Newsletter #24 August 19
Principal's News
Dear St Paul's Families,
Welcome to this week's update. Hopefully everyone has readjusted to the remote learning format once again. Thank you to the children for engaging in the work so readily once more. We have obiously tweaked a few things since our last remote learning period to make it more user friendly where possible. It's lovely to see photos coming in of the children completing activities at home and by the look of things, thoroughly enjoying themselves too.
Throughout this period of remote learning we are encouraging children to follow our norms : Be Safe , Be Respectful and Be your Best. It doesn't matter whether the children are at school or at home, our norms can be applied anywhere.
Once again I would like to thank the staff for their commitment and dedication to the learning they are providing for the children. We would all rather be teaching the children face to face and the current circumstances are just as challenging for them as for you in many ways.
I know the second time round the level of enthusiasm is not as high. Its more important now than ever to continue to support each other in whatever way possible. Next Wednesday, 26th August, will be a PUPIL FREE DAY with a focus on Wellbeing. There will be no Onsite learning or Remote learning this day for the children.
Next week's newsletter will be out on Thursday 27th August.
You may have heard me on the radio this week talking about how to support our children. Check out this great website www.copingskillsforkids.com . It is a child therapist's favourite resources for calming anxiety in children. It has a number of useful and practical ideas.
Some other suggestions to motivate your children at home ( without nagging or tantrums) are:
Involve your children in setting schedules
When children participate in creating schedules, they are more likely to believe they are important and accept them and follow them.
Give them some choice
School work has to be done and you may have other jobs the children are required to do to, however, giving them some choice about how they are completed can help children feel less pressured and coerced, which undermines their motivation.
Listen and provide empathy
Children are more open to hearing about what they need to do if they feel their own perspectives are understood.
Provide reasons for rules
When you provide reasons for why you are asking for something, children can better understand the importance of acting in particular ways and Problem solve together
Not everything goes to plan, When things aren't working out try engaging in joint problem solving with your children.
Congratulations to this week's Gotcha Award Winners for following our norms
25 GOTCHA AWARDS: Nathasha Allieu, Eddy Lion
50 GOTCHA AWARDS: Livinia Fitzgerald, Ben Boby , Jannah Roberts, Mili Ahotaeiloa, Harper Hannah, Lachlan Prescott, Scarlett Moir, Mila Pascale
Please remember that school finishes promptly at 3.00pm each day for those children attending onsite.
As always
Keep the Faith!
Vince Muscatello
Junior Unit news
Hello Junior Unit families and friends!
As we delve into another week of online learning, the work that students have been producing is amazing! Below are just some of the work samples that have been submitted. Everyone should be super proud of their efforts.
Well done also to the students who are attending their Google Meet sessions. Great work!
Please continue to send your work samples each week to Dropbox and you are more than welcome to email your child's teachers any photos of completed work. We look forward to continuing to fill these pages in the coming weeks with more magnificent work!
Remote learning work samples!
Senior Unit News
SENIOR MEETS
Every day, except Tuesday, one of the Senior Unit teachers will host an open Google Meet where students are able to join to ask questions, seek clarification, ask for assistance or just complete tasks alongside peers and a teacher. Students can stay as long or as little as they need to. The timetable fo these Google Meets is provided below:
- Monday 9am to 10am
- Wednesday 10am to 11am
- Thursday 9am to 10am
- Friday 10am to 11am
Join via https://meet.google.com/
Join Code: Seniormeet
As always, if you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact your classroom teacher.
Celebrating our student's work
Currently, our writing focus is on newspaper reports. Last week the students got creative and prepared their own newspaper reports - choosing either a natural disaster or a fairy tale to report on. We might just have a few budding journalists in the making! Well done to everyone who completed this task! They all made for very interesting reading.
Newspaper Reports
Foundation Unit News
The Foundation Unit children have been busy this week learning about Data Collections and Data Displays. One of the tasks was to make a Data Display using their shoes and then answer some questions about their graph. It looks like the children have had a lot of fun completing this task.
Middle Unit News
Hi Middle Unit families
It has been an awesome week and the students have done a great job. We have had plenty of videos, photos and work sent to us that is really fantastic. It would be an understatement to say we are so proud! Thank you for all the support. We are doing an inquiry unit next week about early explorers and would love all the feedback and support with this that you are willing to offer.
Keep sending us all this amazing work and effort from the wonderful students working hard at home!
Languages - Italian News
Buongiorno and Grazie to students who have started sending through photos of their Minestrone cooking. The warm and hearty vegetable soup is proving to be a real favourite on a cold, wet weather day.
Our "Minestrone" Master Chef Gallery includes some of our Middle and Senior students testing their skills and having a go at cooking up Minestrone Soup with impressive results.
There are different variations of Minestrone, you can add or leave out ingredients according to your preferred taste. The Minestrone can be completely vegetarian or can be made to also include a meat flavour such as bacon, chicken or beef stock.
