Mrs Adamson and our stage 5 students have successfully incubated chickens this term! Our babies have been hatching since yesterday and we currently have 8 newcomers to our agriculture family!
Students have been learning about the nutritional requirements for animals at different stages of their life and are well equipped to handle these new additions.
On 1 November 2022, St Brigid’s held a Leadership Ceremony for our Senior Student Leaders for 2023. It was great seeing so many families attend the ceremony.
Congratulations to our new Student Leaders: Isla Anderson, Kahli Burgess, Chloe Debono, Noah Ellis-Helmers, Brooke Elwell, Layla Hepplewhite, Braydn Hoile, Cooper Jones, Tom McMahon, Ben McCulkin, Bridget McLear, Laura Peters, Nathaniel Remaili, Holly Ross, Riana Sherrin, Cooper Sweeney and James Vipan.
I had the opportunity on Wednesday night along with Mrs Walters and Mrs Smith to head down to Catholic Schools Broken Bay to hear about the Diocesan vision for increasing family engagement within our schools. It was great to hear from Danny Casey, our Director of Schools who outlined the progress that had been made on the Towards 2025 Strategy and it was abundantly clear how much Danny values parent voice and how keen he is to drive family engagement across all schools. We also heard from Cath Garrett-Jones who is the Executive Director for Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT. Cath is an exceptionally passionate advocate for inclusivity in schools and spoke about the need for the school and its families to work in partnership with the goal of bettering the educational outcomes for our children.
At St Brigid’s we are very keen to hear from our wider community. We appreciate that not everyone is able to be physically involved in the life of the College, but we do have a high expectation that you will be engaged with your child’s education. Our wonderful Parent Advisory Group is already considering ways we can build an even stronger community at St Brigid’s, and we will have more news on these initiatives in coming weeks. In the meantime, I encourage you to think of ways that you can show your child how much you value the importance of their education. It really can be as simple as staying up to date with Compass, reading College communications and sharing that with your child, reading for pleasure with your children, helping with homework, discussing College events, attending College functions or volunteering when opportunities arise.
Mr Paul Lynch
Assistant Principal
On Wednesday the 26th of October, Stage 5 Marine Students plus their teachers, Mr Nicholas McFarlane and Ms Courtney Harvey, attended an excursion to the Irukandji Shark & Ray Centre in Anna Bay. Students and staff received hands-on education experiences with qualified professional marine biologists, exploring different species of sharks, rays, fish and eels all cared for at the Shark & Ray Centre, as well as gaining valuable knowledge about the plight of sharks throughout Australia and the world.
Students were offered the opportunity of a lifetime, with up close and personal encounters with the resident leopard sharks in the large lagoon environment. Students waded into knee deep water and allowed the sharks to swim all around their legs, using the opportunity to feel the rough, sandpaper-like skin of the sharks. Simultaneously, another group of students engaged in a meet and greet with the youngest, smallest shark in the centre, watching her frolic in the currents and request scratches from the students as she swam by in the nursery tank.
To conclude the experience, students had the opportunity to feed the various species of stingrays by hand, step into the stingray lagoon and enjoy their slimy, snot-covered bodies glide over their feet and watch as the monstrous, 300kg smooth rays swam past. Many students found the stingrays friendly nature to be enjoyable, with the rays having no problem sitting on the feet students attempting to get more food!
After a quick visit to the gift shop, we then set out for home, stopping for lunch on the way, with the students busily chatting away about their favourite parts of the day.
Quotes from students:
The excursion at the Irukandji Shark and Ray centre was enjoyable because we had the opportunity to feed the stingrays as well as pat the sharks. This was an interesting excursion as we learned about the sharks and stingrays in the centre.
Yesterday at the shark and ray centre I enjoyed learning about sharks. It was cool to find out about their behaviours, habits, getting to pat them and the baby shark. Feeding the stingrays was also really interesting.
In terms of the marine excursion, I thought it was a really great opportunity for the class as a whole to finally get out and do something marine related. For the last year and a half, we’ve been promised this excursion so to finally get out and do it was something really fun. Being at the shark and ray centre was something different but it was actually really cool.
