Dear Parents and Carers

How lovely it was to welcome many "mums and special people" to our Mums and Muffins mornings last week.  We hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day on Sunday with their families and there were perhaps some breakfasts in bed without too many crumbs.

Catholic Education Week 2025

St Clare's will celebrate Catholic Education Week with a number of special events commencing Friday 16 May, 2025

We will hold a Twilight Open School on Tuesday 20 May at 3.30pm, where parents, grandparents and families are invited to visit the school and the student’s Learning spaces.

This year’s Catholic Education Week theme is, Pilgrims of Hope to align with the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope proclaimed by Pope Francis, inviting communities to reflect on the significance of hope and faith in their lives. Our school will be helping to spread the message of ‘hope’ in our community as part of Catholic Education Week.

Members of our staff will be attending a Leadership Mass to celebrate and recognise outstanding service and excellence of staff and students in Catholic education in our Diocese at St Francis Xavier College in Beaconsfield on Wednesday 21 May. We will also have our school choir performing together with students and staff

Our school will be helping to spread the message of ‘hope’ in our community as part of Catholic Education Week

As well as our participation in Catholic Educaiton Week, we have a numberof other actvities happening next week. There is a Foudantion to Year 2 Assembly on Monday 19 May at 2.30pm.  On Monday our Year 6 students will be involved in a Billycart Making Incursion.  On Tuesday our Year 2 students will enjoy a ride on Puffing Billy, we hope the weather remains good for them. The St Clare's Choir will be attending rehersals at SFX on Tuesday in preparation for their performance at  the Diocesan Leadership Mass on Wednesday 21 May. The week ends with our Year 5 students going on excursion to Old Gippstown in Moe.

We remind our Catholic Families  to check the information in this newsletter for those wishing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation this year.  The process has been changed slightly so we ask you to ensure you read this information which has also been emailed to families.

2026 Enrolments

We are now processing enrolments for 2026.  If families have younger siblings who are due to commence school in 2026 we are now taking enrolments and ask you to submit these forms now so they can be included in the first round offers which will be sent out in June.

District Cross Country

Congratulations to all who competed in District Cross Country last week.  And good Luck to the following who will represent St Clare's at the Divisional Cross Country on Wednesday 28 May - Amity Yr 4, Olivia Yr 5, Alexia Yr 6 , Phoebe Yr 5, Lacey Yr 5 and Charlise Yr 6

Please note due to a clash the Grandparents morning will not be held on Monday 19 May as planned.  It will be rescheduled to another date.  Once the new date is confirmed we shall advise everyone. 

Last week a PAM communication went out to families with children in Year 6 who are able to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation this year.  If your child is ready to be Confirmed and is in Year 6 but you did not receive the information, please contact Alisha Johnston via email - ajohnston@stclaresofficer.catholic.edu.au

Next term those students that have received their First Eucharist will be invited to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.  Preparations for this will begin this term.  If you would like your child to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation this year, please take note of the following dates.

For the first time, this year parents will need to enrol their child for the Sacrament of Confirmation at the St Patrick’s Parish office.  This can be done this week and next week at the following times:

Tuesday 13th May 2025 – 1.00pm – 2.00pm 

Friday 16th May 2025 – 1.00pm – 2.00pm

Tuesday 20th May 2025 – 6.30pm – 7.30pm

Upon enrolment, parents will receive paperwork to complete along with further information and instructions regarding Confirmation.  Parents are asked to pay a sacramental enrolment fee of $20 when they enrol their child.  Forms, certificates and prayer cards received at this time will then be returned at one of the commitment masses.

Confirmation will be celebrated on Saturday 30th August with Bishop Greg Bennet.  Masses will take place at 3pm and 6pm at St Patrick’s Church. More information about Confirmation, including registering for masses, will be shared at a later date.

Today's special report highlights the importance of helping  boys grow up to be respectful, kind and responsible adults. 

Shape your future waste services! 

Have your say on the future of waste services in Cardinia Shire, including household bin frequency, the proposed glass only service, hard waste collection and green waste disposal. 

Council is renewing their Waste Resource and Recovery Strategy. This strategy serves as a 10-year roadmap for the future direction of Council’s waste services, education and advocacy. 

Community feedback will help create a draft strategy. In early 2026, the community will be invited to share their thoughts on the draft, before the strategy is finalised.  

You can provide feedback until Wednesday 9 July by: 

• filling out the online survey 

• attending an in-person pop-up session 

More info: Shape our future waste services webpage 

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.