Newsletter 144- August 8th 2024

Prayer of the Week:

Ever-generous God,
You inspired St Mary MacKillop
to live her life faithful
to the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and constant in bringing hope
and encouragement
to those who were disheartened, lonely, or needy.
We ask that our faith and hope
be fired afresh by the Holy Spirit so that we too,
like Mary MacKillop, may live with courage,
trust, and openness.
Ever-generous God, hear our prayer.
We ask this through Jesus Christ.

Amen

Principal's Report:

Dear St Patrick’s community,

Welcoming a New Student

We are very excited to welcome a new student, Augus, to our school. Augus has come all the way from the UK and will be joining Mr. Moloney’s class as a Year 5 student. We offer a warm blessing to Augus and his family as they settle into the Australian way of life and our Stawell community.

By Five Program

We recently had our first experience with an initiative called By Five. Servicing the Hindmarsh Shire, Horsham Rural City, Northern Grampians Shire, West Wimmera Shire, and Yarriambiack Shire, the program enables families to access paediatric care in a more timely, effective, and affordable way. It provides specialized paediatric care for families needing investigation into their child’s behavioural needs.

So far, we’ve learned that once a need is identified, a GP appointment is needed to complete a referral to the program. Once the referral lands with the By Five intake team, there is a very quick turnaround, and another appointment is made with the GP that lines up with a paediatrician from the Royal Children’s Hospital via video conference. This process is much quicker than some clinics where the waiting times are 6 to 12 months.

The program is available for behavioural concerns only for ages birth to 14. If you are researching paediatric services, please let me know or chat with your classroom teacher as this may be an option. For more information, you can visit their website: https://www.byfive.com.au

Fidgets

Several teachers have mentioned that we have an increasing number of toys coming into the classroom to act as fidgets. With 22 students in most classrooms, each bringing two or three, having around 60 small toys lying on desks is a distraction. They fall off, get moved around, and lost. There are also issues such as unfair trades, and some of these toys are very unhygienic, collecting skin cells, hair, and bodily fluids, and cannot be cleaned properly due to the materials they are made from. Essentially, they are just sticky gel germ balls!

We have recently had several squish balls burst in the classrooms. Not only does this cause a mess that teachers and support staff have to stop teaching to clean, but there is also an unknown chemical from inside the ball on the hands of students and surfaces of the classroom. We don’t know what chemical burn or irritation this fluid may cause.

If a student requires a fidget to meet a cognitive or movement need, it will be provided by the school on the recommendation of a psychologist or occupational therapist. If you believe your child needs access to a fidget, please speak to the classroom teacher at your next PSG meeting.

Have a great week, 

Bettina

Olympics:

We are excited for our St Patrick’s Olympic Day which will happen Tomorrow Friday 9th August, 2024. Please join us for a day filled with fun, excitement, and friendly competition as our students showcase their athletic skills, team spirit and learning. 

All students can wear their sports uniform that they would normally wear on the day they do sport. 

10:30am - 11:00am - We will gather on the school oval for the opening ceremony.  Classes will then parade around showcasing the country they are learning about.  

11:00am - Lunch play time

11:30am - 12:00pm - Lunchtime (if you are staying for lunch please BYO as the P&F will be catering for school children only)  Tea and Coffee will be available in the hall 

12:00 pm - 1:15 pm - Rotational sports activities outside 

1:15pm - Closing ceremony  

1:20pm - 1:40pm- Open classrooms, please feel free to wander around the classrooms and interact with the children during their learning activities

2:45pm - Whole school assembly in the hall.  Assembly will be hosted by Junior FB. 

Looking forward to seeing as many as possible there. 

Wellbeing:

Anxiety - primary school aged children

This fact sheet is available in the following languages:  Arabic, Hindi, Punjabi, Simplified Chinese, Somali and Vietnamese.

