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Dear Parents and Carers,
St Benedict’s has introduced the new online portal called Compass. The Parent Portal allows parents to receive information about your child’s school and their progress. It will give you access to school reports, messages, classroom blogs and the ability to submit attendance notes. The portal is accessible via the web and the Compass School Manager App (via the App store on your device).
This Parent Portal will make engaging with your child’s school faster, easier and more secure.
Login Id's have been sent to all parents today. If you have not registered you will need to do so to access your child’s report. Week 5 next term we will phase out the SZapp absentee notification.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Receive relevant messaging through the app or desktop
- Submit absence notes
- Give consent for events/excursions (excluding notes already sent home)
- Communicate directly with teachers (desktop only)
- Book parent-teacher conferences
- Access your child’s academic reporting
- Update basic contact information knowing your data will remain secure
The links to download the Portal are below:
Apple: https://apps.apple.com/au/app/compass-school-manager/id778415974
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jdlf.compass&hl=en_AU
God bless.
Rachel Smith
Principal
Whole School Performance – All Around The World
Due to COVID restrictions we will be performing our whole school performance on three occasions over 2 days. Please save the date for the whole school performances; Tuesady 20th July, 11.30am & 6pm, and Wednesday 21st July, 6pm. More information will follow shortly. All students are participating in the performance and are busily practicing their class items.
Reports
Please note that reports will be available Monday 21st June and not Friday 18th June as previously advertised.
When reviewing the report with your child you may wish to use the following language. Though the grade indicators are printed on the report, the following may be more meaningful to children.
An E is a starting point, rather than a fail. It means a child is working on the same tasks as everyone else, but is finding Everything in that area a challenge.
A child receiving a D is Developing skills but needs some more support and Direction.
The child who receives a C in a given area is Consistently Coping well with work he or she Can do by themself.
A B is Brilliant because he or she can do a superb job, all By themselves, all the time.
To get an A is Absolutely Amazing because a child’s work would have to be Awesome All the time.
I am sure that each child will be able to celebrate their successes as well as set goals for next term and beyond.
Learning Showcase
This Thursday 17th June between 2pm and 4pm we will be having our second Learning Showcase for the year. We are very excited to be welcoming parents and carers into the classroom for these. We ask that on entry to your child’s classroom you sign in using the Check In Canberra App. Each classroom will have a copy of the QR code to enable this. If you do not have the App, teachers will have a sign in sheet for you to fill in. If you have multiple children you only need to check in at the first classroom. Please remember to social distance when you are visiting. Thank you for your support with this.
Term Three Starting Date – Tuesday 13th July
Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn has declared Monday 12th July as a pupil free day for all Catholic schools in Canberra. Students will commence Term 3 on Tuesday 13th July.
Leaving St Benedict’s
If you anticipate that your child will leave St Benedict’s at the end of this year, could you please notify the Front Office. We need to begin planning for staffing and class configurations for 2022. Thank you to those who have let us know already, this is very much appreciated. Naturally Year 6 parents need not respond to this request.
Sacraments
This Saturday some of our students, through the Sacrament of First Holy Communion, will share in the meal through which Jesus gives Himself to us so that we may go out into the world and share His love with others. As a school community we pray for these students and their families.
May you always know the peace of Jesus,
the light of His love,
and the joy of His life within you.
Mini Vinnies Winter Woollies Day
Our Winter Woollies Day will be held next Wednesday 23rd June to raise awareness about the issue of homelessness in Canberra as well as donations for the St Vincent de Paul Night Patrol Van. All classes will have been discussing the issue of homelessness in our Canberra community. Please take the time to also have these discussions at home, the main understanding we want our students to have is that we are working as a school to protect the human dignity of the vulnerable in our community. Students will wear free-uniform for a donation of either a blanket, sleeping bag, scarf, gloves, socks, beanie or gold coin donation. Donations can be second-hand or new, but all must be adult sizes. Please store these at home until Friday, as we do not have the capacity to store these at school.
For more information about the Canberra Night Patrol Van, please visit
https://www.vinnies.org.au/page/Find_Help/ACT/Food/Night_Patrol/
Families who wish to make a money donation might consider purchasing an incredible ‘Backpack Bed’- Backpack with storage that rolls out into an all-weather protected bed. These are an extremely ‘precious’ item that is handed out from the Night Patrol Van to those who are ‘sleeping rough’. For more information able this wonderful product that provides thousands of people with a dignified sleep across Australia please visit:
Community Meals Program
The Community Meals freezer is one way we can assist families who are experiencing hardship. If you are able to cook a meal, please use disposable containers and label with ingredients and date. All meal donations can be brought to the Front Office. If your family requires temporary meal assistance, you can speak in confidence to any of our staff members.
