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Dear Parents and Carers,
We welcome everyone back for Term 4 of the 2024 school year. We hope that everyone had the opportunity to spend some memorable time with family as well as recharging for the busy Term 4 ahead.
Over the holidays Mr Matysik was kept busy with a Wedding. Congratulations to Michael and Melissa on their marriage. We wish you all the best for your future together.
Congratulations to Hendrix (Year 4) who was baptised recently. Well done Hendrix!
The Rosary - Month of October
During October, Catholics all over the world devote time to saying the Rosary as a way of honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. This is a meditative prayer in which rosary beads are used. The main prayer used in the Rosary is the Hail Mary. This prayer is said in sets of ten and these sets are known as decades. Each decade is preceded by
the Lord’s Prayer (also known as the Our Father), and followed by a Glory Be to the Father. The Rosary begins with making a Sign of the Cross and reciting the Apostles’ Creed, followed by an Our Father, three Hail Marys and a Glory Be, before beginning the
first decade. After five decades, the Rosary concludes with the prayer, Hail Holy Queen (also known as the Salve Regina).
Source: Liturgy Help
You may like to share this with your children before a meal or before bed.
As we start the beginning of a new term, the holiday sleep-ins, relaxed days and late nights start to become a distant memory as the kids are faced with the reality of a new school term.
For most children the excitement of seeing their friends and teachers is something that they look forward to. Although they may experience a sense of nervousness or anxiety, this is a completely normal feeling that we may all feel.
For a minority of students, starting a new school term can be extremely difficult and overwhelming thus leading to school refusal.
For information please visit:
Be You/ Beyond Blue https://beyou.edu.au/ 1300 22 46 36
Headspace Understanding school refusal | headspace
In this edition of SchoolTV - School Refusal
School refusal, sometimes called school avoidance or school phobia, is not uncommon. It is different to ‘wagging’ or truancy and is often related to worry or anxiety-related issues about going to school. School refusal may start gradually or happen suddenly. Although it is normal for a child to occasionally miss a day of school, parents should only be concerned if a child regularly complains about feeling sick or often asks to stay home due to minor physical complaints.
School refusal is a complex issue as there is rarely a single cause. It affects children of all ages across primary and secondary levels. It can often occur during times of transition at school. More recently, the Coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the educational experience of all students, affecting some more than others. Dealing with a school refusal child can affect the whole family, adding pressure to an already challenging time. School refusal is not considered a formal psychiatric diagnosis. It’s a name given to an emotional and/or behavioural problem.
In this edition of SchoolTV, adult carers will learn how best to approach this issue and work towards a solution.
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 seek medical or professional help.
Here is the link to the School Refusal edition of SchoolTV
https://stclaresofficer.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/school-refusal
Liz Hunt
Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader
Some wonderful recounts from our Year 4 students about "Why parents should enrol their child at St Clare's"
St Clare's Primary School is the best, becasue we encourage cyber safety and Chidlren's safety week. We all have different levels of reading and all teachers encourage people and students to be more resilient and smart. Our teachers are great role models and always are helpful.
By Isabelle
At St Clare's your children will learn alot, we have art, sport, science, Japanese and performing arts. Children will get a good education at St Clare's so you chidlren can grow up to be smart, kind people. So Send your children to St Clare's Primary School.
By Torah
St Clare's Primary School is a great school for all children. The teachers are amazing, they will understand all chidlren. Every teacher is kind, respectful and helpful. We show ROCKS here which is Respect we do our job, Optomisim we have a go, Courage we do our best, Kind we are kind, Safe we are calm. Sometimes we have really fun games to play. Recess goes for 10 minutes, lunch goes for 40 minutes. It is a long time! We are kind at this school because everyone should be able to be happy. So bring your children here now!
By Lily
St Clare's is a fun education school with loving staff and teachers and activities to have fun in and the best Principal. We have excursions and incursions. Teachers make learning fun to do, if you are a new kid we will welcome you. I rate this school five stars. Best School!
By Zoey
St Clare's - Why to come? Toi start the learning in this school is outstanding. We have opportunities for everyone and when your kid start learning they begin to thrive. Recess is a fun time, Foundation students will play a mini soccer game on the semi circle or their is drawing and other options to do.
By Jack
Dear parents, if you are planning to enroll your kids in St Clare's you are doing yourself a favour because St Clare's learning environment is noce and you have excursions and incursions like Kaboom, Camp and Swimming. We teach kids how to be safe and respect each other in real life and online. We have a fudn food friday that cost $1 for 2 chocolates in winter and icy poles in summer. There are 20 minutes for recess and 40 minutes for lunch and teachers to alwayshelp you. There are way more things in St Clare's but thats for you to explore,
By Aaron
At school every day I learn. Sometimes we have fun but sometimes we do hard work. But either way it is ok. At School it's fun and sad when I leave my parents, but that is ok. It's weird waking up early and getting ready but that's ok.
By Poppy
At St Clare's we have many fun activites. There are substitute teachers and school leaders. Over here we make education fun and we have many subjects like Math, writing, literacy, inquiry, religion, spelling and tons more. We have 1 hour of playing and 5 hours of fun learning. There are excursions, incursions, swimming lessons and more. We also have the best Principal Ms Staindl.
By Inayat
SCHOOL FEES
SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
REPORTING AN ABSENCE
To report your child's absence please do so via PAM, email absent@stclaresofficer.catholic.edu.au or call 5940 6777
Here is the link for the St Clare's Parent Access Module (PAM)
St Clare's PAM
You username is the email address that you have registered with the school. The first time you log in we ask that you use the forgotten password feature to set your own password.
ALL parents must access PAM to receive up to date information and grant necessary permissions. Students will miss out on events if permission is not granted.
Parents and Carers - If you can spare any time to cover some new books it would be greatly appreciated. Contact the office if you can assist.
We are happy to provide a space at school if a team would like to come together to cover books after drop off in the mornings or pick up in the afternoons.
The Secondhand Uniform Shop will be open at the following times during October:
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.