Newsletter 37 - November 18th 2021
Prayer of the Week:
This Sunday marks the Feast of Christ the King in the Catholic Church liturgical year. Every year on the last Sunday before advent is the feast day of Christ the King. This is a celebration of Jesus as the great Lord and King of Heaven and earth.
When Pilate asked Jesus if he was the king of the Jews Jesus answered that his kingdom is not of this world. Where do we think Jesus's kingdom is? Jesus doesn't wear a crown or have lots of riches. He doesn't live in a palace with lots of servants. What kind of king do you think Jesus is? Jesus shows us that you do not have to be rich or powerful to be important. He shows us that what is more important is how you treat others. What we do and say is much more important than whether we are rich or poor or where we come from. Jesus is the Son of God. He came to show us how to live. He came to teach us to help others, to love our neighbours and to share with them. And to pay more attention to what people do and say, than where they come from, or what they look like.
Thankyou God for sending Jesus to be our saviour and our friend.
Help us to always follow him, honour him, and serve him in his Kingdom
In Jesus name. Amen
Principal's Report:
Welcome
As many of you are aware, there have been a number of positive COVID 19 cases in the Stawell community this week. These cases have meant the temporary closure of a school in the region. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the students, staff and families affected.
I have been in regular contact with local schools and Catholic Education Ballarat as we all monitor the situation. At this stage, St Patrick’s will remain open and continue our normal operations. Students and staff will continue to follow all our current health practices. In addition to our current practices we will also put in place procedures to minimise interaction between students in different learning areas.
The current situation is a timely reminder that we must continue to do all we can to keep ourselves, our families, our school and the wider community safe. This includes adhering to COVID safe measures including getting tested as soon as symptoms appear!
It has become clear that it is possible for a person to have been unknowingly exposed and unknowingly infected and had only the mildest of symptoms (possibly mistaken for hay fever or similar) but be still able to infect others. Given this, it is recommended that anyone in our school community be tested if they have symptoms now or have had even the mildest of symptoms in the past two weeks.
Symptoms with COVID 19 can be very mild, especially in someone who is vaccinated, and a person can be infectious without showing any symptoms at all. It is also a timely reminder that masks in Grades 3 - 6 must be worn unless an exemption or exception applies. Masks are recommended for Foundation to Year 2 also, but not mandatory. We encourage families to supply masks for their children, spare masks will be provided if required.
If you have a suspected or confirmed case of COVID 19, please contact the school as soon as possible. I sincerely thank you for your ongoing understanding as we continue to navigate our way through the challenges of COVID 19. I will be in touch with any further updates.
With Faith in our Future
Chris McAloon
Wellbeing:
Friendships & Conflict:
During primary school children go through many stages of making friends and along the way will experience conflict at some stage. It is very normal for children to experience conflict from time to time as this is a way of children discovering what works with friends and what doesn’t – put simply children are developing their social and emotional skills. Some children may get confused when they have a disagreement or conflict with another person and may call this bullying. There is a great difference between conflict and bullying and here is a simple way to differentiate between them:
- Misunderstanding – usually problems around communication.
- Disagreement – do not agree on something and both want their own way.
- Conflict – people usually want to solve the problem. Can be over a period of time if not sorted properly.
- Bullying – threatening, repetitive, targeted, deliberating, wanting to harm, abusive, no attempt to resolve issues.
If your child does experience conflict, this is a wonderful teaching moment to guide them and help them learn about how to get along with others. Sometimes children can resolve conflict themselves, particularly as they grow into the upper years of primary school, but when they are young they may need guidance, and most importantly emotional support.
The best way to give emotional support is to use ‘reflective listening’. When we practice this type of listening, we listen to the content of what your child is saying and listen for the emotion and then we reflect back what they are saying e.g. “it sounds as though that really frustrated you when you did not get to play your game”. We can then try to help them solve the situation by giving them lots of opportunities to brainstorm a solution without stepping in too early to solve it for them.
Conflict teaches kids:
- How to give and take
- How to come to an agreement
- How to compromise
- How to solve problems
- To build empathy
- To understand others and their needs
- How to get along in a group
- How to develop successful, loving and healthy relationships as adults.
https//wellbeingforkids.com.au/test/
Stawell Inter Church Welfare:
“Are you or someone you know doing it tough? Stawell Inter Church Council welfare cottage at 20 Sloane St Stawell is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10.30am - 12.30pm. For after hours emergencies ring -0408 038 949.
To request a Christmas grocery shopping voucher ring – 0408 877 021 on Tuesdays or Thursdays between 10.30am and 12.30pm. Distribution will be on Tuesday 14th December. Owing to Covid 19 there will be no children’s toys or books available this year.”