Next Wednesday 26th August, is a Pupil free day, so l would like to encourage Yr 3 - 6 students to consider cooking up a Minestrone meal (with adult supervision) in lieu of their usual weekly online Italian lesson. Minestrone ingredients and recipe details can be found below and will also be included in the Google Slides Italian lesson for Week 7.
As always, please send through photos to share with our St Paul's community.
Buon Appetito - Signora Ghidinelli
St Paul's "Minestrone" Master Chefs
Middle and Senior Students are also encouraged to read the ... Mangia, Mangia! ... Italian story to their family. Students are familiar with this text as they have been immersed in reading the book as well as acting out a role play of the story in our Italian lessons earlier in Term 3.
I have included the Italian story in the Slide Gallery below..
Mangia, Mangia! story book
Technology News
Well, here we are, smack bang in the middle of another period of online remote learning!
Navigating the online world is tricky for both children and adults at the best of times. Throw in remote learning and working from home, when a large chunk of every day is spent online, and it goes from tricky to downright hard work.
Online safety basics
There are some basic steps you can take to help your children, and yourself, safely navigate their digital world and educate them to avoid harmful online experiences.
- Be actively involved - ask your child to share their online experiences, including what they are doing, who they are talking to and any issues they are having.
- Keep communication open and honest - reassure your child they can always come to you, no matter what.
- Be vigilant - actively supervise your children when online. Remove devices from bedrooms so children are in shared areas of the house when engaging online and check their browser history often.
- Be supportive - if you notice a change in behaviour or mood, talk to your child about it.
- Set rules - develop a 'family tech agreement.' Include the types of websites that can be visited, time spend online and acceptable online behaviour.
- Stay up to date - stay tuned in to the latest hints, tips and news regarding online safety issues. You can follow organisations such as Office of the eSafety Commissioner or THINKUKNOW on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
- Be alert - monitor use of online chat platforms. There are a number of new social networking platforms popping up. Ensure you know which platforms your children are using and who they are talking to.
A word on school Google EDU accounts and emails
As you know, in order to access their online learning, students need to use their school Google EDU account and email. It is clearly communicated as a part of our ICT User Agreements, that these accounts are provided for your child's learning only.
The use of school email accounts for social networking or signing up to other general online platforms is not appropriate, unless specifically directed by a teacher.
Support and Assistance
If for any reason you are concerned about your child's online safety or behaviours, we can support you. We can offer assistance or direct you other support systems and organisations. Don't hesitate to contact the school via the office or myself directly via email (nsimms@spmildura.catholic.edu.au) any time.
Educating Yourself
One of the hardest parts of navigating the online world and keeping our children safe, is keeping up to date.
The Office of the eSafety Commissioner has penned an open letter to Australia's parents and carers relevent to the current time and situation. This letter provides valuable information and links to a variety of opportunities, including free webinars and newsletters, to help you stay in touch and up to date. CLICK HERE to access the letter.
Alternatively, the 'Tech in EDU Magazine" are offering parents and carers an informative and empowering webinar focused on keeping young people safe online.
There is a small fee for this webinar, however 100% of the proceeds will go to supporting Kids Helpline. A definite win-win! See the attached flyer for more details and I hope to see you there.
Until next week, remember...
Technology is cool, but you've GOT to use it as OPPOSED to letting it use YOU!
Mrs Narelle Simms
National Science Week Celebration Day - Friday August 21st
It's National Science Week!
Remote learning won't stop us from celebrating all things science this Friday. We will celbrate National Science Week with a selection of fun science themed tasks and activities for students to do at home. Some of the activities will have a "Deep Blue" focus, as this is the theme of this year's Science Week. Others will have a more general science focus. Either way, all tasks will be a fun, creative and engaging learning experience for all students.
Don't forget to share photos of your children engaging in this wonderful celebration by emailing to fb@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
Arts News
Remote learning has us again looking for fun and interesting tasks that our students can access from wherever their learning takes place. Last week the senior students were given the task of creating a Digital Collage using some of the skills we snuck in this term before remote learning 2.0 struck!
The children were asked to either take photos (or search for images if photos weren't possible) and add them onto a background of choice, creating a scene. The remove.bg website is absolute GOLD for removing unwanted backgrounds of photos or the 'white square' of an image.
Check out all the amazing creativity and humour in these work samples!
Digital Collage
Make sure you check out this week's virtual assembly for some of the F-2 children's wonderful art work from this week! Please keep sending me your art, it makes my day :)
Remote Learning Gallery
They say, 'a picture tells a thousand words,' and these images coming in of students participating in their remote learning are a perfect example of just what that means. We love seeing all their hard work and smiling faces.
If you would like to share pictures of your child's work or of them participating in their learning, email them to fb@spmildura.catholic.edu.au
Physical Education News
I have absolutely loved seeing so many videos and photos of children engaged in the PE lessons last week! They have been amazing and have brought a big smile to my face!
Here are some photos of the Middle and Senior students doing their PE with Joe virtual lesson at school last week.
PE with Joe at school
Sunraysia Catholic Communities Bulletin
The Sunraysia Catholic Communities bulletin for last weekend is below.
The Bulletin will also be put up on Daily Messages on SIMON Everywhere.