No. 38 Friday 1st December 2017

Dear Parents,

You came for the least, the lost and

last of this world.

At this time of year Matthew’s scripture

(25:31-46) contains a powerful message for

us all. Christ’s teaching through this passage

highlights how our faith can be expressed in

practical charity to others:

......“For I was hungry and you gave me

something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave

me something to drink, I was a stranger and

you invited me in, I needed clothes and you

clothed me, I was sick and you looked after

me, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and

feed you, or thirsty and give you something to

drink? When did we see you a stranger and

invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe

you? When did we see you sick and go to visit

you?’ ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one

of the least of these brothers and sisters of

mine, you did for me.’” ...

On Wednesday across the school, we

witnessed our children collecting gold coins

for charity and throughout the past weeks we

have been collecting items for the St Vincent

de Paul Christmas Hampers. Thank you for

your generosity but more importantly for

your example to your children that we who

have so much can extend care and

compassion to those who have so little …

especially at this time of the year.

Pope Francis states that “the measure of the

greatness of a society is found in the way it

treats those most in need, those who have

nothing apart from their poverty.”

Week 9

Mon 4 December

8.30am Assembly

Tue 5 December

8-10am Uniform Shop

9am Thanksgiving Mass

& Farewell to Mr Visser

1.10pm Choir

Wed 6 December

NO Student Banking

Waste Free Lunch Day

Thurs 7 December

5pm onwards P&F

providing sausage

sizzle

6pm Christmas on the

Grass Celebration

Week 10

Mon 11 December

8.30am Assembly &

School Values Awards

Tue 12 December

9am Primary Awards

11am Infants Awards

All parents invited!

1.10pm Choir

Thurs 14 December

7pm Yr 6 Graduation

Mass

Fri 15 December

Yr 6 Activities Day

Last day for students

Address: 357 Old Northern Road, Castle Hill NSW 2154 Phone: 9407 6600 Fax: 9680 2282 Email: BernadetteCH@parra.catholic.edu.au Website: http://www.stbernadetteschill.catholic.edu.au

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stbernadettesprimary/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/StBernadettes2

Staff and student use Lectio Divina during

prayer, which is the traditional practice of

Scriptural reading. The teacher reads the

Scripture passage twice and asks questions

to help students respond, to demonstrate

their understanding of God’s word.

Sunday 3rd is the First Sunday of

Advent, the beginning of the new

Liturgical Year and we will focus

on the Scripture readings

from Mark’s Gospel.

The Gospel reading for Sunday is Mark 13:

33-37, where we are reminded to ‘Stay

Awake’, which is in keeping with the themes

of waiting and preparation for Advent.

After hearing the Gospel you might like to

reflect what part of the text struck you and

why? You could ask the question, ‘How do

we ‘Stay Awake’?

Let us pray

Lord God,

You came to give honour to the least, those

forgotten, overlooked and misjudged.

You came to give first place to the last, those

left behind, misunderstood and undervalued.

You came to give a warm welcome to the lost,

those who are orphaned, abandoned and

destitute.

Help us to be your ears to listen to their cries.

Help us to be your voice speaking out love

and acceptance.

Help us to be your feet walking beside those

in need.

Help us to be your hands to clothe, feed and

shelter them.

Amen.

Leanne Nettleton—Principal

St Bernadette’s School News 2

Arrangements for Monday 4th December

2017 Protected Industrial Action has been called by the IEU

for Monday, 4 December 2017. It will begin from the

normal commencement of the school day to

12.30pm. Children come to school at 8:30am as

normal. However, with some staff not at school until

12.30pm, regular lessons are unable to take place

during this time. At St Bernadette's the safety and

wellbeing of all of our students is always our number

one priority. Supervision will be provided at school on

Monday.

‘Christmas on the Grass’ Please join us for the St Bernadette’s

Christmas Concert on Thursday 7th

December, commencing at 6pm. Bring either a picnic blanket or low chair to watch the

children who will perform on the grass area. Each

grade will perform a part of the Christmas Story

through song and action. Hope you can join us for a

lovely community celebration. The P & F will be

providing a free Sausage Sizzle from 5pm and will have

soft drinks on sale for $2 and water for $1.

Holiday Building Programme In January a building program will commence at the

school. There are 3 parts to the programme:

1. A hard cover shade awning for the front of the

school along the Blue Wall area and including the

façade of the administration block

2. Installation of a lift at the bottom of the school to

allow wheelchair access to the Year 2, 3 and 4

classroom.

