Term 2 Week 4 2024

From the Principal

Dear Families,

What a beautiful morning we had yesterday celebrating our school with our School Renewal Presentation Liturgy. The Mini Vinnies students did a wonderful job leading us in Prayer and exploring our school charism and Catholic Identity. Love of God, Love of Neighbour and Love in Action shone brightly throughout the Liturgy and the students' interpretation of how the Good Samaritan is lived out here at St Francis was relevant to all. It was wonderful to have Executive Director Mrs Jacqui Francis, Director of School Development Mr John Nuttall and Director of Learning and Teaching Mr Peter Stower join us. We enjoyed being able to show our guests around our school, they visited Prep A, 4A and 1/2A. During our school tour we spoke about work that has been recently done, what is to come in regards to playgrounds and our long term master plan. We received some great feedback from SLT’s meetings with representatives from the Board and FACE Group, Fr Manoj, staff and students and we are looking forward to actioning this feedback in the coming months. I would like to thank the members of the Board and FACE group who attended yesterday as well as Fr Manoj. Your time and support is greatly appreciated.

Mother's Day is such a special occasion! Whether you're celebrating your own mum, a maternal figure, or even the concept of motherhood itself, it's a time to express gratitude and appreciation. On Mother’s Day let us take a moment to honour and celebrate the incredible women in our lives who embody the spirit of nurturing, guidance, and unconditional love. Whether you're a mother, grandmother, aunt, or a cherished maternal figure, your presence and influence enrich our community in countless ways.

On behalf of St Francis, we extend our deepest gratitude to all the mothers who support our students with boundless devotion and encouragement. Your dedication is truly appreciated, and today we wish all our mothers, grandmothers, and maternal figures a joyful and love-filled Mother's Day.

I am so incredibly lucky to have two incredibly wonderful ladies who have shown me nothing but love, patience and encouragement.  My Mum and my Nan have always been my rock, sounding board and best friend. Their love has been a constant source of strength, inspiration and support and I feel so blessed to have such two remarkable women in my life. I will miss celebrating Mother’s Day with them this year but  they are never far from my thoughts.

School pick-up etiquette is essential for ensuring safety, efficiency, and courtesy in our school car park. Here are some key points to keep in mind:

• Please drive slowly in the carpark. We all know how unpredictable children can be and the busyness of pick up time is no exception. We are dealing with precious lives. 
• Students should not be crossing the car park by themselves. If you have parked on the inner side of the car park please do not ask your child to cross on their own. Please collect them from the grass side of the car park.

Pick Up Line

• This is for a quick pick up and needs to keep moving to avoid congestion at the entrance to the school. 
• The driver must stay in the vehicle.
• If your child cannot get into the car or buckle themselves in quickly, then please park rather than using the pick up line.
• If you know that your child takes a long time to arrive at the roundabout of an afternoon, please consider arriving a little later in order to keep the pick up line moving or park and wait for your child.
• Students are encouraged to only enter the vehicle on the passenger side for safety concerns.
• Students are not allowed to walk around the pick up line to reach their car for safety reasons. We only allow students to hop into the first 2 cars.
• Please ensure you drive the whole way round to the front of the pick up area.
• Please be patient and considerate while waiting in the pick up line. 

By following these guidelines, you can contribute to a safer and more efficient school pick-up experience for everyone involved and I thank you for your assistance with this.

Have a wonderful week.

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

UR STRONG

Nip it in the Bud!

Is your child being Mean-on-Purpose? Let’s ‘nip it in the bud’ before they lose all their buds!

Before anything, we need to start with this: It is very rare for a child to be Mean-on-Purpose!

By way of definition, Mean-on-Purpose behavior is intentionally cruel, rude, malicious, unkind, manipulative behavior that is designed to hurt someone and it is uncommon in children. Why? All kids want to get along and belong. Children are born joyous and see the world with wonder and awe. They love being around other kids, playing and experiencing that feeling of ‘friendship’. Not only is friendship a basic need, forming friendships and being part of a “tribe” is a survival instinct deep within all of us. As teachers and parents, we need to assume the best in children, give them the benefit of the doubt, and not project a very strong negativity bias or our own past traumas onto kids.

It is far more common for children to experience Friendship Fires® (common issues or conflicts like misunderstandings, disagreements, or hurt feelings) as a result of Mean-by-Accident behavior.

