Newsletter 86 - March 3rd 2023

Lord,

your commandment of love is so simple and so challenging.

Help me to let go of my pride, to be humble in my penance.

I want only to live the way you ask me to love, to love the way you ask me to live.

I ask this through your son, Jesus, who stands at my side

today and always. Amen

If you haven’t already done so, please download the latest version of the Simon everywhere/PAM app and log in using your new credentials. If you had an active PAM account prior to the upgrade, your child’s medical details will be pre-loaded and you will simply be asked to review and confirm these.

*For those new to PAM, please activate your account and your child’s medical profile as a matter of urgency as there are a number of events coming up that require electronic permission, as well as giving you access to book Parent Teacher Interviews (bookings for PTI’s on 8th March 2023 will open soon). Please let me know if you require any assistance.

All invoices for 2023 School Fees have now been sent home with students, together with
information on payment options. If you wish to commence a fortnightly direct debit plan, please return your completed authorisation as soon as possible.

If you have any questions regarding your school fees or eligibility for assistance, please contact me in the office.

Grade 5/6 Camp is happening from March 29th to 31st and it is a requirement that the $350.00 Camp component of your school fees is fully paid prior to the event. It also serves as a timely reminder for parents/guardians of students who keep medication at school to please ensure all management plans are current and medications are in date. This includes students with sensitivities who are required to provide their own sunscreen.

Paperwork also went home with students recently regarding Media Permissions and Technology Use Agreements (some families had multiple copies sent home as it's one per child and only one has come back in some cases, please check to see if you still have these at home and sign and return as soon as possible). The new DOBCEL Media Permission form replaces the version in our Enrolment Form and will remain in place for the duration of your child’s enrolment. If your preferences regarding media permission changes, it is your responsibility to update the school by completing a new form.

Also a reminder that if any of your own details (name, address, contact details etc.), or those of your emergency contacts have changed, please request a form from the office so these can be updated.

With thanks and kind regards,
Anna Wadge
Business Manager

*No SCHOOL -

tomorrow for students  March 3rd, 2023

Connecting with your school age children

By: raisingchildren.net.au

Family relationships are still the biggest influence on your school- age child’s development. Fitting in with friends and finding role models are also important, and you can help your child with these parts of her social and emotional development.

Understanding school-age children: the basics

At school, your child is busy learning and making friends. This includes trying to understand the rules of life, learning about manners, values and what’s right and wrong, and finding role models like teachers and other trusted grown-ups.

At the same time, your child’s brain is developing rapidly, bringing increased emotional maturity, social skills and thinking abilities.

Even with all these new influences, your home life and family relationships are still the biggest influence on your child’s development. Your relationship might change a little bit because you’re spending less time together – your child might even prefer a wave to a public kiss goodbye – but your job as a parent is just as important as ever.

Developing your child’s social skills

When children start school, they’re entering the wider social world. Your child will be thinking about finding her own place, fitting in with friends and feeling part of a larger social group.

Although you’re not there when your child is at school, there’s still a lot you can do to help him develop his social skills:

• Help your child make friends by encouraging her to play with other children outside school hours, have sleepovers, and join clubs and groups.

• Help your child develop conversation skills like asking questions and listening to other children. You can be a role model for these skills in conversations with your child.
• Help your child understand the kinds of comments that might upset others, lead to teasing. and get in the way of making friends – for example, ‘Your hair is always messy’.
• Help your child develop empathy and understand different points of view by getting him to describe his own feelings and by talking about other people’s feelings.
• Suggest how your child could handle different situations at school and with friends – for example, ‘Maybe if you shared your new toy it might help’, or ‘Smiling makes people feel happier. It helps if you smile when you first meet people’.
  

Finding role models

At 5-8 years, school-age children gain a sense of self by finding people they want to be like – or role models. Children look to older relatives, family friends, teachers and peers – usually of the same gender – to see what it’s like to be a man or a woman in society. These role models can help children work out what sort of people they want to be. Your child’s teacher At school, the most important role model in your child’s life is her teacher. When you consider that your child learns from watching, listening and interacting with others, you can see why teachers have a huge influence on your child’s thinking, attitudes, behaviour and views about school.

Understanding rules

During the first few years of primary school, children can get quite preoccupied with learning rules.