St Benedict’s Feast Day Mass
On Friday 25th June we will be celebrating St Benedict’s Feast Day beginning with a whole school Mass at 10:00am. Students from different classes will be leading the Mass. Families are warmly invited to join us for this liturgical celebration. Parents and guests are invited to stay after Mass for morning tea with their children and staff in the Library.
I am worried my child might be bullying others
If your child is treating others badly, is dismissive of their feelings or targeting or intentionally excluding a particular child or group, they could be seen as someone who bullies. If they also socialise online there is a chance they may be bullying that person or group online too. 
Finding out your child is bullying others can be very painful but you can help them to change, with your guidance and positive engagement.
Here are some strategies to try:
- Talk to your child in a way they can relate to, about how it feels to be left out or teased. Use examples. Build empathy — what it might feel like to be the other person.
- Encourage your child to be honest about their behaviour, take responsibility for it and apologise to those they have bullied.
- Talk about accepting differences and how to deal with people that annoy them. Give examples from your own life such as working with a difficult colleague.
- Explain there will be consequences for them if they treat others badly — for example, if they are rude they need to apologise and lose access to something they enjoy. Remember to also praise any change for the good so they start afresh.
- Identify activities that make your child feel good about themselves such as membership of a sports club or an art class, where they can be successful and have fun.
- Praise your child’s strengths and any behaviour changes they try to make.
- Practice treating others well at home and let them know when they are being kind.
- Spend one-on-one time with your child such as watching a movie, playing sport together or cooking with them.
- Talk to your child’s school about their academic achievement, learning style and abilities and whether they need additional support.
- Work with the school on ways to develop your child’s social skills.
The ‘Keep it Real Online’ campaign by the New Zealand government shows just how important it is not to overreact and instead focus on ways to positively engage with your child to change their behaviour. See the advertisement here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBhxVomEN7Y
My child has shared inappropriate images
If your child has shared an intimate image of someone else without their permission:
- try to get the full story;
- explain why it is a problem;
- try to stop the image being further shared; and
- help your child to repair any harm.
For more details see our guide to sending nudes and sexting for parents and carers.
You can also get help and support from one of these counselling services:
Kids Helpline - 5 to 25 year olds. All issues. Confidential phone counselling available all day, every day. Online chat available 24/7, 365 days a year. Ph: 1800 55 1800
Headspace - 12 to 25 year olds. All issues. Phone counselling available all day, every day. Online chat available 9am to 1am EST daily. Ph: 1800 650 890
The above information is taken from the eSafety Commissioner website - https://www.esafety.gov.au/. This website contains a plethora of information, resources and support for parents to help navigate the difficult area of online safety with their children.
Important dates to note for this term are:
17 Jun Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge
Ambassador visit - Postponed
Yr5/6 Silence is Deadly visit
Learning Showcase, 2.00pm
18 Jun Semester reports sent home
Whole School Assembly, 2.30pm
20 Jun First Communion Mass, 9.00am
21 Jun Parent—Teacher Interviews (Optional)
22 Jun Parent—Teacher Interviews (Optional)
23 Jun Mini Vinnies Winter Woolies Day
24 Jun Athletics Carnival (Whole School) - NEW DATE
25 Jun St Benedict’s Feast Day Mass, 10.00am
Ways of Being Award Assembly, 2.15pm
Term 2 concludes
12 July Pupil Free Day
13 July Term 3 starts - Full winter uniform
Please see below all notes that have gone home this week:
Year 5/6 Camp
Year_5.6_Camp_2021_Letter.pdf
St Benedict's Feast Day Special Lunch
Special_Feast_Day_Lunch.pdf
Athletics Carnival - Due back by Friday 18th June
Athletics_Permission_Note_2021_New_date.pdf
Learning Showcase
Learning_Showcase_invite_T2_2021.pdf
Winter Woolies Day
Winter_Woollies_Day_2021.pdf
Welcome to the Compass Parent Portal
A Lens on Learning
Kindergarten and Year 3/4 Gold
Our students have continued to be busy with their learning. Recently, Year 3/4 Gold students combined with Kindergarten for some partner reading time. The bigger students really enjoyed sharing a range of stories and spending time with their younger peers. They were all engrossed in the stories they were reading and thoroughly enjoyed participating in some buddy time.
Year 5/6
Our Year 5/6 students have been continuing their environmental investigation in their Conceptual Inquiry unit. Their inquiry into the statement ‘Biodiversity relies on maintaining the interdependent balance of organisms within systems’ has involved them in learning about the concepts of interdependence, sustainability, causation and biodiversity whilst conducting a case study on the Jerrabomberra Wetlands.