Consider this example: A child sees their friend is having sushi for lunch, plugs their nose and says, “Eww! Sushi? That’s gross!” Was that child being Mean-on-Purpose? Highly doubtful. It is far more probable the child is simply being honest about how they feel. Yes, it’s rude. Yes, it’s inconsiderate and lacks empathy. But, their intention was not to purposefully make their friend feel bad – they just don’t like sushi and haven’t yet learned when and how to filter their comments. Part of a child’s social-emotional development is learning those “unwritten rules” and developing a more sophisticated inner-filter to ‘bite their lip’ and control impulsive reactions.

With all of this in mind, a child who is acting out in Mean-on-Purpose ways needs helps. Children or teenagers who do exhibit Mean-on-Purpose behavior might be experiencing difficulties at home, mirroring behaviors they’ve seen in others, or they might be struggling with mental illness like anxiety or depression. Whatever the reason, Mean-on-Purpose behavior is never okay and it is a big red flag that something is wrong. They need adult intervention to provide them with the support they need.

In addition to getting a child professional support (School Counsellor, Psychologist, or Therapist) to find out the root cause of the behavior, here are a few ways parents can support a child who is displaying Mean-on-Purpose behavior:

FOCUS ON EMOTIONAL REGULATION: Their ‘negative emotions’ are big and overwhelming. Our Friendology curriculum for schools is packed full of lessons devoted to this, helping children ‘name it to tame it’ (a term coined by Dr. Dan Siegel). As parents, we can help our child who is escalating emotionally (“dysregulated”) by:

• Naming the emotion for them: “Woah, buddy, I can see that you’re feeling frustrated.”
• Validating their emotional experience: “We all feel frustrated sometimes and I know it feels hard.”
• Offering a suggestion to tame the emotion: “Why don’t you ‘push pause’ on this game for a moment and go get a big drink of water.” (For younger children, distraction techniques work well here too: “Why don’t you ‘push pause’ on this game for a moment. Let’s go see if we can spot any birds in the trees! Have you ever seen a rainbow-coloured bird before? That would be cool!”)
• Identify why it’s important they calm down: “The game isn’t fun for anyone right now and I know how much you love playing this game.”
• Encouraging them: “You can do it! You’re so good at calming yourself down. I’m proud of you!”
• Modelling calm behavior by using a quiet, gentle voice and demeanour. It’s important to remember that an escalated adult cannot de-escalate an escalated child.

Like a balloon blowing up with air, we want to catch them before they pop and give them strategies to let that hot air out. The goal, however, is their self-awareness develops to the point where they notice when they’re starting to escalate and take an action to calm down. Give this activity a try: Big Emotions Snow globe

ROLE-PLAY: Role-playing is essential for those children who typically act on impulse. Imagining themselves in different scenarios and role-playing their way around the Friend-o-Cycle clears those neural pathways in the brain so they know how to react appropriately the next time they feel big, negative emotions (frustrated, annoyed, angry, etc). Sometimes children are mirroring behaviours they’ve seen before, so we need to ‘reteach’ them that Mean-on-Purpose behaviour is not allowed and support them in finding a more helpful reaction. To learn more about the Friend-o-Cycle, watch this: Be a Friendship Ninja!

Empowerment comes from knowing exactly what to say and exactly what to do, which is why scripts are a big part of our Friendology curriculum. As you’re role-playing with your child, help them craft a script for what they could say in those moments. What is their Exit Strategy if the game or activity is too intense and they feel themselves escalating? Maybe they say to their friends, “I’ll be right back – I’ve got to go to the bathroom.” Help your child come up with a one-liner they can say that feels right for them and role-play!

For younger kids, role-playing with toys or teddy bears is a very fun and effective way to help them practice. For scenarios, check out: Friendship Fires Firepit

SET THEM UP FOR SUCCESS: In Friendology, we help children learn to make healthy choices in their friendships and develop boundaries. We do this by using the Friend-o-Meter – a visual tool that helps kids reflect on how they are feeling in their friendships. When children are in the Red-Zone on the Friend-o-Meter, it might trigger that Fight/Flight/Freeze/Fawn response. For children who exhibit Mean-on-Purpose behavior, their instinct is to Fight.