My thanks,
Mary Rita Thomas
Secretary, Stawell Inter Church Council welfare.
Teaching and Learning:
The Grade 3/4 students were very excited to attend camp at Roses Gap this week. They spent a jam packed 3 days enjoying all the activities that we did. Students participated in
- a bushwalk to Bee Hive Falls
- Hut building
- Giant Swing
- Flying Fox
- Canoeing
- Low Ropes Course
- Archery
- Crate Stacking
We also had some fun with ‘leaf art’, an impromptu game of Bobs and Statues, a movie night and an excellent Scavenger Hunt. Miss Hughes is very good at hiding objects!
The food was very delicious and all the students had very full tummies after each meal. Thank you to all the adults that were on camp with us and to the lovely staff at the Roses Gap Camp.
Mishka My favourite thing on camp was the Giant Swing because it was fun and I got to go up high.
Ethan J My favourite thing on camp was archery because I’d never shot an arrow before. I hit the white part of the target.
Jack S My favourite thing on camp was the Giant Swing because I got to choose my level. I chose Purple which was the highest. I wasn’t scared and it was really cool.
Greta My favourite thing on camp was the Crate Stack because you had to trust classmates to hold you in the air.
3/4 Camp
Last Friday all staff took part in our Science of Reading Professional Development. Our facilitators were based in Sydney and we were fortunate enough to have them zoom in for a virtual Professional Development day.
Learning to read is such an essential skill to not only find success in school and to thrive in society, but to also experience the joy that reading brings to life. We want all our students to be successful in reading! We are learning more about what research says about how children learn to read, how to make sure every student learns to read, and what to do when a child encounters difficulty in learning to read. The research that we’re learning about and currently implementing is called the Science of Reading.
Dr Louisa Moats: "The body of work referred to as the “science of reading” is not an ideology, a philosophy, a political agenda, a one-size-fits-all approach, a program of instruction, nor a specific component of instruction. It is the emerging consensus from many related disciplines, based on literally thousands of studies, supported by hundreds of millions of research dollars, conducted worldwide in many languages. These studies have revealed a great deal about how we learn to read, what goes wrong when students don’t learn, and what kind of instruction is most likely to work the best for the most students."
If you’re interested to learn more about the Science of Reading click on the links below:
The Reading Brain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWWCmuAEBB4
Simple View of Reading
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtDEMHMRd8E
Scarborough’s Reading Rope
Sacrament news
It is pleasing to confirm that after eighteen months of uncertainty due to COVID regulations our students that have been preparing for their Eucharist and Confirmation will be celebrating these sacrements on the following dates:
Wednesday 1st December, 2021
Sunday 5th December, 2021
Please contact me if you have any queries. Maryanne Comitti
A special Thankyou to the Stawell Harness Racing Club for sponsorship we received for decodable readers for emerging readers.
The Wattle Series (360 books), are able to be used during small group reading, take home readers, reading intervention programs to support our school based reading programs. These decodable readers support our evidence-based synthetic phonics approach to teaching reading.
Parish Bulletin:
Students of the Week: congratulations
Jayson Daniel - for always trying your best and being brave with your writing
Lucas Papadopoulos - for working hard to practice your sounds and words.
Tanner Freeland - for your maturity and positive attitude towards all learning tasks. Keep up the fabulous work!
Willow Boylan - for the great results you received on your maths interview. Your counting and working with tens and ones was fantastic. You are a superstar!
Charli Pickering - for the dedication you show in all your learning areas
Gurshan Randhawa - for the amazing growth you have had in your reading
Andy Papadopoulos - for having a go at all activities during school camp. Awesome work Andy!
Maya Sanderson - for being brave and attempting challenging activities during school camp. Brilliant work Maya!
Logan Piatkov: for your great 'give it a go' attitude towards all activities on camp.
Archie Macpherson: for your excellent assistance to others during the Bee Hive Falls bushwalk.
Teepika Jones: For your work ethic and constant contribution to classroom activities.
Laura Martin: For being so positive towards your learning and trying your best with all activities.
Upcoming Events:
November 26th - Grade 6 Tree tops adventure
December 3rd - Morning tea for Classroom Helpers
December 7th- Statewide 2022 Transition Day
December 8-10th - 5/6 Camp to Cape Bridgewater
December 10th - Reports go home
December - 14th Grades 3-6 Pool Day/junior event TBC
December 15th - Grade 6 Liturgy TBC
December 16th- Students final day 3:15pm dismissal
December 17th-Teachers Final Day
Acknowledgement of Country:
We acknowledge Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land on which our school stands.
We pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging.
We thank them for sharing their cultures, spiritualities and ways of
living with the land in this place we all now call home.