Next week is our final week of Term 1 and our focus become squarely on Holy Week

It is such a powerful and poignant time of year in our Catholic school community. The transition from the busy energy of Term 1 into the prayerfulness of Holy Week offers a beautiful moment for reflection, both for the children and for us as the "architects" of their faith journey.

Holy Week isn't just a series of historical commemorations; it is a lived experience of the core mysteries of Christianity.

The following images are an example of the prep classes preparing for Holy week as evidence in their portrayal of the Last Supper.

  

Welcoming Our Future Families

This week, we had the pleasure of welcoming prospective families looking to join the Clairvaux community in 2027. Interest in a Clairvaux education remains incredibly strong; we conducted two vibrant information sessions this week, with another two scheduled in the coming weeks.

These sessions offered new and existing families a valuable opportunity to hear from our leadership team and tour our facilities—a true chance to engage with and feel the "pulse" of our school. We are extremely proud of our identity and what we stand for as a Catholic school community.

Our reputation within the local community and the broader Catholic education sector remains robust, as we continue to exceed the average enrolment percentages for Catholic schools across Victoria. Our mission is to remain Christ-centered, ensuring our narrative is defined not only by academic excellence but by our commitment to being a morally just and compassionate community. This mission is brought to life through intentional instruction led by our wonderful, professional staff.

Opportunity to Respond: Prep Parent Feedback

Last Thursday, many of our new parents gathered to discuss the first seven weeks at Clairvaux. It was a wonderful opportunity to listen, reflect, and share experiences about those important early days for both the children and their families.

Missed the meeting? We still want to hear from you!
If you are a Prep parent who was unable to attend, we invite you to share your thoughts via our Google Doc. Your feedback allows us to reflect on our current practices and adjust how we support our new children and their families. While we may not be able to accommodate every suggestion, every voice helps us improve.

Sharing Your Reflection

Using the Appreciative Inquiry method, I invite you to consider the following prompts:

• What was good? (Positive experiences so far)
• What was great? (Highlights or stand-out moments)
• At its best, what would it look like? (Your vision for the ideal transition experience)

Parent feedback form

A Pilgrimage of Unity and Discovery 

On March 18th, 2026, our Geelong Primary Catholic school communities united in a  second pilgrimage as part of Catholic Education week. Representative students from Year 5 and 6 from each school, visited and recalled the rich Catholic heritage around Queenscliff, focussed on the deep connection to our First Nations  country, and the shared commitment to service that is common amongst all of the Catholic communities of Geelong. We were represented by 8 Year 5 students as the Year 6 students were on camp. It was great to journey and trace the footsteps of those who built our faith community from the earliest days of Catholicism to our vibrant present.

Keeping Our Community Safe: Car Park Reminders

As we head to the end  of the term, I’d like to share a quick reminder about safety around our school. To keep our students safe and traffic flowing smoothly, please keep the following in mind:

• Church Car Park: Please ensure you are using designated parking bays only. We have noticed some instances of double-parking and cars using disabled spaces without a permit. These spots are vital for those who truly need them.
• Reynolds Road: When parking along the road, please "squeeze up" toward the car in front. Leaving smaller gaps allows more parents to find a spot!
• Right-Hand Turns: A friendly reminder that right-hand turns when exiting the school are prohibited. This rule is in place to prevent congestion and keep our students safe.

We appreciate your patience and for following these rules to ensure everyone gets to school and home safely.

Have a great week.

Brendan

Project Compassion 

Our Clairvaux school community has once again shown the true spirit of compassion and generosity, raising an outstanding :

$3,679.45 

for Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion through our Easter Egg Raffle and classroom Project Compassion boxes.

A heartfelt thank you to all families, students and staff for your generous donations..  

Your support is already helping to transform lives by providing people experiencing poverty with the tools, opportunities and resources they need to create brighter and more sustainable futures for themselves and their families.

We would also like to extend a special thank you to our teachers for kindly donating the Easter eggs for the raffle, and to Alyssa (Yr 5 teacher) and the Year 5 Social Justice CSC members for enthusiastically promoting this Lenten initiative and helping make it such a success.

Congratulations to all of our raffle winners, who were announced at our End of Term Assembly.  Thank you again to everyone who contributed so generously to this meaningful cause.

Look what our fundraising could contribute to….

$2000   Can help to establish two domestic water collection points in rural   Tanzania, which can provide a safe drinking water supply for 800 people.

$4000  Can rehabilitate the main pipeline for a piped water supply system,  which can give life to a dilapidated water system and supply safe drinking water to 4,000 people in Tanzania.