As parents, we can help our child identify the activities or situations that activate their Fight response. You might say, “I notice when you play handball, you seem to really get frustrated. Do you agree? Do you think handball brings out the best in you? What else could you do at recess that would be fun that would keep you in the Green-Zone on the Friend-o-Meter?” Take it even further with this activity: The Friend-o-Meter: Time to Chat!

TEACH THEM ABOUT STRENGTHS: What are your child’s strengths? Character Strengths represent positive qualities within a child that help to bring out the best in them. When they are using their strengths, they feel good – energized, excited, and motivated. These attributes help children to learn and improve their mental health & wellbeing. Kids feel successful and happy when they are using their strengths.

According to VIA Institute of Character, humans possess 24 Character Strengths in different degrees. We all have a different mixture or combination of strengths; some representing our top strengths (often called Signature Strengths). With all strengths, however, if they are overused or misused they can actually be a weakness.

For children and teenagers, the two strengths we see that are often misused and end up being Mean-by-Accident are Honesty & Humour. With honesty, there are times we need to bite our lip. With humour, there are times the joke is ‘too far’ and comes across rude. As parents, you can help your child identify that tipping point by teaching them about strengths and letting them know when they’ve gone too far. Give this a try: Boundaries in Friendship: Drawing the Line

FOCUS ON KIND-ON-PURPOSE: As kids strengthen their self-awareness & social-awareness, we need to teach them to be Kind-on-Purpose. When a child learns to prioritize kindness, they follow the age-old rule: Think before you speak/act. This would look like a child keeping their comments about sushi to themselves because, even though they don’t like the smell of it, they know it will make their friend feel bad.

As a parent, you might say to your child: “Ooops! Is telling your friend their feet are stinky Kind-on-Purpose? When it comes to honesty and kindness, we always choose Kind-on-Purpose!” Or, when your child is trying to be funny but it is coming across as rude, you might say: “Buddy, I know you’re trying to be funny, but is that Kind-on-Purpose?”

Helping children understand that kindness is strength will go a long way in helping them make and maintain happy, healthy friendships. Kindness, warmth, and positivity are qualities that attract friends. Remind your child to be a Friendship Magnet! For a fun activity on how to be a Friendship Magnet, get your child to complete page 38 in our Friendship Journal for Families.

Religious Life of the School

Dear families,

It has been a jam packed week at school. I hope you were able to make it to one of our celebrations. 

On Wednesday Years 1 and 2 went to the Church for Mass, to celebrate ‘a mother’s love’. Thank you to Fr Manoj for leading us at Mass and teaching us about our mother’s and God’s love. He taught us a song about how wonderful love is and described love as being so high, you can’t get over it, so deep, you can’t get under it and so wide, you can’t get around it. How blessed our students at St Francis are to experience this love from their mums.

Thursday saw us welcome Townsville Catholic Education’s Executive Director, Jacqui Francis and some of the Strategic Leadership Team to our school to present our school renewal certificate. We began the day with a liturgy about our school’s charisms hosted by our Mini Vinnies Committee. Our charisms are spiritual gifts from the Good Samaritan Sisters and the Marcellin Brothers who taught at our school over the years. Our third charism and spiritual gift is from St Francis Xavier who our school is named after. From these three charisms, we have our Catholic identity model of love of God, love of neighbour and love in action.

This year we are focusing on the Gospel scripture in Luke about the Good Samaritan. Our liturgy explored this parable with students showing us how the story could look today in our school. We learnt not only who our neighbour is but also how to be a neighbour to others. We also learnt that sometimes we may be surprised to find help from people we least expect it from.

This morning we celebrated mothers as a school community. Thank you to 1/2A for hosting our liturgy.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the loving women in the lives of our students.

God Bless

Nicole

Learning Corner

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Are you confident you have correctly understood what your child tells you about the classroom?

I am sure that most parents would be horrified if their child/children told them there was ‘lots of talking in class’.

As a teacher, I would be excited as it would say that much learning was occurring.

Oral language is at the heart of all learning. At Tuesday's Curriculum Network meeting I attended, the importance of ‘student talk’ was again emphasised. Every lesson should include student talk. This is not ‘free’ talk. Talk is about sharing ideas with a partner, then a group and finally with the class. Talk is about working with a partner to solve a problem and sharing with a larger group how they solved it. Sharing with a larger group makes students accountable for their use of sharing time, so the talk is purposeful and focused on learning and keeping all students engaged in sharing and learning.

