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Dear Parents and Carers
We remind everyone that this Friday 6 June there is NO SCHOOL for students. Staff will be participating in Professional Development. Then Monday 9 June is the King's Birthday Public Holiday, so there is NO SCHOOL on this day.
Camp Australia is providing care on Friday 6 June if it is required. We remind you to book in for this service if it is needed.
PENTECOST SUNDAY
UPCOMING DATES:
We had an incursion on the 27th of May. The Spanish dance was cool because we pretended to wave a flag and make a bull charge at us and we dodged the bull. We had lots of fun that day, and in the end I would rate the experience an 8/10.
Maverick 4EH
My favourite part of the incursion on the 27th of May was when we all sat in a circle and got picked to dance. We got up and danced in the middle of the circle.
Saanvi 4LP
We had an incursion on the 27th of May. My favourite part of the incursion was the Indian dance and the African Dance3. The African dance was fun and it also taught us about the animals in Africa.
Flynn 4NS
We had an incursion on the 25th of May. We did Latin, African, Spanish and Indian dances. It was brilliant! My favourite part was when we did the dance at the end and the Indian dance. It was so much fun and everyone participated.
Ishrat 4JR
On Saturday 31st I danced at Noble Park in the Australian Teachers of Dancing. I placed 1st in the state championships and now I will advance to Nationals in July.
Estelle Yr 4
All Foundation students participated in an incursion on Monday 2nd June. The session was designed to support our current Inquiry unit on Design and Technology. Students worked collaboratively to complete a series of ‘construction challenges’ using a variety of materials. These activities encouraged creative thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving.
PIZZA & PJ DAY IS COMING! 
Kids and staff are invited to wear their PJ’s to school and enjoy a special pizza lunch together!
Pizza slices are just $3 each, and orders can be made easily via CDF Pay – now available as a handy app! 
Pizza Options:-
Margarita
-
Pepperoni
-
Hawaiian
(Gluten Free options available)
Important: All orders must be placed by 10am on Thursday, June 26th – no exceptions!
Mental health refers to an individual’s emotional, psychological and social wellbeing. It can have an impact on a child’s ability to function in daily life affecting how they think, feel and act.
Many factors contribute to child’s mental health such as biological factors, life experiences, as well as family history. It is important at every stage of life, from childhood, to adolescence, through to adulthood. Research shows that children with good mental health increase their ability to learn, be creative and more productive.
In this edition of SchoolTV - Trauma
Children and teens will experience events during their lives that will affect them emotionally and physically. How they react to these events depends on their age, personality and past experiences. Children can experience strong feelings of fear, sadness, guilt, anger or grief, making it difficult for them to cope with everyday life.
There are a number of ways that parents and care givers can support children after a traumatic event. Your reaction to an event, will impact your child’s ability to cope and recover. Children will look to the adults in their lives to help them better understand a traumatic event so it is important to ‘tune in’ to their fears and provide them with the comfort and support they need.
In this edition of SchoolTV, parents will learn how to gain a better understanding of trauma and how it affects children of all ages.
We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this edition of SchoolTV and we always welcome your feedback. If you have any concerns about your child, please contact the school for further information or seek medical or professional help.
Here is the link to the Trauma edition of SchoolTV
https://stclaresofficer.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/trauma
Immediate Crisis Support in Australia:
1800RESPECT - https://www.1800respect.org.au/
Kids Helpline - https://kidshelpline.com.au/get-help/webchat-counselling
Liz Hunt
Mental Health in Primary School Leader
How to Help Kids Stay Safe Online
Adapted from: https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/blog Office of the eSafety Commissioner
- Start the chat
It’s not possible to be at your child’s side every second of the day, so it’s important to talk with them about online safety issues to help develop their critical thinking and ability to make good choices. It’s also good to let them know they can come to you for help if they have any concerns. You may feel they know more about the latest technology than you do, but you have more life experience to guide them.
- With primary school aged children use online devices in the open living spaces at home to make parent supervision part of the expectation for your child.
- Take the opportunity to set some boundaries around when and where they can use devices like tablets, smart TVs and gaming consoles, to help limit potential tech tantrums — you could even fill in an Early Years Family Tech Agreement
- Screen free time before bed is important for good sleep. Consider charging devices in a central location at a regular time each night to allow an hour screen free before bed.
- While you are all at home more, it’s a great time to co-view and co-play with your kids, so you can understand what they are doing and experiencing online.
- Learn about the games, apps, social media and platforms they are using at The eSafety Guide, including how to protect their information and report inappropriate content or conduct.
- Use parental controls and safe search options
Parental controls can help block your child from accessing specific websites, apps or functions. They can also monitor your child’s use of connected devices and set time limits. But beware! You cannot always rely on them — they should be used in combination with other online safety strategies.
- Parental controls are available on most tablets, smartphones, computers, TVs and gaming consoles.
- You can also download family safety controls or buy robust filters out of the box.
- You can set up child-friendly search engines, or select safe search settings on digital devices, to help prevent your child from stumbling across inappropriate sites and content.
- Check smart toy settings
It’s surprising how many toys or devices can connect online these days, from drones and smart teddies to tablets and wearables. While they can be both entertaining and educational, they can reveal your child’s personal details and location — and allow other people to contact them without you knowing. You can help keep them stay safe by:
- setting strong passwords
- turning off location settings
- limiting the amount of personal information shared.
The eSafety Gift Guide has advice on what to check for and how to stay safe.
- Look out for unwanted contact and grooming
Unwanted contact is any communication that makes your child feel uncomfortable or unsafe, even if they initially welcomed the contact. It can come from a stranger, an online ‘friend’ or even someone they actually know. At worst, it can involve ‘grooming’ — building a relationship with the child in order to sexually abuse them.
You can help by:
- making sure their accounts are private — including chat functions on games
- encouraging them to delete requests from strangers and any contacts they don’t know in person
- checking in with your child as they use online devices in the open living spaces at home
- reporting and blocking anyone suspicious on a website or service
- remembering that if suspicious online contacts become aggressive or threatening you should contact your local police.
- Know the signs of cyberbullying
Kids who are bored by long periods at home can pick at each other, and that happens online too. So it’s important to keep an eye out for cyberbullying. It can include mean posts, comments and messages, as well as being left out of online group activities like gaming.
- Remember, when they are away from school, kids have less access to their usual support systems, including friends, teachers and counsellors.
- eSafety research shows that girls are more likely to be affected than boys and the person doing the bullying is generally someone they know from school.
- Watch out for signs such as your child appearing upset after using their mobile, tablet or computer, being unusually secretive about their online activities or becoming withdrawn.
- Cyberbullying can make social isolation worse and the longer it continues, the more stressed kids can become, impacting on their emotional and physical wellbeing.
What to do if your child is being cyberbullied
As parents, our first instinct may be to ban our children from social media, disable the wi-fi or turn off the data access. But this can actually compound the problem, making your child feel as if they’re being punished and heightening their sense of social exclusion.
There are four simple steps that can help minimise the harm:
- report the cyberbullying to the social media service where it is occurring
- collect evidence of the cyberbullying material
- if the material is still public 48 hours later, make a report to eSafety — we work with social media platforms to have the harmful content removed.
block the offending user.