Newsletter 100- July 14th 2023

Prayer of the Week:

May God’s blessing follow Mr Mac as he finds new journeys to travel.  May he walk safely along the pathways of his dreams.

May God’s gentle hand guide the decisions he will make and the passions that he will follow. May his heart and life always reflect love and truth,

May hope be a light within him that he carries into each new day strong. And now Lord, we ask for your blessing.

May Mr Mc enjoy  good health, joy in abundance and peace in heart and mind, from this day forwards and each day that follows. Amen 

Principals Report:

Welcome

It is with a heavy heart that I write my final Principal’s report as Principal of St Patrick’s Primary School, Stawell. Since joining the school community in 2020 I have felt incredibly welcomed and supported by students, staff, and families. During my time at the school, I believe that collaboratively we have worked to improve the learning and wellbeing outcomes for all students. At the end of the day, this is the core business of a primary school and this work needs to be a shared endeavor.  

I also hope that as a Catholic school, we have inspired the school community through the example shown to us by Jesus and his followers like Mary MacKillop. Given the changing nature of our community and school, being a Catholic school no longer means being a school for Catholic families only. We welcome all and hope that everyone is able to take something positive from the message of Jesus into their lives. 

On a personal note, I have grown a lot both personally and professionally during my time at St Patrick’s. It has not always been smooth sailing especially given that the first two years of my principalship coincided with a global pandemic! But the community spirit of the school and the dedicated staff have meant that no challenge has been insurmountable. 

I am excited to start a new journey in the Northern Territory as Principal of St Francis of Assisi in Humpty Doo. I know that I will be well-prepared thanks to my time at St Patrick’s. I am also confident that St Patrick’s is in a wonderful position and will continue to improve into the future. 

I thank Maryanne Comitti for accepting the opportunity to act as Interim Principal of the school. I am sure that Maryanne will do an exceptional job. Finally, I thank all the students, staff, and families of the St Patrick’s School community for making this school a great place to work each and every day. 

With faith in our future

Chris McAloon

Wellbeing:

Children’s mental health: what it is and why it matters

Mental health is the way children think and feel about themselves and the world around them. It affects how children cope with life’s challenges and stresses.

What good mental health in children looks like:

Children with good mental health feel loved, safe and secure in their environments. They also feel happy and positive about themselves most of the time.

They’re kind to themselves during tough times or when things don’t go the way they expect. This means they feel OK about trying new or challenging things.

They enjoy life, learn well and get along well with family and friends.

And they can manage sad, worrying or angry feelings and bounce back from tough times.

Good mental health is an important part of healthy child development. It helps children build positive social, emotional, behaviour, thinking and communication skills. It also lays the foundation for better mental health and wellbeing later in life.

Relationships and good mental health for children:

A positive relationship with you directly and positively affects your child’s mental health.

Here are ideas to promote your child’s mental health and wellbeing through a loving and supportive relationship:

• Tell your child that you love them, no matter what. You can also show love through your body language and nonverbal communication – for example, making eye contact, giving a hug or smiling at your child.
• Use a positive, constructive and consistent approach to guide your child’s behaviour. This means giving your child praiseand attention when they behave well, rather than negative consequences when they behave in challenging ways.
• Make time each day to talk and listen to your child. If your child wants to talk, try to stop what you’re doing and give them your full attention.
• Enjoy time with your child doing activities they like. This could be reading together, kicking a ball, drawing, playing board games and so on.
• Have regular family meals. Eating together can strengthen your relationship with your child, give your child a sense of stability and connectedness, and have a positive effect on their development. It might also encourage your child to eat well too.
• Work on positive ways to solve problems and manage conflict between you and your partner, with your child and among other family members.
• Encourage your child to connect with others in the community – for example, waving and chatting to neighbours, attending local festivals or helping out at a community garden. This gives your child a stronger sense of their place in the world and helps them learn how to relate to different people.