Feeling worried or anxious sometimes is normal. But some children have excessive or repeated fears, worries and anxious feelings that can last for weeks or more. These strong feelings can interfere with typical daily activities, such as going to school or seeing friends, which children may try to avoid. When children’s anxiety is severe or long-lasting it may be an anxiety disorder.
For parents, it can be hard to spot the signs of anxiety as it can show up in a variety of ways. It can be difficult to know what a ‘normal’ amount of worry is, and when to seek further help. Avoiding a situation that makes your child anxious may seem best, but it can quickly become a pattern that is hard to break.

Common signs and symptoms

• • Regularly avoiding everyday experiences and situations, such as school, social events, playing, sport, eating or sleeping
  • Frequent physical complaints, such as tummy aches and headaches
  • Sudden emotional or angry outbursts, tantrums or ‘meltdowns’
  • Difficulty sleeping
  • Changes in appetite
  • Seeking reassurance often
  • Being preoccupied or unable to concentrate
  • Overplanning situations and overthinking things

Many children will show these signs from time to time, and they may not be related to anxiety. When these signs appear frequently, in an ongoing pattern and cause your child to struggle with everyday life, they may be indicators of an anxiety condition or disorder. Common types of anxiety disorders in children include social anxiety, separation anxiety and generalised anxiety.

Signs of anxiety (primary school aged children)

When and where to seek help
If your child regularly shows signs of anxiety, you can discuss this with their GP or another health professional, or their teacher. Some indicators that it is time to seek help include:

• if your child seems excessively worried or anxious, or feels anxious more often than not

• if anxiety stops your child from taking part in typical daily activities, such as attending school, socialising, playing or eating and sleeping well.

Your child’s school will be able to assist. Schools have support for children who feel anxious or don’t want to attend school, including trained staff members. In many cases they can connect children to psychologists or counsellors.
Diagnosis and treatment of an anxiety condition or disorder in a child can be provided by a trained and experienced health professional. If needed, a GP can arrange a referral to a paediatrician, child psychologist or other mental health professional to assess and support your child.
You could try an online treatment program for anxiety (see ‘Useful resources’ below).

How to help your child at home

If your child is showing ongoing signs of anxiety, you can support them at home in the following ways:

• • Encourage your child to talk about their feelings and let you know when they get overwhelmed. It might help to explain these feelings are common – we all feel worried or scared sometimes.
  • If there is a particular situation your child finds challenging, support them to gradually do the thing that makes them anxious. For example, if going to a crowded shopping centre makes them anxious, start with short trips to the local shops, building up to visiting a shopping centre in a quiet period.
  • Make a practical plan together for coping with anxious feelings in the future, such as breathing techniques or reassuring phrases to focus on.
  • Take time out to have fun together and take the focus off feelings of anxiety.
  • Help your child to have healthy routines that include enough good-quality sleep, regular outdoor exercise, eating well and avoiding excessive screen time.
  • Prioritise your child attending school. Attending and participating in school will help your child develop important skills and knowledge to help them learn, as well as building their social and emotional skills.

If you are a parent or carer with anxiety, it is important to also care for your own mental health and seek help when you need it.

Useful resources

• The Brave Program: An interactive online program aimed at 8–12 year olds to help them overcome worries and learn coping strategies.
• Fear-Less Triple P Online Course: A toolkit to help your child manage anxiety and become more emotionally resilient.
• Cool Kids Program: An interactive online program aimed at 7–12 year olds to help them overcome anxiety and build confidence.
• The Beyond Blue Child Mental Health Checklist: A general tool to check your child’s symptoms and whether to get professional help.
• Kids Help Line: A free, confidential 24/7 online and phone counselling service for young people.
• Smiling Mind Kids Care Packages: A series of calming activities and audio recordings for children based on mindfulness meditation.
• Mental health and wellbeing toolkit: Advice to support student mental health and wellbeing, aimed at students, parents and caregivers, and schools.
• Parentline: A free phone counselling service where you can discuss parenting challenges and get support. 

