Term 1 Week 7 2024

From the Principal

Dear Families,

As we reach the conclusion of Week 7, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for your dedication, hard work, and commitment to excellence.  The past seven weeks have been filled with learning, growth, and meaningful experiences for our entire school community. As we look ahead to the remaining weeks of Term 1, let us continue to embrace each opportunity with enthusiasm, curiosity, and a spirit of collaboration. I look forward to celebrating many more milestones and achievements together in the weeks and months to come.

We wish our Year 3 and Year 5 students all the very best as they embark on NAPLAN next week. 

Disco

Next Friday evening we have our first disco for the year from 6pm - 7:15pm. With St Patrick’s Day on the 17th March we have decided to go with a St Patrick’s Day theme. Entry will be $5 which will get students chips, a drink and 5 tickets into the raffle. Please remember that parents need to be supervising their children throughout the disco.

Our wonderful FACE Group has been hard at work planning for the disco and this year we will be having a couple of number board competitions for parents to test their luck in throughout the event. Numbers will be $2 per number so remember to bring along cash as there will be great prizes to be won! All money raised will be going towards the new playgrounds which are currently in the planning stages. The students always love the disco and we look forward to seeing you all there.

School Renewal and Annual School Improvement Plan

As many of you would be aware over the past 2 years we have engaged in the school renewal process. Throughout this time we have engaged with a number of stakeholders to discuss where our school has been shining and areas for us to continue to develop as well as set our direction for the next few years. After careful consideration of the priorities for our school we have identified four areas that we will be focusing on throughout this next renewal phase. These areas are:

• Our Catholic Story
• Building Partnerships
• Building the Future
• Our Sustainable Future

We have identified and fleshed out what each of these four focus areas will look like each year over the period of renewal and each year then forms our Annual School Improvement Plan (ASIP). Our ASIP sets out our goals as a school for the year. I am pleased to share an overview of our Annual School Improvement Plan with you this week.

Roundabout

Just a reminder that the roundabout is for a quick pick up/drop off and parents and carers must be staying in their car.  If your child requires assistance with their seatbelt, we ask that you please park and assist your child.  This ensures that the traffic continues to flow through this area. There is an increasing number of students being dropped off early in the morning.  As there is not a teacher on duty until 8:10 am, students should not be arriving before this time.  We thank you for your cooperation with both of these issues.

Class Community Contacts

Thank you to those parents who have volunteered their time to be the Class Community Contact (CCC) for their child’s class. I am very grateful for your willingness to take on this important role in our school community and am including a list of CCC’s for your reference. The role of the Class Community Contact is to bring ideas or school-level issues to the school leadership team and the FACE Group as well as to help arrange support for families during difficult times. CCC’s will also help promote events within the school and may organise a social function throughout the year. 

It is not the role of the CCC to take concerns about the education, health or safety of students to the classroom teacher. Any concerns that you may have about your child must be directed by you to the class teacher. It is not the role of the CCC to facilitate this discussion. The teachers are here to work in partnership with you and they welcome open communication and dialogue with families. Don’t hesitate to contact them with any questions or concerns you may have. 

We have a lot of sickness in our school community at the moment with many staff and students away each day. While we do our best to keep the stability of teachers in classrooms, this isn’t always possible due to very limited supply teacher availability. If your child is unwell, please keep them at home. It would be wonderful to have our school community feeling healthy again.

Have a wonderful week.

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

Religious Life of the School

This Sunday begins the fourth week of Lent. How is your Lenten journey going? We are still raising money at St Francis for Project Compassion as part of our Lenten journey of giving. We have had our free dress day, the Easter Raffle has begun and next week orders will open for Hot Cross buns.

The Easter Raffle tickets are available for purchase at 50c each in the office, before school near the tuckshop and at some play breaks. There are three baskets to be won full of chocolate, cuddly rabbits and Easter activities so make sure you get your tickets soon. The raffle will be drawn in the last week of Term 1.

Orders for hot cross buns open next week and will be $1.50 each. Students can order as many as they wish through the tuckshop; online or with a paper bag. There will be fruit, no fruit or chocolate to choose from and butter and jam will be available on the day. 

Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns were first associated with Lent in 1361 when, on Good Friday, the monks of Saint Alban’s in Hertfordshire made some to give to those who were poor. The cross on the bun symbolises the crucifixion of Jesus, making it a meaningful addition to the Easter season.