Emotions and good mental health for children:

Children experience all sorts of emotions as part of growing up – fear, disappointment, sadness, anxiety, anger, joy, hope and so on. When children cope with big emotions or calm themselves down in difficult or emotional situations, they’re likely to feel good about themselves.

Here are ways you can help your child learn to manage emotions:

• Talk about emotions with your child, and encourage them to recognise and label their emotions. You can also let your child know that it’s natural to have all sorts of feelings. For example, ‘It looks like you’re really frustrated that your toy won’t work. I can understand that’.
  
• Role-model a positive outlook for your child – for example, ‘Running all the way around the oval looks hard, but I think I can do it if I take it slow and steady’, or ‘I’m disappointed that my cake didn’t cook properly, but that’s OK – I’ll try it again another time’.
• Support your child when something is bothering them. For example, if your child is having trouble with friends at school, you could give your child plenty of hugs and reassure them that you’re there for them. And you could work with the teacher on a plan to handle the situation.
• Help your child learn to manage small worries so they don’t become big problems. You can do this by gently encouraging your child to do things they’re anxious about instead of avoiding scary situations. For example, ‘Have you thought about trying out for the school choir this year? You really enjoy singing’.

Behaviour, goals, skills and good mental health for children:

Here are ways to promote your child’s mental health and wellbeing through a focus on behaviour:

• Have family rules about behaviour and involve your child in developing rules and consequences. Adjust the rules and consequences as your child grows. For example, you and your child might make and adjust rules about digital technology use or online behaviour. Rules and boundaries help children of all ages feel safe and secure.
• Help your child to set realistic goals for their age and abilities and work towards achieving them – for example, riding a bike without training wheels or trying to solve a difficult maths problem for school. And praise your child’s efforts to achieve the goal, rather than the goal itself.
• Help your child learn how to solve problems so that they develop the skills to do this for themselves when they’re older. For example, you can help your child work out what the problem is, brainstorm possible solutions, and choose a solution to put into action.
• Encourage your child to try new things, take age-appropriate risks, and learn from their mistakes. This could be things like entering a competition, speaking in front of the class, climbing new equipment at the playground and so on.

Good physical health and mental health for children:

Good physical health is important for mental health. That’s because being fit and well helps your child have more energy, feel confident, manage stress and sleep well.

Here are ways to help your child stay physically fit and well:

• Offer healthy food and encourage healthy eating habits in your family.
• Encourage your child to try plenty of different physical activities and sports. Trying different activities is good for fitness and energy levels. It can also help children feel good about themselves as they develop new skills.
• Make sure your child gets the sleep they need. Quality sleep will help your child to manage stress and a busy life.

If you’re concerned that your child is showing signs of poor mental health, it’s best to seek professional help as soon as possible. Your GP can guide you to the most appropriate services for your family.

Looking after yourself: why it’s important to children’s mental health:

Looking after yourself helps you stay physically, mentally and emotionally well. This is good for you, and it’s also very important for your child. When you’re well, you’re better able to give your child the warmth, care and attention they need to grow and thrive. You also set a good example of self-care for your child.

Looking after yourself includes:

• eating well and doing some exercise
• trying to get enough rest
• making time for things you enjoy
• keeping up with old friends or making new ones
• watching out for and managing stress, anxiety and anger
• getting support from family, friends, your community and support services.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed or you’re struggling with your mental health, parenting or relationship, getting professional support is a very good idea. You could start by talking to your GP.

Here are more ways to get support:

• Call a parenting hotline to get free parenting advice.
• Call Lifeline on 131 114 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 for mental health support.
• Check Head to Health for online programs, forums and information on specific mental health topics.
• Call Relationships Australia on 1300 364 277 or Family Relationships Online on 1800 050 321 to talk to government-funded relationship counsellors.
• Call the National Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) if there are problems in your relationship like family violence, or you feel you might hurt your child.