Key points to remember

• • It’s normal for children to feel anxious, worried or fearful some of the time.
  • Anxiety can be hard to recognise in children, as the signs are varied and include common things such as tummy aches, recurrent headaches, tantrums and difficulty sleeping.
  • It’s time to seek help if your child has severe, frequent or ongoing symptoms, and if they are avoiding daily activities and situations that provoke their anxiety.
  • For help, discuss your child’s feelings and behaviour with their teacher, GP or another health professional such as a nurse, paediatrician, counsellor or psychologist.
  • There are ways to support your child at home and online resources that may help.

For more information

• • Beyond Blue:  Healthy families: Anxiety (6–12 years)
  • Raising Children’s Network:  Anxiety and fears in children (0–8 years)
  • Raising Children’s Network:  Generalised anxiety in children (3–8 years)
  • Raising Children’s Network:  Anxiety: the stepladder approach (3–8 years)
  • Healthdirect:  Anxiety in children

Common questions our doctors are asked
What causes anxiety in children?
Occasional worry or anxiety is a normal physiological response to changes in our world or environment. For some children, anxiety can become frequent and long-lasting and affect their everyday life. There are lots of different things that can cause this to happen, including triggers and stressors in life and an inherited tendency towards anxiety. If parents are experiencing anxiety themselves, this can make it more likely for a child to develop anxiety so it is important for parents to get help for their own mental health and wellbeing if needed. For many children it is not clear why they develop an anxiety disorder when they do.
Do children grow out of anxiety?
Some anxious children will grow out of their fears, but others will keep having trouble with anxiety unless they get professional help. When children’s anxiety is severe or long-lasting and affecting their everyday life, it is described as an anxiety disorder. In these situations, it is important to seek professional help to support your child to manage their anxiety.
Does anxiety in children need treatment with medication?
Most anxiety in younger children can be managed with support and strategies from a psychologist, doctor or other health professionals. In some situations, medications are also used to help treat anxiety disorders. Anxiety medications can be prescribed by doctors with expertise in child mental health, such as a paediatrician, a psychiatrist or some GPs. Psychological treatments are also very effective for most young children and usually directly involve carers. These treatments may be available from community health centres, or at private clinics with Medicare rebates available.

Developed by The Royal Children's Hospital Mental Health department. We acknowledge the input of RCH consumers and carers.
September 2022
Kids Health Info is supported by The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation. To donate, visit   www.rchfoundation.org.au.

Disclaimer 

This information is intended to support, not replace, discussion with your doctor or healthcare professionals. The authors of these consumer health information handouts have made a considerable effort to ensure the information is accurate, up to date and easy to understand. The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne accepts no responsibility for any inaccuracies, information perceived as misleading, or the success of any treatment regimen detailed in these handouts. Information contained in the handouts is updated regularly and therefore you should always check you are referring to the most recent version of the handout. The onus is on you, the user, to ensure that you have downloaded the most up-to-date version of a consumer health information handout.

An in-depth talk about anxiety 

Questions about anxiety

Lillie Marshman

Teaching and Learning:

School Assemblies:  Our assemblies happen each Friday afternoon starting at 2:50pm in the school hall.  Students are dismissed from the hall on this day.  We invite all our community to come along.

Week 4: Junior FB

Week 5: Foundation
Week 6: Senior M
Week 7: Book Week
Week 8: Middle C
Week 9: Junior R
Week 10: Foundation

Professional Development:  At St Patrick’s Primary School we are committed to Professional Development of our team.  At various times staff members will be working off site or online which may result in classroom teachers being out of the classroom.

Term 3 Week 4&5 -
Friday 9/8/24 - Mrs Bettina Bird & Mrs Lillie Marshman Religious Education Accreditation Program 
Thursday 15/8/24 - Mrs Bettina Bird     Compliance Workshop  

Junior FB:

We have had a busy and fun filled start to the beginning of Term 3. The children have returned to school, ready to work, enjoy learning and do their very best.

In InitialLit we have been learning to read a passage and identify the main idea. This is a great skill for us to develop as we will use it throughout all of our schooling.  We have also learnt about silent letters in words to help with our reading and writing and have learnt some more tricky words - other, another, minutes, remember. Our tricky word tree is looking rather bushy! Congratulations and thank you to everyone who has been completing their reading diaries 4 - 5 times each week. We are so proud of you all for reading at home.