3. The redesign of the accessible toilet area in the

main toilet block near the passive grass area.

As you can imagine this work will also continue once

school recommences in Term One and when we do

return to school, I will keep you informed about any

impact on the day to day management of the school. At

this stage one of our Year 3 class groups will be

relocated temporarily for Term One into the current 1W

classroom. This classroom will be set up with Year 3

furniture and resources to enable the necessary work

to be completed on the actual Year 3 classroom at the

bottom of the school.

Attendance We almost made it again this week – just

slightly down from last week: 89.6%

While we didn’t quite double up from last week – it was

a brave attempt and we all know that we can do it

again.

RE News continued ... You could talk with your family about what you can do

during the Season of Advent, while waiting for the

coming of Jesus.

In Mass this weekend we will see one of the symbols of

Advent, the Advent wreath. The evergreen leaves of

the wreath stand for life and the circle has no

beginning or end, which stands for God’s eternal

presence in our lives. On the wreath there are 3 purple

and 1 pink candle . The white candle reminds us that

Jesus is the light of the world. The 1st purple candle

will be lit this week at mass.

Our Christmas Concert ‘Christmas on the Grass’ will

tell the story of the birth of Jesus in song and actions. It

will be held on Thursday 7th December, commencing

at 6pm. We hope you will be able to join us for this

wonderful concert.

Mrs Shane Robinson—REC

Congratulations to our Kinder, Year 1 and

Year 2 Students Our Swimming program for the Kinder Year One and

Year 2 students has finished. All the boys

and girls tried very hard and lots of fun was

had at the pool every day of the program.

Thank you to the Kinder, Year 1 and Year 2

teachers who managed the 5 day program

and at the same time continued the learning program.

Congratulations to our Swimming Program

Coordinators Miss Edwards and Miss Heagney and the

office staff for the planning and organization of the

program.

End of Year School Reports On Tuesday 5th December 2017 the students will

receive their Yearly Learning Reports. The reports are

a reflection of your child’s learning and social

development for the second semester of this year.

Teachers dedicate significant time to allocating the

grades for each student. Grades are allocated based

on a number of variables such as student work

samples, assessment tasks, standardised tests,

observations and class work.

You may find that your child receives a higher or lower

grade to what they received in the half yearly reports.

This is due to the fact that they are being assessed on

different work and may have achieved a different level

of understanding in the different areas covered.

Students from Years 1 to 6 will receive a level of

achievement in each Key Learning Area based on a

scale described by the letters A-E and an effort

indicator. It is important to remember that the majority

of students will receive ‘C’ grades which indicate that

they are achieving the expected outcomes. Students in

Kindergarten will receive a level of achievement based

on a scale: Working Towards, Working At and Working

Beyond.

Student Council War on Waste initiative – Waste

Free Wednesdays

Don’t forget – EVERY Wednesday pack a waste free

lunch.

Music Therapy, Westmead Children’s

Hospital On Sunday 29th October at Sydney Town Hall we had a

‘Celebration Sing Out’ which involved 800 performers,

the world’s second biggest organ and a large orchestra.

This performance raised money for music therapy at

Westmead Children’s Hospital. It was an amazing

performance that all of our choir were proud to be a part

of.

On Tuesday 28th November, on behalf of the choir,

Zander and I went to Westmead Children’s Hospital to

help present a cheque to them for the money we raised

at the Town Hall performance. We are pleased to

announce that we raised $30,000!

At the cheque presentation day when we were greeted

by Mal Hewitt who is a talented conductor with a great

sense of humour who was one of the main performance

organisers. He led us into a beautiful boardroom where

we had a chance to talk to the hospital staff, choir,

orchestra organisers and music therapy staff. We also

got to see a few of the instruments used in music therapy

and these included a ukulele, mini xylophone, rain drum

and a special instrument made for the hospital called a

Reverie harp. A very touching and inspiring video was

also played of kids in hospital getting to do music

therapy.

Music therapy is a program run at the hospital where it’s

aim is to enrich the lives of sick children who are in

hospital. Many of them can be there for a very long

time. Music therapy introduces music to these children

to make them happy and forget about their illness and

pain for a while. Dedicated people like music therapist

Roxanne McLeod, guide the children in their exploration

of many forms of music. The music that is introduced

ranges from nursery rhymes to good hard rock. Such

varied music is used to create a more homely

environment. We are told that music from the Wiggles,

Taylor Swift and Katy Perry are popular. When the

music therapist are with the children they play music,

sing songs and write and compose songs. The children

also get to play musical instruments. The $30,000 raised

is going to this worthy cause.