     

                    

Sacramental News

Eucharist & Confirmation Presentation Masses 

This year both the Year 4 Eucharist candidates and the Year 6 Confirmation candidates will be  presented to the St Bernard’s Parish community over one weekend (3 masses) :

• Sat 2nd May 5pm
• Sun 3rd May 9am
• Sun 3rd May 10.30am                                                                       

Sacrament of Eucharist 

The Year 4 students will be receiving the Sacrament of Eucharist for the first time during Term 2.  Information regarding dates and registration for the Sacrament has been emailed to all Year 4 families.

Important dates:

Presentation masses:  for all Eucharist & Confirmation Candidates
Sat 2nd May 5pm, Sun 3rd May 9am or 10.30 am

Family Faith Formation evening: 
Wednesday 27th May 6.30 pm

Eucharist Preparation day: Tues 2nd June

Sacrament dates:  Sat 13th June 5pm, Sun 14th June 9am or 10.30 am

If your child is in Year 5 or 6 and needs to ‘catch up’ on receiving the Sacrament of Eucharist, to include them in the program please email me at jroutley@ccsbelmont.com.au

Sacrament of Confirmation:  Term 3 - Sunday 30th August,  1pm and 3.30pm

Year Level Masses

Our Year level masses are a special opportunity for students, families, staff and parishioners to come together in faith as one community.  Through prayer, song, listening to God’s word and active participation in all parts of the Mass, students are given the chance to grow in understanding of our Catholic tradition.  All Year Level Masses are celebrated by our parish priest, Fr. Tho, in St. Bernard’s church. We would love you to join us this term:

• Year 3 Mother’s day Mass - Thursday 7th May 9.30am
• Year 5 National Reconciliation Day Mass- Wednesday 27th May 9.30am
• Year 2 Care for Creation Mass - Thursday 11 June 9.30am

Celebrating All Brains at Clairvaux

Last week, our school was buzzing with a different kind of energy as we recognised NeurodiversityWeek. At Clairvaux, we embrace the idea that neurological differences, like ADHD, Autism, Dyslexia and more, are natural variations of the human experience.

Throughout the week, students engaged in specific lessons and activities designed to highlight the strengths that come with thinking differently.

• Whole-School Display: Every student contributed to a collaborative art piece that now brightens our school. This display of an infinity loop serves as a visual reminder that while we all think and learn differently, we are all essential pieces of the Clairvaux puzzle.

• In-Class Learning: Teachers led discussions on how "fair" doesn't always mean "equal", it means everyone getting what they need to succeed.

Our celebration isn't limited to just one week. At Clairvaux, we are constantly working to make as many adjustments as possible to our environments and teaching methods. Whether it’s sensory-friendly spaces, visual schedules, or flexible learning tasks, our goal is the same: to ensure every child feels safe, welcome, and ready to learn.

Welcome to Clairvaux Catholic School. We are delighted to introduce you to our school and warmly welcome you to the Clairvaux community.

Our enrolment process is now underway, and we are pleased to offer school tours on:

• 1 April at 12:00pm

• 22 April at 9:30am

We would love for you to join us at one of these tours, and you are most welcome to bring your child along.

To make a booking, please click here or visit our website and click on the link under the Enrolments tab.

Application for Enrolment forms are also now available on the website or you can click here. We kindly ask that all applications for the 2027 school year are submitted by 1 May 2026.

We look forward to meeting you in the coming weeks.

Term 1 kicked off with a bang in the artroom, with amazing artworks being produced all round! 

The new Preps were introduced to the fundamental Elements of Art - the components that contribute to making a piece of art.

They have begun to explore Colour, focusing on the primary colours, as well as Line and Shape.

Preps have done a fantastic job of practising their fine motor skills, by drawing a variety of lines, tracing in oil pastels and painting with watercolour paint. 

They also looked at two artists - Piet Mondrian and Alexander Calder. These artists both use primary colours, line and shape in their artworks. Using a painting titled, “Pennants,” by Calder, students used this image as inspiration to create their own artwork, creating shapes through the use of line, as well as the primary colours, plus black and white. Keep up the great work, Preps!! I can’t wait to see your skills develop even more over the year!!!

Year 4’s studied the works of Pop Artist, Andy Warhol, focusing on his artwork, “Marilyn.” Students were introduced to a very exciting technique of printmaking, the artform in which Warhol used. Whilst Warhol created his works through screenprinting, our students used the method of intaglio printing (engraving).

It was a very tedious and tricky method, but I was incredibly proud of the students’ perseverance and efforts, whilst learning this new technique. The prints that they produced were portraits of themselves, engraved onto foam and then pressed onto coloured paper of their choice. Students made multiple copies (the beauty of printmaking!), then chose their favourite one to use as their final piece. 