We have a story book lesson each week, and this week, we read and enjoyed ‘The Lost Girl’. Each story teaches us new vocabulary, helps us to identify the beginning, middle and end of a story and to think about what happens in the story and why the characters act in a particular way. We love this lesson because it gives an opportunity to enjoy listening to a great book.

We are working really hard to further develop our writing skills.  We read ‘Room on a Broom’ and did lots of follow up activities such as learning about different types of words ………. And we even wrote a new adventure for the witch and the animals with their new broom.  This was particularly exciting because we were able to use the ipads for our drafts and good copies and then learnt to share the document with Mrs Fraser. We have also learnt about ‘Information Reports’ and how to write one. We really enjoyed doing this because we were able to research and write some facts about our chosen animal and then draw and label a diagram.

In Religion we have been learning about ‘wisdom’ and making wise decisions.  A long, long time ago the People of God sometimes forgot to make wise decisions. God sent special messengers called prophets to remind the people to make wise choices because God loved them. One of these wise prophets was called Micah and we will be learning more about him.

This particular unit is helping us to think more carefully about our decisions and how our parents and teachers help us to do so.

Our Maths topics have been subtraction, addition and place value. We are learning about reading and writing 3 digit numbers.

We love celebrating special days at school and we all loved ‘Kindness Day’. We loved the opportunity to show our appreciation for all of the wonderful people in our community by making cards and gifts for them. Thank you to all of the teachers for giving us a movie night. It was so much fun staying at school on a Friday night to watch a movie with our friends.

On Tuesday we visited Eventide Homes to spend some time with the residents. We always look forward to and enjoy this experience. We love seeing the smiles on the faces of all of the people when we arrive and really enjoy all of the activities we get to do.

We are very excited about our mini Olympics on Friday.  We are so proud of all of the Australians who have participated and have really enjoyed keeping a classroom tally of all of the medals the Australian athletes have won. We have chosen to learn about France because it is the host nation and are looking forward to this very much.

Celine Bush

Book week this year runs from August 17th to August 23rd, 2024. During this time all classes spend time each day celebrating books, Australian children's authors and illustrators.  The theme for book week this year is:  Reading is Magic.  

“We're celebrating reading stories and their amazing power to transport minds. We are encouraging kids to be curious about the wonders in our world. It is a positive and affirming message for our young people. The magic of reading also lies in its power of enticement; a good story provokes conversations. Talking about the stories with others connects the reader with other readers. Wrapped around all of this are the "tricks" and skills of our amazing writers and illustrators, as they use all their powers of language and illustration to engage the reader in this world they are building.”
The Children’s book council, Australia. 

The highlight of book week is on Friday 23rd August where students are invited to dress as their favourite book character with a whole school parade where our community is able to attend.  After the parade our community are invited into the classrooms to join in some of the book week activities.  This is then followed by a cuppa in the Hall. 

Students of the Week:

Living in Faith:

Indigenous Book Swap Term 3

Do you have any unwanted books that you could donate to our Indigenous book swap?  If so any donations would be gratefully received at the school office. 

Literacy is a major issue facing remote Indigenous communities. Being unable to read and write is a significant barrier to education, employment, health and wellbeing. The Indigenous Literacy Foundation works to address this through providing books and literacy resources (some in first languages) to families, schools and service organisations in remote communities; and publishing stories by Indigenous people that are reflective of community life and culture.

Students are encouraged to bring gold coins to purchase books.  We have hundreds of books to choose from ranging from picture books to chapter books.  

When?   Monday 19th & Tuesday 20th  August, 2024.  
Students will have the opportunity to purchase a book from the book swap throughout the day. Book swap will be open to the public 3:15-5:00pm on Monday 19th August, 2024.  