Music Therapy continued…

I am sure that all the members of our choir feel lucky to

be able to help bring joy to these children in the

Children’s Hospital, Westmead.

As you can see we had a great time representing our

school and choir and finding out how our donation will

help sick kids. So much is already being done for sick

kids through music therapy and we hope that we can all

do more in the future to help them even further.

Angelique Daniele 4W & Zander Cheng 4G

Library—Book Alert This was the last week for borrowing books

this year. All library books need to be

returned by Friday 8th December please.

We still have a large number of overdue

books, if your child has an overdue book(s),

could you please remind him/her to return

the book(s). Your cooperation in this matter is much

appreciated.

Gaye Crammond—Librarian

St Bernadette’s School News 3

St Bernadette’s School News 4

Social Skill: (Relationship Skills) Showing Strength through Gentleness

Class Student of the Week

Student of the Week

Social Skill Award

KB Not for Publication Rafael Lamata Alexia Haddad

KG Arianna Sebastian Isaac Sung Lila Oliver

KW Jeslyn Ariyanayagam Aarshia Arun Callum Vickers

1B Peter Georges Xander Younan Rosalie McGinty

1G Khiara Heyes Samuel Lean-Fore Isaac Beshay

1W Natalie Alam Aden King Riley McGlynn

2B Diego Garcia-Behrens Isabella Perete Rhys Timbrell

2G Jet Jackson Joseph-Anthony Raad Jesse Oliver

2W Cooper Dowling Thasandi Fonseka Carla Kamel

3B Alannah Ceh Charlotte Cowper Kaiden Taggart

3G Juliana Farag Mekenna Vickers Alexis Vishnivetskiy

3W Charlie Akle Isabella Scotti Jason-Leigh Knight

4B Aiden Ashkar Indiana Thom Michael Khoudair

4G Claudia Homsi Juliet Radman Daniella Jelwan

4W Saskia Bullen Imogen Vines Olivia Drogaris

5B Deema Arraf Ryan McMahon Daniel Samperi

5G Lauren Ballesty Toby Reitemann Nicolas Samperi

5W Amy Hammersley Timothy Kelly Holly Miller

6B Noelle Le Patrick Stennett John-Paul Edge-Bennett

6G Emma Mizzi Brooke Napoli Mia Metwally

6W Luke Debelak Chelsea Polley Alexandra Cushway

Congratulations to the following

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

Principal’s Awards:

O’Shea Gooley 6W Toby Ryan 6W Sienna Vines 6B Andrew Kairuz 6B

Grace Towner 6B Egor Vishnivetskiy 6B Bailey Thom 6B Liliana Dowling 6B

Flynn Batty 6B Jaimee Azzi 6B Zachary Barone 6B Rachael Hanna 5G

Aprille Exton 5G Shydan Magtoto 5G Rhys Timbrell 2B Jai Salter 2B

Jason Khoudair 2B Kayla Zaiter 5W Jardyn Orsini 5W Isabella Muscat 5W

Hannah Cherian 3G Lucas Campagna 3G Mia Papandrea 3W Ysabella Jaucian 3W

Georgia Kassis 3W Emily Nguyen 3W Antonio Wadih 3W Mia Khoudair 3B

Annika Parker 3B Marissa Zeaiter 1B Sophie Pratt 1B Lucy Saad 1B

Zara Osborn 1B Ashton Baker 1B Douglas Windress 2G Paloma Lopez 2G

Christopher Zaiter 2G Caterina Porte 2G Isabella Mathews 2G Rachel Sahabu 2G

Oscar Polley 2G Jesse Oliver 2G Sebastian Viloria 2G Woo Chan Lee 2G

Grace Kalina 2G Tahlia Haj 2G Marcus Chheng 2B Georgia Pratt 4W

Piper Johnson 2W Sofia Aiossa 2W Tayah Vickers 4G Ella-Rose Semaan 4G

Jorja Mizzi 4B Landen Besters 4B Michaela Scrooby 4B Eva Cooper 4B

Celebrating Talents

Congratulations to Dylan Martin (ex-student) who was selected by

Baseball Australia to

play for Team

Australia in the

WBSC Sanctioned

International

Baseball Tournament

in Japan last week,

The Yomiuri Cup.