Games and sports with rules become important. Through them, children learn that rules apply differently in different situations. They also start understanding what’s ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. For example, some rules or behaviour that are all right at home might not be OK when visiting friends.

At this age, children come to understand and accept that there are rules in the family and in society. They might feel guilty when they do the wrong thing.

Helping your school-age child understand rules and values

• Explain why things are considered right and wrong, and why some behaviour isn’t tolerated at all in society – for example, teasing and stealing.
• Encourage a sense of compassion and empathy by saying things like ‘Imagine if you were that person right now’.
• Play games with rules that include elements of both chance and skill. Let your child win some of the time, but remember that losing is also important. It helps your child learn to deal with disappointment.
• Discuss the idea of values with your child. Share your own personal and family values with him. You can also talk about broader community and Australian values.

Children and fair play

Playing fair is about learning the rules of the game and putting them into practice – whether they’re special family rules for card or board games, or the rules at Saturday football. This way, everyone gets to enjoy the experience.

In some games, you can make up new rules. This can be a great way for children to learn about solving problems together and being flexible.

Fair play is also about learning social rules, like taking turns and being polite. For children, it might mean helping out another child who’s having trouble with the game, or giving others a fair go at winning.

Helping your child with fair play: tips You can use the following tips to help children of any age learn about fair play and enjoying the game.

Consider the age of your child: children can learn about fair play more easily when the game is suitable for their age. For example, children younger than 6-7 years find it hard to understand formal rules. Simple games that give each child a turn can work well for younger children – for example, Snakes and ladders. Short waiting times can help too.

Give your child the chance to play lots of different games: the more experience and practise the better. Try board and ball games, competitive games of skill like chess, competitive games of chance, and cooperative games like charades. Even make- believe games can help children practise taking turns.

Find a range of playmates: it’s good for your child to play with children who are older or younger. For example, your child can learn to look out for younger children and maybe show them the rules. Older children can also be good role models for younger children.

Go over the rules of the game: before the game starts, make sure everyone knows the rules. The younger the child, the simpler the rules need to be.

Introduce some social rules: these could be rules about taking turns and congratulating other people when they win.

Give feedback: praise your child for sharing, taking turns and other examples of playing fair. Point out what your child did well. For example, you might say, ‘I thought it was great the way you shook hands with the other team at the end of the game’.

Read more at:

https://raisingchildren.net.au/school -age/play-media- technology/playing-with-others/fair-play

In art the students have been looking at ‘contrast’. Grades 1&2 have been looking at the contrast of straight lines compared to curved lines. On Wednesday we took the lesson outside and extended our learning using chalk and masking tape to create on the footpath.

Chooks: The school is currently looking for some chooks for our chook pen. If you have some spare chooks that you could loan (during school terms) to the school please contact the front office or Mr McAloon.

What is Visible Learning? Friday March 3 Staff PD

St Patrick’s Visible Learning journey began in 2022 when we entered into a three year program to make learning visible in all teaching spaces across our school. Our aim is to improve learning outcomes for all students and the first stage was to ensure that Learning Design (teacher planning and delivery) became a learning reality where students are encouraged to be more involved with their learning, understand what they are learning and the purpose of their learning. In 2023 all classes have adopted Learning Intetion and Success Criteria for each lesson.    We have established Learning Superpowers which we need to become successful learners. 

Visible Learning is based on the work of Professor John Hattie. Its aim is for students to take increasing responsibility for their own learning: knowing what they already know and can do and being able to determine goals for the next stage of learning.

Visible Learning® involves the following characteristics:

• learning is life-long and life-wide (we learn from all kinds of experiences);
• critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration skills are all part of day-to-day learning;
• the learning environment is a safe place for risk-taking in learning;
• every student needs to and can experience and celebrate their successes;
• a growth mindset helps students to learn from mistakes;
• being able to give and receive quality feedback is an important skill;
• evidence provided by regular assessments enables teachers to focus on the individual learning needs of each student/ students are actively involved in knowing about their learning;
• capabilities and talents are to be identified and fostered;
• parents are an important part of the learning relationship.

Throughout the year students may have pupil-free days to enable staff to continue to develop their strengths as teachers to improve learning outcomes for all.

School Assemblies: Our assemblies are led by a different class each week (see roster below) and 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.  