Why? This is a Mini Vinnies  initiative and has been co-ordinated by our dedicated group of students that are in our Mini Vinnies team. As a Catholic School as part of our education of the Catholic Social Teachings (CST).  CST offers a way of thinking, being and seeing the world.  It provides a vision for a just society in which the dignity of all people is recognised, and those who are vulnerable are cared for.  Learn more about Catholic Social Teachings at https://www.caritas.org.au/learn/cst-toolkit/ 

“Without the right to education there is no real freedom, which allows every person to be the protagonist of their own destiny!” 

Pope Francis 2018 

Mary MacKillop Feast Day:

Thursday August 8th is Mary MacKillop's Feast day.  Our whole school gathered for a liturgy to celebrate and remember Mary MacKillop.  

 Who was Mary Mackillop & why is she important to St Patrick’s school:

Mary was an ordinary Victorian farm girl who devoted her life to the service of God and did great things for Australian and New Zealand families.

Mary MacKillop’s Feast Day is celebrated on the 8th of August. This is also the date of her death in 1909.

• In 1866 Mary MacKillop and Father Tenison Woods started the religious order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites) and in 1867 Mary MacKillop became a nun – Sister Mary of the Cross.
• Mary and the Josephite nuns set up schools in Australia and New Zealand.
• They also set up houses for elderly women, young girls and women without jobs. They gave their life to people in need, often giving comfort to the sick and dying and even visiting people in jail to give them whatever help they could.
• At times in her life Mary MacKillop met people who made it hard for her to perform her good works but she never gave up and today the Sisters of St Joseph are still doing the work that she started
• Mary is Australia’s first Saint. 
• St Patrick’s primary school was run by the Josephite nuns for approximately 80 years.  This is why we celebrate Mary Mackillop and the Josephite tradition which has been very much part of our school life.  
• Each week we have our Mary Mackillop award.  Mary lived a life dedicated to her faith and serving the needs of others.  Wherever and however she could, Mary did everything possible to improve the lives of others.  This award acknowledges the thoughtful actions of the students at St Patrick's to help others. 

Congratulations to Claire, Chris and James (JFB) who welcomed a new precious family member.   Welcome to Bailey.  A very proud James is pictured with his little sister. 

Mary MacKillop Award:

Mary MacKillop lived a life dedicated to her faith and serving the needs of others. Wherever and however she could, Mary MacKillop did everything possible to improve the lives of others. This award acknowledges the thoughtful actions of the students at St Patrick’s to help others. “When I could not see my way God kept my heart full of trust to make all come right.” Saint Mary MacKillop

Parents & Friends

Are you needing any uniform items?

Our 2nd hand Uniforms will be in the Hall on a Friday after assembly if you wish to purchase anything. There are many items available for both Winter and Summer across most sizes. We kindly ask for a gold coin donation per clothing item, School bags and School Shoes $5.

Birthdays:

Congratulations to these students who celebrated their birthday  this week: 

Beau, Georgia C & Oliver S

Diocesan/Parish news:

Mass Times: 
Ararat Sunday 8.30am 
Stawell Sunday 10.30am
Lake Bolac 1st, 3rd, 5th Sundays 6.30pm Vigil Sat 
Landsborough 2nd, 4th Sundays 12.30pm
Glenthompson (Hamilton Parish) 2nd, 4th Sundays 8.30am

Please find below the link for the July 2024 edition of
“Our Diocesan Community”
This Magazine is a way to share the good news stories of our schools, parishes and agencies across the diocese.

 https://www.ballarat.catholic.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ODC-July-2024-web.pd

Around Our Community:

Please follow us on instagram; stpatsstawell

Upcoming Events:

Our Vision and Mission:

Vision Statement: St Patrick's School is a community which reflects and celebrates Christ as its centre point:  By honoring our story we value our whole community.  By coming together our vision is for a loving, just, compassionate and tolerant world.     Mission Statement:  In the tradition of St Patrick, we are committed to: Promoting and celebrating a love of God, self and community.  Recognizing and enhancing the talents and uniqueness of each person through our vision of Prayer, Care and Learning.  PRAYER We nurture and grow our relationship with God as members of a faith community.  CARE We foster recognition of difference, compassion for others and the strength to act on our beliefs. LEARNING We develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills essential to reaching our full potential as life- long learners.