In the Catholic tradition, hot cross buns gained popularity for their connection to Good Friday. The cross marked on the bun serves as a reminder of the crucifixion and the Christian belief in the resurrection. The buns were traditionally consumed on Good Friday, a day of solemn reflection on the Passion of Christ and fasting (eating plain food, no meat and one main meal).

Hot cross buns were once believed to have medicinal and protective properties. It was common for people to keep a bun from Good Friday throughout the year to guard against illness and other misfortunes. Additionally, there were superstitions that sharing a hot cross bun with a friend would ensure a lasting friendship.

Over time, the tradition of hot cross buns spread beyond England and became popular in various Christian communities around the world. Today, they are enjoyed not only on Good Friday but throughout the entire Easter season.

Memory is 26 years old and lives in rural Malawi. As the eldest child in a low-income farming family, Memory had to take on many household chores and farming activities to support her parents. They struggled to pay for Memory’s school fees and school supplies, and Memory often had to walk to school barefooted.

With the support of Caritas Australia and its partner the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM), Memory was able to enrol at a technical college where she learnt technical skills in carpentry. She undertook a three-year carpentry course, with CADECOM supporting part of her tuition and boarding fees.

Memory became the first female carpenter from her village. Today, she works as a carpenter at one of Malawi’s largest hydroelectric power stations. With the income from her job, she can provide financial support to her family and inspire other young women in her community so that they may have the opportunity to succeed in a male-dominated industry.

Watch Memory’s Story

Please donate to Project Compassion.

Together, we can help vulnerable communities face their challenges today and build a better tomorrow, for all future generations.

You can donate through Project Compassion donation boxes, online by visiting caritas.org.au/project-compassion or by calling 1800 024 413.

Have a wonderful week

God bless

Nicole

UR STRONG

When to Step-IN & When to Step-BACK

Helicopter Parenting. Bubble-wrapped kids. We know we shouldn’t solve all our children’s problems for them. But, when should we get involved?

We all want to do the right thing for our children. We’ve read the books, we’ve listened to the podcasts, we’ve read articles and talked to other parents endlessly, all in an effort to raise resilient, kind, caring little people. But, have we gone too far? On the quest to do the right thing, have we overlooked one of the most important lessons of all?

We all know that when life is hard, when we struggle, when things aren’t easy… These are the times we learn the most about ourselves. These are the times we dig deep and we come out the other end stronger than we were before.

Conflict is a normal part of the human experience, yet we see parents panic when they witness their child experiencing conflict with a friend. We see parents jump in, trying to solve the problem for their kids, offering a series of suggestions. We hear about parents calling principals and teachers, insisting their child is being “bullied” and demanding that something be done. There’s an immediate discomfort, aversion, and fear of conflict even for ourselves, but amplified (times a million) when it’s our children experiencing it.

Is it because we read that book or that article and think of the devastating effects of bullying? Perhaps we are taken back to the day we went through that heartache ourselves and want to save our children from our same mistakes?

How do we strike that perfect balance of allowing our children to develop the skills to be resilient in the face of conflict, yet give them a hand when they need it? When do we need to step in and when do we need to step back?

Here are a few basic guidelines to help you find that perfect balance of being a Friendship Coach, yet not playing the game for your child:

Step-BACK when your child experiences a Friendship Fire® (our term for conflict with a friend) that can easily be put out; it’s a little thing that your child can easily solve.

For example, your child is upset because their friend didn’t let them test out their new toy. Consider saying something like, “That sounds like a Friendship Fire®. Find the right time to talk to your friend and let them know how it made you feel. You can do this!”

Your reaction should match the situation. If it’s a small conflict, your reaction should also be small. A disproportionate reaction will make something small even bigger and your child might need the modeling to keep things in check. If your child has a tendency to make it bigger and indulge in the negative feelings, continue to minimize it and remind them they can do it. You may even need to take the Friendship Sandwich approach (a strategy students practice in our Friendology friendship skills curriculum when they’re caught in the middle of a conflict between two friends!) and quickly change the subject so you don’t get sucked in the middle and they don’t downward spiral!

Step-IN when any of the following situations happen:

• You can see your child’s self-esteem being affected,
• You can see the issue is weighing on them and they can’t shake it; it’s consuming them,
• You feel your child doesn’t have the skills to come to a resolution and things are getting worse,
• Their reaction doesn’t match the situation, suggesting there’s more to the story,
• Your child doesn’t feel safe,
• Your gut instinct tells you something is up!