To help students further evaluate their findings from the water testing of the wetlands they conducted, and to also assist them to make deeper connections between their learning and the wider world, we were fortunate to have Mr Michael Wrathall (Assistant Secretary -wetlands, policy and Northern water use) as a guest speaker.
The students were highly engaged as they learnt more about how human actions greatly affect the health of the river systems and wetlands. As part of Mr Wrathall’s presentation, the students watched a short video about wetlands and they then participated in role play that considered a variety of perspectives on environment use and its impacts both positive and negative. Students considered the issue from a variety of viewpoints such as a fishing fanatic, an Aboriginal person, a land developer, farmers, a school teacher and the mayor of the local community.
A lot of fun was had by all and the students certainly learnt a lot. Thank you Mr Wrathall!
Extra curriculum music lesson are provided at the school by the following businesses. If you are interest please contact them directly.
Student Netball News
Well done to all the students that are part of this years netball teams and a big THANK YOU to our Coaches and Managers. You have all done our school proud.
Congratulations to three St Benedict's students - Ruby, Ava and Mia whom have all played for South Canberra Reps teams.
Happy Birthday to the following children who celebrate their special day this week: Ellana C, Rafaela H, Joel S, Airlie M, Isadora N and Jack O.
Kinder: Nathanael M and Scarlett L
Year 1/2B: Ava K
Year 1/2G: Naite H and Andrew K
Year 3/4B: Laura K and Hector V
Year 3/4G: Frederick H, Maria C and Arwyn S
Year 5/6B: Sophia R, Raphael D, Ekamjot K, Grace R, Daria F, Ava D, Marissa M, Nicholas L, Tessa P and Lucia M
Year 5/6G: Edith Q, Ava W, Finn W, Rafael V, Ciru N, Michael R, Clancy B and Edith B
Only two days left to purchase any items for Term 3. The clothing pool will be open this Thursday and next Tuesday between 2.50pm to 3.05pm. Unfortunately, the clothing pool will not be open next Thursday after the Athletics Carnival.
As the term comes to an end we ask parents to check with their child/children to ensure they have checked and collected any missing items from the lost property box. The lost property box is overflowing so over the next couple of days we will be going through the box and returning any labels items to students while the rest will be washed and returned to the clothing pool for repurchasing in term 3.
PLEASE ENSURE YOUR CHILD/REN'S CLOTHING, LUNCH BOX AND DRINK BOTTLES ARE LABELLED WITH THEIR NAME.
If you require uniform items from the clothing pool please email the school office.stbenedicts@cg.catholic.edu.au or contact Mrs McRae with a list of items required. We will endeavour to fill your order and reply to you as soon as possible.
School Ties
We have sourced new school ties from Savvy's. These ties are now available for purchase from the clothing pool for $25 each. Unfortunately, these are the only ties we have available as all donated ties have now been sold.
Tuck Day Tuesday and Thursdays are back.
The new menu is now up on Qkr! ready for your Tuesday and Thursdays orders. All orders for recess and lunch must be placed before 9.10am on the day it is required. The Qkr! app also gives you the ability to order in advance for a particular Tuesday and/or Thursday.
Apple slinky Tuesdays and Thursday mornings for fruit break
We thank the wonderful parents that come and do slinky apples for students fruit break each Tuesday and Thursday mornings - the students think this is wonderful. There is no cost, we just ask that students bring their own apple to be slinkied for fruit break. We understand that the mornings are getting cold, but the students are still having fruit break each day and a apple slinky is just another way to make fruit more appealing.
St Benedict's Parish
Office Hours: Tuesday to Friday 9am to 12noon
Phone: 62957879
Email: narrabundah@cg.org.au
Web: website: http://cg.org.au/narrabundah/Home.aspx
Parish Team:
Fr Rembert Fernando MGL
Fr Baiju Thomas MGL
Cathy Schneider (Parish Secretary)
Mass Times:
Saturday Vigil - 6pm
Sunday - 9am
- 6pm Charismatic Mass
Youth Mass every 4th Sunday (6pm)
Baptisms: 11.00am, 2nd and 4th Sundays of the Month.
Vinnies CEO Sleepout for the Homeless
COVID has resulted in more homeless people in Canberra needing help but also greater difficulties in raising funds. For information or to sponsor Canberra local, Neville Tomkins, participating in his 10th Sleepout, on 17 June, go to https://www.ceosleepout.org.au/ceos/act-ceos/neville-tomkins-scouts-australia/.