The interactive hands-on experience of the Shark and Ray centre made it an easier way to comprehend and learn the content that the instructor talked about throughout the day. It captured our attention with live experience and gained an appreciation for these marine creatures. Being able to touch these creatures in a safe environment gives us the opportunity we wouldn’t be able to have in the wild.
I thought that the marine excursion to Irukandji Shark & Ray Encounters was educational and helped us gain first-hand experience with sharks and rays. The instructor that took us around the site helped us to learn new things about sharks, rays, and pretty much everything about them
I really enjoyed when we had the talk on sharks at the start. The information given was clear and very interesting. Did you know that Australia is home to a couple hundred different species of sharks but only three have accidentally attacked humans? These three are the Great White Shark, Bull Shark and Tiger Shark. I enjoyed the talk because not only did we get to watch a variety of different small sharks feed and learn more about the large nurse shark.
I thoroughly enjoyed swimming with sharks and the rays. The sharks were a very unusual texture and they felt kind of rough like sandpaper. The rays however were how I expected to feel, they were very slimy and most of their outer layer is made of mucus and alcohol.
Nick McFarlane
Vacancy
Parish Secretary vacancy – Toukley-Lake Munmorah Parish
Permanent, part-time
Could you see yourself as the face of the Toukley-Lake Munmorah Parish, providing high level administrative support and a warm and inviting welcome to visitors?
The Catholic Parish of Toukley-Lake Munmorah is seeking to recruit a new permanent part-time Parish Secretary, Mondays to Fridays, 9:00am to 2:00pm. This role plays an important part in the Parish team, providing support for Parish communications, administration, financial processes, Parish property, compliance and Diocesan support. If you have high developed administration skills coupled with well-developed relational and rapport building skills and this role interests you, please email a brief cover letter and CV to recruitment@bbcatholic.org.au
Applications close Friday 25 November 2022.
The Diocese of Broken Bay is committed to and promotes a culture of safety and care for all people, especially for children and others in the community who are vulnerable. Our Diocese has no tolerance to Child Abuse and is committed to ensuring our staff and volunteers understand the joint responsibility to safeguard all those within our community.
The successful applicant must have the right to work in Australia and will be required to undertake a National Police History Check and Working With Children Check.
The 28th of October was World Teachers Day, and students at St Brigid’s showed their appreciation of our amazing teachers in many ways. They presented a morning prayer and gratitude session, gave out handmade badges, prepared a staff morning tea and more!
Thank you to our wonderful students who make the role of teaching so rewarding.
Year 8 PDHPE students have been busy in class learning about sun and water safety and on Tuesday we welcomed Maxi and Leigh from Live, Learn, Survive to speak with our students to share their knowledge on how to have fun in the sun – safely.
Maxi is known for his role on Bondi Rescue as a Surf Lifesaver and he also works as a Fire Fighter in one of the busiest fire stations in Sydney.
Maxi educated and inspired our Year 8 students to take extra precautions at the beach to keep themselves and others safe.
Thank you to Maxi and Leigh for a fun morning for both students and staff and we already look forward to seeing you next year!
On Saturday, I had the honour of attending a special installation mass at St Patrick’s Catholic Church in East Gosford, which will be become a permanent shrine to Saint John Paul II, who visited Australia as Pope in 1986.
Two first class relics were displayed in a Shrine to St John Paul II at St Patrick’s Catholic Church, East Gosford on Saturday 22 October – the feast day of the former much-loved Pope.
Strands of hair and blood were placed in a reliquary near the altar during an Installation Mass attended by many hundreds of faithful including parishioners and those from communities on the Central Coast and the greater Sydney area.
Most Rev Anthony Randazzo DD JCL, Bishop of Broken Bay, celebrated the Mass. The Parish Priest, Fr Greg Skulski SDS celebrated along with a number of priests from the Diocese and the leader of the Salvatorian Congregation, Fr George Kolodziej SDS.
I thank Sister Josie, Mr Landrigan, Mrs Walters, Isla, Laura, Layla, Cooper and Noah for representing St Brigid’s on this special occasion.
The Mass was live-streamed and can be viewed here – https://www.bbcatholic.org.au/gosford/jpii/live-stream
Paul Lynch
Assistant Principal
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