If any of these things are happening, this is when you need to step in and give them lots of guidance and support. Empathise with your child and give very practical, step-by-step things they can do to make it better. Like a coach, give them strategies to put into practise. Keep your ideas easy and simple and check in with them at the end of each day to see how it went. For example, “How did things go today with Evie? Show me on the Friend-o-Meter.” When you encourage them to try something, let them know, “And, if that doesn’t work, no problem! We’ll come up with a new plan!” –> Give this activity a try: Time to Chat!

Most importantly, be that person they can talk to, rely on, who will comfort them during this hard time. Don’t solve their problems for them, don’t call the other kid’s parents (here are 10 reasons why!), but give them little, bite-sized challenges to help them work through the conflict. For example, “It sounds like things are hardest with Evie at recess time. How about tomorrow, you volunteer in the library at recess time. Give it a try!”

And, if after all of that, your child is still struggling and things are getting worse… This is when the parents and teachers need to work together AS A TEAM and come up with deeper interventions. The safety and happiness of our children are always a top priority.

Written by Dana Kerford
Friendship Expert and Founder of URSTRONG

Learning Corner

KNOWING is not enough.

This week, teachers met to examine and provide peer feedback on assessment tasks in Mathematics. They looked for a clear link between the task and the expectations of the Australian Curriculum. Did the task allow all children to demonstrate what they had learned and how well they could apply this to unfamiliar settings?

Teachers then examined the Guide to Making Judgements for a specific link between the task expectations and the grades. This link ensures that anyone correcting the same student’s work would award it the same grade.

Mathematics is more than knowing number facts and rules and answering questions correctly. It is about Understanding, Fluency, Problem -Solving and Reasoning to enable students to become proficient in Mathematics. These are the areas in which teachers provide experiences and look for in student work.

Understanding is about connecting related concepts and applying the known to the unfamiliar. It is about the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of Mathematics

Fluency is about using different strategies to calculate answers. It involves finding solutions by using learned number facts, rules, and definitions.

Problem-solving is about making choices, interpreting, formulating, modelling, and investigating problem situations, and communicating solutions effectively.

Reasoning in Mathematics happens when students explain their thinking, deduce and justify strategies used and conclusions reached, adapt the known to the unknown, transfer learning from one context to another, prove that something is true or false, compare and contrast related ideas, and explain their choices.

Mathematics is more than knowing facts and definitions. It is about thinking and using what you know. Children become proficient in Mathematics by talking, using manipulatives, discussing and justifying their thinking. As with all learning children are to be active creators of knowledge rather than passive receivers.

Early Years Feedback

On Tuesday, P-2 met with our school’s Curriculum Consultant to examine the data about student learning needs.The data told us the children who require extension and the areas where extension needs to be provided. It also identified students who require support and the specific areas for that support. Most importantly, the data showed that our use of PLD has been effective and well worth  continuing through all classes.

NAPLAN commences next Wednesday. Please support your child by reminding them it is just another class activity but one that all year 3 and 5 students in Australia will be doing at about the same time.

Being early at school with time to get ready with headphones and mouse is a bonus for avoiding or decreasing anxiety.

Rita Cranitch

APPL (Assistant Principal Pedagogy and Learning-Acting)

Inclusive Practices Teacher

Class in the Spotlight -3A

This week in 3A has been nothing short of exciting and educational! We kicked things off diving into the world of digital technologies, exploring the fascinating evolution of communication devices. From rotary phones to smartphones, we marvelled at how far we've come. To really grasp the concept, we even created our own makeshift communication devices using paper cups and strings – and to our amazement, they worked like a charm!

But the fun didn't stop there. Our science experiment on heat conductivity had us buzzing with excitement. We delved into the properties of different materials, investigating which ones conducted heat the best. The metal spoon emerged as the champion, much to our surprise!

Of course, our regular library visits and literacy rotations added another layer of enjoyment to our week. There's nothing quite like getting lost in a good book or diving into hands-on literacy activities to spark our imaginations.

As the week draws to a close, we're gearing up for our very first NAPLAN testing next week – a mix of nerves and excitement fills the air. But with all the fun we've had and the knowledge we've gained, we're feeling confident and ready to tackle whatever challenges come our way.

Enjoy these snapshots of 3A in action! 

3A

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