Dear Parents and Carers

We congratulate our Year 6 students, who along with students from St Patrick's and the Catechist Program, received the Sacrament of Confirmation conferred by Bishop Greg at the Mass on Saturday at St Patrick's Church. We pray for the confirmed as they become full members in their Catholic life and mission. Thank you to the families and staff involved in this special time of the student's life.

Our School Colour Fun Run continues to raise funds for our school, having reached the next target of $15,000, the top 10 fundraisers will have the opportunity to throw cream pies  at Ms Staindl.  Thank you to all the familes and friends who are supporting this fundraiser.  It will culminate with the Colour Run on Friday 12 September.  This will take place at 2.10pm in the afternoon. 

To take part safely in the colour run, all students must wear:

• A plain white t-shirt (for the best colour effect)

• Old shorts/leggings or bottoms

• Runners/joggers (colour washes out easily from shoes and cotton clothing)

Please note: Students not dressed appropriately will not be able to participate. We cannot be responsible for damage to school uniforms. We recommend using older clothes or even a cheap set from an op shop.

Students from year 5 and 6 represented St Clare's at the senior Hoop Time event at Cardinia Life on Tuesday.  While they are not progressing through to the next level, there was much learnt through their opportunity to compete against a range of other local schools.

Today we had about 50 students represent St Clare's at the SSV Toomuc Valley District Athletics Carnival.  We are very proud of their efforts and look forward to hearing all about their experiences.

Our last day of Term 3 is Thursday 18 September.  Students will be dismissed at normal time of 3.10pm.  This is also our Annual Footy Colours and Hot Dog Day.  Don't forget to place the hot dog orders via CDFpay.  Orders close at 5pm on Tuesday 9 September. 

As previously advised our 2025 School Concert will occur on Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 October at Bunjil Place in Narre Warren.  There is information further in the newsletter regarding costumes.  The finer details for ticketing are currently being sorted and once the information is available we will share that with everyone.

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.

We hope everyone has a lovely Father's Day on Sunday and has the opportunity to create lovely memories.

Students and pre-service teachers learning together.  

This term, students at St Clare’s have been learning about Country and Place, Culture, and People through Indigenous education lessons taught by our Accelerated Bachelor of Education students. These lessons gave students the chance to explore Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in creative and meaningful ways, including artwork that is being shared in this newsletter. Students said they enjoyed the chance to learn through stories and art, with one student commenting, “I liked how we could paint to show what we were learning.”

The Accelerated Bachelor of Education is a three-year, employment-based program run by DOSCEL in partnership with Swinburne University of Technology. It allows Education Support Officers (ESOs) to study while they continue working in schools, supporting their journey to become fully qualified teachers. Some of our pre-service teachers have already completed their first placement this term, with others to follow next term.

We were also fortunate to have Peta Murray, DOSCEL Education Officer: Inclusive Education (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander), join us on our recent Professional Practice Day. Peta’s visit helped staff deepen their knowledge and confidence in embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives across our teaching and learning programs.

Melbourne Museum

Last Thursday the Year 4’s went to the Melbourne Museum.

However we were a bit nervous because we didn't want to break anything.

Regardless, we were extremely excited. 

At the forest gallery 4EH got to see the Black Saturday chimney and a blue tongue lizard! The chimney was really high. I stood up in it and my head still didn’t touch the top and the blue tongue lizard was either hibernating or sleeping under a rock, I couldn't quite tell.

Next we went to IMAX and watched a 3D documentary about Earth and Space. The documentary was called “A Beautiful Planet”. I liked how it looked like the objects on the screen coming towards me. I tried to reach out and touch it but I couldn't. It looked so real, almost like an illusion.

Next we went to the Milarri garden, there we saw Eels and we learnt that Aboriginals used nature to survive. However, I wasn't quite sure if it was an electric eel or a normal one.

Lastly we went to the First People’s gallery, there were weapons that the First Nation’s people used.There were also language buttons, the way the language buttons worked was, you could press a button and it would say something in the Aboriginal language. There was also really fluffy possum skin, but my favourite part was the language buttons.

In my opinion the Melbourne Museum was a really good experience   

By Finn 4EH

Melbourne Museum
On Thursday 28 of August we went to the Melbourne Museum. 

First we went to the forest gallery where we saw insects and had find birds. Then after that we went to imax and watched ‘A Beautiful Planet’. It was 3D and about space.                                              

After that we went to the first people gallery and we saw weapons and there were buttons when you press it that says something in their language. My favourite bit was imax. 

By Regina 4EH

Costume Information

In preparation for the nights we are asking families to prepare the base costume, to which the school will add elements too. Please see the table below for your child’s Year Level. 

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us via email at concert@stclaresofficer.catholic.edu.au 

Kind Regards

David Gulavin and Maria-Grazia Ricchetti

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

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.

Here is the link to access PAM

Your usernsame is the email address you have registerd with the school.  If you have forgotten your password please use the "forgotten password" feature to set a new one.

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.