Teaching and Learning:

Senior H:

Religion

In Religion we have been learning about Honesty and Integrity. Honesty and Integrity is being truthful and being able to trust people enough to tell them the truth about anything. We have been teaching this to show children that being Honest is a really important aspect in life.

Reading

This term in reading we have been reading our new novel book “Detention”. Detention is a book made by Tristian Banks Author of 2 wolves. Detention is all about a girl and boy who are about 12, trying to get their freedom and what they deserve by escaping a Detention camp. We are also doing Cars and Stars. Cars and Stars is all about our reading and comprehension. It's so helpful from a students point of view. This is what 5 and 6 H is doing this term.

Writing

In writing we have been learning about Complex sentences. Complex sentences have a mix of different sentences including Dependant and Independant clauses. A Dependant clause is a type of sentence that can’t be on its own because it won’t make sense, an example is ‘Which made me scared’ that doesn’t make sense but with an Independant clause before or after it, it makes sense. An example is ‘My room was really dark, which made me scared.’ 

Science

In Science this Semester our topic is  Physical Science (physical world) . This week we learnt about the nature of light and different light sources. We investigated how light travels with a torch and  laser light. We also learnt about the light produced by glow worms. It was very interesting. 

Inquiry  

In Inquiry we have been learning about different forms of media. Some forms of media we have been talking about are radios in cars and just normal radios, Television, Social media such as twitter, instagram, facebook and many more.  Also podcasts are a form of media.

BY Molly, Akuol and Maddy

Structured Literacy  - School closure day - Friday 28th July, 2023 

All staff will be traveling to Ballarat to St Francis Xavier School to join with other schools in our Diocese who are also studying the Structured Literacy Approach.  

At the start of the year St Patrick’s commenced our journey as part of the SunLit Project which is a Diocese led Structured Literacy Professional Development Project. We are currently developing a  Scope and Sequence (what is to be taught and how we teach it)  for the whole school aligning Science of reading evidence with students expectations at each grade level. This Scope and Sequence will provide a sustainable and school-wide improvement to our  literacy instruction.  Moving into 2024 we will continue to embed effective evidence based literacy practices across our school to ensure high literacy expectations and outcomes for all students. 

Maryanne Comitti, Teaching and Learning Leader 

As we have previously mentioned St Patricks has embarked on an exciting Professional Development journey over the next three years.  We will be learning and implementing Visible learning which is a research based approach to developing life-long learners.  It is based on the research of Professor John Hattie and his metastudies involving over 300 million students and what has the most impact on student progress at school. Visible learning research explores seven core strategies for learning  success: working together as evaluators, setting high expectations, measuring learning with explicit success criteria, establishing developmentally appropriate levels of learning, viewing mistakes as opportunities, continually seeking feedback, and balancing surface, deep, and transfer learning. 

On Wednesday we welcomed back Shane Crawford our VL consultant. Over the course of the day myself and the leadership team developed a six month plan of how VL will look at St Patrick’s. 

We created the following aspiration statement: 

All students at St Patrick’s Primary School will articulate and demonstrate the dispositions of a visible learner and use the language of learning. They will understand what they are learning, how they are progressing and where they are going to next to show a minimum of one year’s growth.

The three key focus areas we will be looking at over this time are the following: 

• To develop a consistency and confidence in using Learning Intentions and Success Criteria across all learning areas. 
• To make the Learner Powers ‘live and breathe’ in all aspects of school life. 
• Articulate a clear picture of the types of feedback practices the school aspires to have.

* With the sniffles well and truly here can each family please provide a box of tissues to help our students stay safe. Thank you

Students of the week:

Mary McKillop 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.

"Be calm and full of Hope".   Saint Mary McKillop

Birthdays:

Congratulations to these  students who have recently celebrated their birthday  this week:    Zarli, Henry, Awom, Maya, Tahlia, Bailey, Peter, Jai, and Dixie  

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 follow us on instagram; stpatsstawell

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