Newsletter #27 Sep 8

Principal's News

Dear St Paul's families,

Welcome to the weekly update.  I hope you have found the Classroom Connect google meets worthwhile in the hope of engaging your children while they work at home, as well as an opportunity to see their classmates during the restrictions.

In today's Victorian Press Conference, Premier Daniel Andrews made the following announcements:

• Lockdown will lift in Regional Victoria, with the exception of Shepparton, at 11.59pm tomorrow, Thursday 9 September.
• St Paul's will reopen for on-site learning for Foundation to Grade 2 on Friday 10 September.
• Remote learning will remain for Years 3-6 at St Paul's
• Onsite supervision at St Paul's remains available for vulnerable children and children of essential workers in YEARS 3-6
  

The canteen will remain closed until Term3.  NO CANTEEN for rest of the Term.

END OF TERM THREE-Please be aware that End of Term 3 for the children will conclude on Thursday 16th September 2021, as per the SIMON calendar.   Staff have a Professional Learning Day on Friday 17th September.

MINI OLYMPICS RESULTS- A few weeks ago we were very fortunate to host our Mini Olympics at school.  We thought we may have had an assembly to announce our House winners as well as our Age level champions, unfortunately this was not the case.  Please see Mr McDermott's report with all the details and congratulations to our champions and everyone that participated.

R U OK?- This Thursday is "R U Ok? Day and is a perfect opportunity to check in on a friend, family member or work colleague and connect with them to remind them they have support if needed. Rather than typically ask, "How are you going?", "R u ok?" can make all the difference.

RESILIENCE- The effects the pandemic has had on families is undeniably significant and we are very much aware of the social, financial, emotional, physical and mental harm it has caused.  Every week I end my newsletter with, "Keep the Faith".  Sometimes that may seem like all you have left but is often all that you need.  Faith in yourself, in each other and in Christ is all it takes to make a difference in the lives of those we care about. 

As parents, we take on all the worries of our children and try to protect them from the negative influences in their daily lives.  The reality is we cannot shield them from everything.  At some stage we hope we have given them the skills to be able to function independently.  Over the last few weeks, I have shared some simple strategies of building resilience in our children.  Here a few more to consider.

Nurture a growth mindset- Research has found that children who have a growth mindset – the belief that people have the potential to change – are more likely to show resilience when things get tough.

Let them know that you trust their capacity to cope- Fear of failure isn’t so much about the loss but about the fear that they (or you) won’t be able to cope with the loss.  What you think matters – it really does.  You’re the one they will look to as a gauge for how they’re going.  If you believe they, have it in them to cope with the stumbles along the way, they will believe this too.

Build their problem-solving toolbox-self-talk is such an important part of problem-solving.  Your words are powerful because they are the foundation on which they build their own self-talk.  Rather than solving their problems for them, start to give them the language to solve their own. Some ideas:

• What would [someone who they see as capable] do?
• What has worked before?
• Say as many ideas as you can in two minutes, even the silly ones?  Go.
• How can we break this big problem into little pieces?

Let them talk - Try to resist solving their problems for them. Instead, be the sounding board as they take themselves to wherever they need to be. As they talk, their mind is processing and strengthening. Guide them, but wherever you can, let them talk and try to come up with their own solutions.  You are the safest place in the world for them to experiment and try new things. 

Let's try and focus on the positives, no matter how small they may seem to be.   As Pope Francis once said,

" A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just."

As always

Keep the Faith!

Vince Muscatello

Phys Ed News- Athletics

On Friday 20th August, we were very lucky to sneak in the St Paul’s Athletics carnival before Lockdown 7.0.  We were a little nervous in the morning when setting up as we got a few showers of rain, luckily the weather held out and we managed to get through all the events.  The carnival was a little different this year being held onsite and split across both ovals.  The Junior Athletic Carnival was held on the Mercy Oval while the Senior Carnival was on the John Hill Oval.

Students participated in normal Athletic events like Long Jump, Long Distance, Sprints, Shot Put, Discus and a few modified events like Vortex and Run & Hop.  The day concluded with the whole school coming together for the sprint finals starting with the 5 and 6 year olds and finishing with the 12 year olds.  There was a great feeling of excitement, with lots of cheering and barracking for those students running in the finals.

The winning House results were announced to the students on the day.

• CHAFFEY 973 points       
• MERCY 892 points       
• HILL 809 points         
• McKENZIE 671 points

We will present the Age Group Champion medals and Sprint Champion medals at our next Assembly.  Congratulations to:

Age Group Champions for 2021

Sprint Champion for 2021

Mr Warwick McDermott,  PE Teacher

Walk 4 Brain Cancer

Walk 4 Brain Cancer is a national movement which brings together the Australian brain cancer community to raise vital funds and awareness to help find a cure and to improve outcomes for Australians living with brain cancer.

Our wonderful and dedicated Foundation teacher Mrs Lucy Gray is participating in the upcoming 2021 Walk 4 Brain Cancer event in support of her husband Jarrod and the thousands of other Australians who are affected by this devastating disease. Unfortunately in November 2019, Lucy’s husband Jarrod was diagnosed with a stage 3 anaplastic astrocytoma and since then has undertaken many months of specialised and gruelling treatments.

We invite the St Paul’s Primary School community to show your support for Mrs Gray and her fundraising efforts by encouraging our community to participate in a ‘virtual’ walk on Thursday 16^th September.  Students learning from home will be encouraged to undertake a walk with their families and students learning onsite will participate in a walk on the school grounds that afternoon.

On the day we encourage everyone to wear something ‘purple’ in recognition of this cause.

Any donations towards this cause can be left at the school’s front office and will be presented to Lucy to contribute towards her fundraising goal. Alternatively Lucy has a fundraising page that you can directly donate to here. 

National eSmart Week

National eSmart Week is happening NOW!

National eSmart week is an opportunity for communities, like St Paul's Primary, to share their knowledge and celebrate being smart, safe and responsible when using digital technology.  It is a time to create more awareness and community education on issues of cyber safety, online bullying and wellbeing.  This year's theme is, 'Responsible Action'. By taking responsibility for our actions we can all play a part in creating a safer environment online and offline.

During periods of remote learning, when children are spending even more time online, it is important families have good routines and practices in place for when students are engaging online.  Discuss the following 'responsible action' tips with your children to help keep them safe and secure online and encourage them to participate in this week's Technology lessons which have an eSmart focus.

Stay safe out there.

Narelle Simms