Finally, the students added extra colour to the features of their face, to replicate the multicolours that Warhol used on his prints of Marilyn Monroe. Great effort, year 4, I am thrilled with your brilliant work!!!

Year 5 students also looked at the works of Alexander Calder, however, they studied Calder’s famous “works in wire.” 

Calder is an artist whose career spanned almost 70 years, so he produced a vast variety of works during that time. He is most famous for using wire, particularly in his kinesthetic art (hanging mobiles). Calder also made portrait sculptures out of wire, which have been described as “drawing in space.” 

Year 5 students focussed on the art element, line, when producing their wire portraits. Using an A3 photocopied photo of their face, they outlined their head and features with one continuous line. This then became their guide for bending and twisting their wire. Students were required to use their fine motor skills to bend, twist and join wire together. Their portraits included a wire stand, which was inserted into a wooden base, completing their sculptures. The results are incredible, I am so proud of all the students!!

Finally, year 6 students also created sculptures of another kind. They studied artist Alberto Giacometti, whose bronze figure sculptures are known for their surrealist style - elongated bodies and long arms and long legs. 

Students were given the task of posing their figure, representing an activity that promoted either physical health or mental health. These ranged from figures that were leaping up to mark a football, running, a soccer scissor kick, to elegant dance poses, yoga, meditation and reading a book. 

Students learned how to create their ‘armature’ for their sculpture (the skeleton), by using wire, aluminium foil and making tape to bulk out the torso and waist. 

Next, they wrapped plaster bandages around their armature. Once dry, students painted their sculpture with black paint, then either bronze or silver paint on top, to give it a metallic appearance. I am sure many year 6 students will be excited and proud to have these on display when they bring these home!!!! Fantastic effort, everyone!!!

Enjoy looking at this small sample of fantastic artwork!

Regards,

Lia - Prep, 4,5 &6 Visual Arts Teacher

Visual Arts

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As we embark on our journey through Michael Morpurgo's classic novel, the classroom is brimming with excitement. The dramatic story of Michael's life-changing voyage aboard his family's sailing boat, the Peggy Sue, has completely gripped the children. It has been wonderful to see them so engaged as we follow the family’s brave adventure across the massive oceans of the world. What will happen to Kensuke and Michael at the end?

In our writing lessons this term, they discuss the impacts of deforestation on our environment. The children have been working very diligently to create persuasive pieces. The main goal of these letters is to explain to people why we must stop cutting down trees and protect the rainforests before they are gone forever.

They've been contemplating how deforestation affects animals and the weather. It has been wonderful to see how much the students care about this important topic. 

The children have been focusing on powerful language techniques to make their arguments unmissable:

• Higher Modality Words: We have been upgrading our language to sound more certain and authoritative. Instead of saying deforestation might be bad, students are using "high modality" words like "must", "will", "certainly", and "essential" to show the urgency of the situation.
• Rhetorical Questions: "Do you want to live in a world without the 'lungs of the Earth'?"
• Emotive Language: Using words like "devastated", "irreplaceable", and "urgent" to stir the reader's conscience.

                  

Anaphylaxis

Anaphylaxis is a severe, rapidly progressive allergic reaction that is potentially life threatening. The most common allergens in school aged children are peanuts, eggs, tree nuts (e.g., cashews), cow’s milk, fish and shellfish, wheat, soy, sesame, lupin and certain insect stings (particularly bee stings).

At our school, the safety and well-being of our students are our highest priorities. To ensure a rapid and effective response to severe allergies, we maintain strict adherence to state health guidelines. This includes ensuring that all ASCIA Action Plans are clearly displayed and immediately accessible to staff in an emergency. In addition to individual student medications, the school maintains its own general-use adrenaline auto-injectors in the sick bay and portable first aid kits for emergency situations. Furthermore, our leadership team ensures that all staff undergo regular training to recognise the signs of anaphylaxis and remain confident in executing our emergency procedures.

We have children in this school who have severe allergies to peanuts. While the Royal Children's Hospital does not recommend making our school entirely nut-free, we kindly request your cooperation and understanding in ensuring the safety and well-being of all our students, including those with allergies. Our updated anaphylaxis and allergy policy can be found on our school website.

To create a safe environment for these children, we kindly ask that you refrain from packing peanut-containing products in your child's lunch if possible and remind your children about the importance of not sharing any food at school. We also ask that no food items are brough tto school to share for birthdays. These simple measures can greatly reduce the risk of an allergic reaction and help us maintain a supportive and inclusive atmosphere for all students. 

Important Reminder for Parents: To help us keep your child safe, please ensure that any updated medical plans or replacement auto-injectors are provided to the front office as soon as they are issued by your doctor.

Your cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Thank you for your understanding and support.