for you to tell us about your child. What are their strengths and their challenges, what do they enjoy and what do we need to know about them to ensure we can teach them well. Please prioritise making a time to meet with your child’s teacher – bookings close on Sunday at 9:00pm!

Below we have added some friendly reminders as we begin the new school year:

UNIFORM
It’s been great to see the vast majority of students wearing the correct uniform. Please remember that, as stated in our Uniform Policy, shoes are to be of good quality and predominantly of one colour: WHITE, BLACK, NAVY or GREY. White socks are to be worn which are quarter crew (above ankle style) with no visible branding.

PICK UP and DROP OFF

The school gates open at 8:30am. Students should not be left at the gate prior to this time in the mornings, for safety reasons. OSHC is available from 7:00am and must be used if necessary. Parents are reminded that, when using the pick up/drop off zone, there is no parking and you must remain in your car. The gates are locked when the morning bell rings at 8:50am. If you arrive to school after that time, your child must enter the school through the Front Office and sign in.

Our dismissal time is 3:00pm. All students who are not in OSHC must be collected from school by 3:20pm, which is when the gates are locked. Should you child not be picked up by 3:20 regularly, we will need to ask you to enrol your child in OSHC.

We look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday night at our welcome night and annual community meeting. It starts at 5:45pm – please bring a plate to share!

God bless,

Michelle, Matt and Ben