Dear Parents and Carers

This Saturday we have a number of our Year 6 students receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation.  We ask you all to pray for these students as they continue their journey of Catholic Faith. Thank you to the families and staff who have worked with these students to prepare them.  Also the staff and students from SFX who facilitated the reflection day held yeasterday for all candidates.

With the forecast of very wet and cold weather this Friday the SSV District Athletics has been rescheduled for Wednesday 3 September.  An email has been sent to relevant parents about the change in date.  We are aware this will clash with Year 4 Mass and Year 3 Swimming on this day.  There will be communication with parents about the clash.

To celebrate and acknowledge our Fathers, on Thursday 4 and Friday 5 September we will hold "Dads and Donuts". Dads and/or Father figures are invited to join us from 8.30am until 9.30am for donuts and a visit to their child's class.  To assist with catering and numbers we have split it over 2 days with surnames A to K on Thursday 4 September and surnames L to Z on Friday 5 September.  If you are unable to make your designated day it is OK to attend the alternate day. 

There are a number of events happening over the last 3 weeks of Term 3, so please note dates and set reminders if necessary.  The term will culminate with our traditional Footy Colours Day on Thursday 18 September.  Students are welcome to wear their "footy colours" on this day and hot dogs for lunch will be arranged by our Parents and Friends group.  To purchase a hot dog for your child please place orders via CDFpay by 5pm on Tuesday 9 September.

Uniform - we ask all parents to support us with ensuring ALL students are wearing School Uniform perfectly and proudly.  Some key factors to remember - 

• School Shoes must be ALL black
• Sports Uniform & Runners are only to be worn on sport days
• Girls Summer Dress is only to be worn in Term 1 and Term 4, NOT in Term 2 & 3 with tights
• Girls Tights are worn with the Tunic ONLY, with the skorts it is only socks that are to be worn 
• NO leggings or long sleeve tops to be worn under uniform

UPCOMING DATES:

Key Dates for First Holy Communion

A reminder to parents of students who are preparing for their First Holy Communion.  The Parent Workshop with Fr Elio Capra will take place at St Patrick’s on Thursday 28 August 2025 at 7.00pm.  It is an expectation that a parent of each candidate attends this workshop.  Children do not attend this workshop.

Do you have a child ready to commence Foundation in 2026?

Do you know anyone looking to enrol for 2026?

It is time to submit enrolment forms.  We have limited vacancies 2026. An enrolment pack is available from the school office or we can arrange to send one home for you.  Contact the office now.

Final dates for Term 3 are listed below

A reminder it is cash sales only

September
Friday 5th 8:30-9:15am
Tuesday 9th 8:30-9:15am
Thursday 11th 2:30-3:15pm
Monday 15th 2:30-3:15pm
Wednesday 17th 8:30-9:15am

How to Help Kids Stay Safe Online

Adapted from:  https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/blog    Office of the eSafety Commissioner

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.