We are so proud of

Dylan for

representing his country and

wearing the Australian jersey.

Congratulations to Marcus Chheng

in 2B who was placed gold in the U7 boys Epee and silver

in the U7 boys Sabre

fencing event. He also

placed gold in the U7

boys sabre in the State

Mini 2 competition in

October. Marcus is

currently ranked #1

U7 boy for both Sabre

and Epee in NSW.

The Hills Athletic Fencing Club which

Marcus attends is currently ranked

#2 club in NSW.

R.I.P. †† Our prayerful sympathy is extended to the Campagna family (Laila &

Luca), following the recent passing of

Lyndsey Campagna. May she rest in

peace.

St Bernadette’s School News 5

Change of School for 2018 To estimate enrolments for 2018, it would be

appreciated if the school could be notified in writing of

any children who may be leaving St Bernadette’s at the

end of the year from grades other than Year 6.

A reminder to families that a term’s notice (10 school

weeks) in writing MUST be given to the principal before

the removal of a student or a full term’s fees will be

payable. The notice can be given any time during the

term for the next term and where appropriate notice has

been received, a pro-rata credit will be calculated.

Where a term’s notice has not been given to the

principal, the term’s school fees will be charged for

your child/children.

Year 3 Movie Night—Ferdinand Wednesday December 13 5pm $11 each.

Email already sent to parents with payment options and

details.

Anna Jaucian 0414 309 929 Anna.jaucian@idx.com.au

Banking News 2017/2018 HELP NEEDED We are looking for a new team to run school banking.

School banking doesn’t take long to do and it is

beneficial to our school as it is a great fundraiser. The

day is flexible and can be changed to a day that suits

you. If you are interested in continuing our school

banking at St Bernadette’s, please contact the School

Office. Your support would be very much appreciated.

Our congratulations to the Reljanovic

family on the birth of Ana, sister to

(Luca 1G & Thomas in1B). Our best

wishes to the family.

Term Dates 2017 Term 4:

Mon 9 October to Fri 15 December (for students)

Mon 6 November—Staff Spirituality Day/Pupil Free Day

Fri 15 December—Last day for students

Monday 18 December –Staff Dev & Pupil Free Day

Term 1 2018 Mon 29 Jan

Staff Dev Day / Pupil Free Day / *MAI Day

Tue 30 Jan

*MAI Day / Pupil Free Day

Wed 31 Jan

Yrs 1 to 6 commence

Thurs 1 Feb

Kindergarten 2018 commence

*Maths Assessment Interview

Kindy 2017 Parents Advance Notice—P&F Welcome BBQ for Kindy 2018

and new families to the school in 2018

Friday 9th February—5.30pm onwards

Please mark this date in your diaries as we will require

helpers on the night. A note was sent to parents last

week.

Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fatima 1917-2017 is coming to St Bernadette’s, Castle hill on Wed 6

December. Don’t miss this special opportunity to

celebrate 100 years since the miracles of Fatima. Hear

our Lady’s message through Fr Gerard Ryan. Present

special petitions for personal intentions. Schedule 6

December: 6.30pm opportunity for sacraments of

penance for early birds. 7pm Introduction & Rosary.

7.30pm Mass. 7.50 Talk on the messages of Our Lady of

Fatima. 8.50pm Benediction & individual priestly

blessing.

Gilroy Catholic College, Castle Hill Enrolment applications are now being accepted across

all Years for 2018 and for Year 7 2019. For information

regarding enrolments please contact the College office

during business hours Monday to Friday 8am to 4pm or

email the Registrar Mary McBain

mmcbain@parra.catholic.edu.au.

Mini-League Clinic Crestwood Oval, Peel Road, Baulkham Hills. Tues 5 & 12

December 5 – 6pm. This is free for 4—8 year old boys

and girls who have not played the ‘Greatest Game of All’.

All children will participate in games and drills and have

lots of fun. All activities will be supervised by accredited

coaches and training staff. Contact Rick Palin on 0410

413 061 or admin@hillsrugbyleague.com.au

Expression of Interest Uniform Shop Coordinator

The school is calling for Expressions of Interest for the

Uniform Shop Coordinator. The position will be

responsible for managing, ordering and selling the

school uniform to the St Bernadette’s families and

reporting to the Parents & Friends Association and

school principal. Hours are approximately 6 hours per

week. Currently this position is shared across two

people.

For further information, please contact the school office

to obtain a description of the various duties associated

with the role.