When children share their ideas, opinions, and responses to questions, they clarify their understanding of what is being taught. The teacher quickly discovers through their shared responses the presence and the why of misunderstandings that can then be addressed. Subject-specific ‘student talk’ leads to improved written work for all students.

Next time you happen to walk past a noisy classroom, give a silent cheer for the learning that is taking place.

NCCD (Nationally Consistent Collection of Data)

As staff, we are in the final stages of collecting evidence that we are ensuring that children with learning barriers are accessing the curriculum through adjustments we are making at school as a whole and specifically in the classroom. The learning barriers are lifelong, permanent and of neurological origin. The adjustments provided in class are specific to the barrier experienced by the child.

The range and frequency of the adjustments determine the funding we receive to support the identified students. The funding does not cover students who regularly miss school unless absences are due to an ongoing diagnosed medical condition.

We are supported in our provision of adjustments by TCE ( Townsville Catholic Education) Advisory Visiting Teachers for Speech and Language, Hearing, Occupational Therapy and Inclusive education. Their roles are advisory, so they will observe students (once parental consent has been obtained) and support teachers in making adjustments.

If you have any questions or concerns or would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact me via phone (4783 2877) or email (rcranitch@sfatsv.catholic.edu.au).

Rita Cranitch

APPL (Assistant Principal Pedagogy and Learning-Acting)

Inclusive Practices Teacher.

Class in the Spotlight - 1/2B

What a busy and exciting term we have had in 1/2B so far! In HASS our students have been delving into the wonders of our world learning about continents, oceans, the hemispheres, and fascinating places around the globe. Through interactive activities and discussions, they are gaining a deeper understanding of our interconnected world.

In maths, 1/2 students have been taking part in daily number sense exercises and mastering skip counting through hands-on activities helping to promote engagement and deeper learning connections. Students will finish this unit this week and then be moving on to addition and subtraction.

We have been busy honing our literacy skills in PLD (Phonemic and Language Development) sessions. Students are making strides in segmenting words, writing meaningful sentences, and identifying nouns and adjectives in texts.

In addition to all the learning the students have been doing we must also make mention of the extra-curricular activities going on lately. This week saw our 1/2 cohort participate in the Class Mass held at the Church overseen by Fr. Manoj, this was a beautiful celebration that the children loved taking part in, thank you to Mrs O’Connor for organising this. Our Mother's Day activities have been in full swing this week and everyone was very eager to show the special mother’s in their lives the wonderful gifts they had made.

As if that wasn't enough, our talented students have been rehearsing a delightful poem for the upcoming Eisteddfod, where they will showcase their creativity and public speaking skills. We wish them all the best with their performances. 

We are incredibly proud of the dedication and enthusiasm shown by our Grade 1/2 students. Their curiosity and eagerness to learn continue to inspire us all. As we move forward, we look forward to more adventures and achievements together.

1/2B

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Guidance Counsellor

A SPECIAL REPORT: Celebrating Mother's Day

Mother’s Day originated from humble beginnings in 1908 as a simple tradition to honour all mothers, living and deceased. However, it did not take long for florists, confectioners and card companies to jump onboard and commercialise the day, much to the disappointment of its founder, Ann Jarvis.

Mother’s Day is a good annual reminder to say thanks to the mums and other special carers who play an important role in our lives, but it is essential we mark the day with love and sincerity. This year is especially important due to the recent pandemic, where mothers played multiple roles over recent months providing care and support to those they love under difficult circumstances. Mothers will often put the needs of others above their own, so it is paramount to remind them to take care of themselves also, especially when it comes to mental health.

Research has shown that women experience some mental health conditions more so than men and at much higher rates. There are many factors that can impact a woman’s wellbeing physically and emotionally. Seeking effective treatment can enable her to engage more readily in everyday activities and fulfil the needs of her children and family.

This Special Report highlights the role mothers play in the developmental growth of her children and the importance of self-care for good mental health.

Here is the link to your special report:
https://sfatsv.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/celebrating-mothers-day

Students of the Week

Mother's Day Raffle Winners

Eisteddfod

Library

AEDC

School Fees

Dear Families

The school fees have been issued for this term and whilst we appreciate your prompt attention to payment, we also acknowledge families sometimes experience financial difficulties.  If you are in this situation or need to discuss different payment arrangements please call the office and speak with myself or Amanda.  

Debbie

School Bursar

Community