* Please note:

Please note there will be no assembly this week Friday 3rd March due to School Closure Day

Week 6: Middle B - Friday the 10th March

Week 7: Junior F

Week 8: Middle C

Week 9: Junior R

Week 10: Senior M

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 which may result in classroom teachers being out of the classroom.  We will endeavor to make note of this in the newsletter whenever possible.  

Week 6:

Thursday  9th March   Mr Josh Cunningham       2-4pm  New to Awakenings PD (Religion)  

How to Report Bullying or Cyberbullying: Bullying and cyberbullying should be reported to your teacher, eSmart team or the Principal either face to face or by email. 

If cyberbullying occurs please record a copy of it before deleting it as it is important to have proof. (This can be done as a screenshot on your Chromebook.) 

*If emailing please include when it happened, where it happened, who was involved and what the bullying incident was. The report will then be followed up by the teacher, eSmart team or Principal. 

Please use the following email which we have set up for this:

safe@spstawell.catholic.edu.au

During Lent, Christians are asked to focus on ‘Almsgiving’, which simply means donating money or goods to those in need. In every classroom, in the office area and each family will have been sent home a Project Compassion money box from Caritas that we have made available for monetary donations. We encourage students to think of those in need and donate when and if they can. An example of being kind and generous can be when a child donates their money and goes without buying a treat such as a lunch order or ice-cream. That’s Almsgiving

For more information: https://www.caritas.org.au/project-compassion/

We are thrilled to be able to invite our school community to celebrate Harmony Day on Monday 20th March, 2023. 

Harmony Day is a day where we celebrate our cultural diversity, it is about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. 

Students will work with the footsteps dance instructor from Melbourne at an allocated time during the school day to learn a cultural dance from another country.

Students and our St Patrick’s Community are then invited to come together for an evening celebrations commence at  5:00 pm followed by a community  shared meal.

The school children will perform a dance and then we will all join together for an International Feast. The Parents and Friends committee kindly ask all our families to provide a casserole to share with our school community. If you are unable to provide a casserole, but would like to enjoy a shared dinner the cost will be $5 per person. 

Harmony Day is a celebration of cultural diversity, therefore we encourage you to bring along a casserole that represents a different nationality. It could be your favourite curry, an Irish stew, a yummy pad Thai or anything to your liking.  All dishes supplied will need to have a list of ingredients provided. 

Please complete the form and return to school before Wednesday March 14th, 2023,  so we have an indication of numbers for catering.

It is McKillop House P&F that are coordinating this evening,  if your child is in McKillop House, could you also please complete the appropriate section of the form that went home this week.

Any questions to McKillop parent coordinators Kate Field 0439 479 994 or                  Melissa Sutherland 0417 448 569.

Thank you - Parents & Friends Committee 

Book Fair: 2023 Theme: Bookaneer, where books are the treasure.
During next week Thursday March the 9th and Friday 10th of March our school will be hosting our yearly Book Fair. The school will receive a commission calculated according to the number of books sold. Each class will be given the opportunity to preview the books during Thursday the 9th and purchase during Friday the 10th.

Children are allowed to write down any book/s  they are interested in for parents/caregivers to consider. Parents/careers are welcome to come and browse during preview and buying times as well as before and after school on both days. Times are below for each class.

Money can be sent to school in an envelope with the child/s name,class and book they wish to purchase correct money would be much appreciated. We understand that sometimes families are unable to purchase books from the fair, there are no expectations from the school for families to do so. We are hoping that we can have many of the books in our school library for everyone to enjoy.

Thursday 9th March Preview times:

9-9:30am Foundation

10-10:30am Senior H

10:30-11am Senior M

11:30-12noon Middle B

12-12:30 Middle C

12:30-1pm Junior F

1-1:20 Junior R

Friday 10th March buying times:

9-9:30am Foundation

9:30-10am Middle B

10-10:30am Senior H

10:30-11am Senior M

11:30-12 noon Junior R

12-12:30 Junior F

12:30-1pm Middle C

If you would like to know more about the Book Fair please feel free to see Mrs Marnie Smith at school, many thanks. 

Congratulations to these students who are celebrating their birthday  this week:

Valeria Di Pietro, Boston McGaffin and Marley Carlsen

Every Friday for Term 1 the Social Justice Team will be selling Zooper Doopers during lunchtime.  Zooper Doopers will be for sale for $1.00 each with all money raised going towards the St Vincent de Paul Sponsor a Student Program.                   Thankyou for your support.