Filter Content
Dear Parents and Carers
Thank you to all the parents who took time to meet with their child's teachers last week. Communication and collaboration between us all is vital to providing a safe, nurturing and productive learning environment for our children.
Again we were blessed with wonderful weather to celebrate our St Clare's Feast Day on Monday 11 August. The students participated in a rangeof actviities led by Kaboom Sports during the day while also participating in buddy actviities in the morning and ending the day with a Zooper Dooper provided by Camp Australia. Lots of smiles and happiness were on show all around the school.
On Saturday evening we celebrated Mass at St Patrick's Church which was followed by pizza in the Parish Hall. Thank you to the families, staff and St Clare's Community who joined us for mass. And thank you to the amazing Choir led by Ms Ricchetti who sang beautifully during the Mass.
This Friday is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mass will be held at 11.30am in the Modular. All students from Years 3 to 6 will attend Mass and parents and family are welcome to join us.
UPCOMING DATES:
The Assumption of Mary
● The Catholic Church recognises and celebrates the specialness of
Jesus’ mother Mary.
● Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Assumption on August 15 each
year.
● Mary gave her entire life to God, listening to God's message and
saying “Yes” even when it was going to make her life very difficult.
● The Assumption celebrates Mary being welcomed into God’s
presence.
● The Catholic Church recognises Mary’s service and her whole
hearted self-giving through this special feast day.
● The Feast of the Assumption gives people a chance to remember
and celebrate the role that Mary played in Jesus’ life and mission –
to teach about the love of God and love for others.
Mass will be held at St Clare's on Friday 15 August at 11.30am in the modular. Family and Friends are welcome to join us for the Assumption Mass.
Bullying No Way: National week of action
This week is Bullying No Way Week, which is about the important roles school, family and community play in helping young people feel accepted, respected and a sense of belonging.
From 11 to 15 August 2025, you can help create positive action with students, school staff and your community for Australia’s key bullying prevention initiative.
It takes courage to spark change.
Bullying is everyone’s responsibility. It takes a community to be brave and address bullying behaviours, within and beyond the school gate.
Students can be bold, kind and speak up to support others being bullied. Trusted adults are there to support children and young people as they learn how to be kind to each other and report bullying.
Be Bold: You have the power to help
Being bold doesn’t mean putting yourself in danger – it means choosing to do what’s right. Standing up shows others that bullying is not accepted.
Be Kind: Small actions make a big impact
Kindness builds connection, and connection helps stop bullying before it starts.
Speak Up: Speak up against bullying
When you speak up, you become an upstander – someone who chooses to help instead of watching from the sidelines.
Think before you post or speak
The words we use can build someone up or tear them down. That’s why it’s so important to think before we speak, type or post.
Together, we can stop bullying – a whole of community approach
The best way to stop bullying is by working together. That means students, teachers, families, and friends standing up, speaking out, and supporting each other.
For more information about Bullying- No Way click on the following link Bullying- No way Week
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.
