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Dear Families
I hope all families are coping well in these unprecedented times. We hope that you appreciated your small bag of chocolates from our Parents & Friends, to say we are thinking of you. It is comforting to know that we belong to a community who cares for each other.
The Blessing Australia Prayer
During this time of uncertainty and physical isolation, over 300 local churches united together in Australia, to sing a blessing over our nation. This is the first time this has happened. Together they produced a beautiful prayer and video clip. You can find it at https://youtu.be/OOt7baaVSbE
From the bush to the beaches,
From the migrant to the Indigenous,
Though girt by sea we are not isolated
We’re the great south land of the Holy Spirit
Through the fires and drought
No Virus could ever hold us down
‘Cause we were made for such a time as this
So may the Lord bless you, and keep you, Australia
In the name of Jesus
May His face shine upon you and be gracious to you
The Lord turn His face towards you
and give you peace. AMEN.
As Victoria is experiencing significant community transmission of COVID-19, all parents, guardians, carers and students who are feeling unwell and displaying symptoms of COVID-19 should be encouraged to get tested. Children of parents, guardians or carers undergoing testing for COVID-19, should remain absent from school until the parent, guardian or carer receives a negative test result. Students who are unwell must not attend school. If your child is showing even mild symptoms of COVID-19 they must stay at home. The symptoms to watch out for are: fever, chills or sweats, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny nose or loss of sense of smell.
Please be reassured that SAFETY remains of paramount importance in our school. Personal hygiene processes are practised and reinforced continually.
Remember during this COVID-19 time, schools are open for students and staff. If you need to give your child something when he/she is at school, you need to ring the office on 56331151 and someone will come out to the parish side gate and collect it, or with the new office refurb complete, you can go to the front office and leave it there and staff will see that your child gets it. Parents are not supposed to be on school grounds unless you have prearranged it.
In weeks 5 & 6 we are conducting reporting interviews. If your child has a SAEP (Student Assessment Evaluation Plan), these interviews will be in week 5 and the class teacher will be in contact with you to organise these. In week 6 we will be conducting parent/teacher/student interviews (Thursday August 20th). You will be able to organise your time for these by booking online. When the schedule is posted and available for bookings, I will post the link on School Story on Class Dojo. Families only attend one interview in either week 5 or week 6, not both weeks. We look forward to talking about your child’s learning with you.
PROMOTION & ENROLMENTS FOR 2021
Remember we are on Facebook, search St Joseph’s Primary School Trafalgar. We also have a new look website www.trafalgar.catholic.edu.au Our Information Video and our Virtual Tour are on there. Please share this with your friends and recommend it to other people. During this panademic, this is the best way to promote our school.
We are also visiting Trafalgar Kindergarten doing fun music sessions with the students. This is another way of promoting our school.
If you have a child in 4 year old kinder we ask you to collect an Enrolment Pack from the office and complete the Enrolment Form at your earliest convenience. If you have any friends with a 4 year old, please invite them to have a look at our school. I really appreciate your help in this space.
As part of our ongoing improvement strategy we send out surveys to collect data on what you think about our school.
Please complete the survey by this Friday the 31st of July.
Thanks for your help.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO FIND ON OUR WEBSITE
- Parenting Ideas Article ‘Standing Behind Difficult Decisions’. This is a must read. Michael Grose (one of Australia’s leading parenting educators) states very clearly that we parents need to trust the processes that teachers put in place at school, even when we don’t always agree with them. Family-school partnerships are strongest when we stand behind the difficult decisions that teachers make. Working together, great things happen.
- Wellbeing Activities and Conversation Starters for Parents of Primary School-aged Children. Please find a range of activities that will help build and maintain your child’s wellbeing. The activities cover 6 key elements that are important to wellbeing: Understanding Emotions; Personal Strengths; Positive Coping; Problem Solving; Stress Management and Help Seeking. There are suggested activities for each level of the primary school. I think you will find them very helpful.
WHOLE SCHOOL APPROACH TO POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT (WSAPBS)
This is an evidence-based framework that outlines our school wide system of social and behavioural expectations as well as providing explicit teaching to support the development of key relationship skills.
During Term 3, we will continue to work through our School Wide Expectations (SWE). This will involve revising Respect and then learning more about what it means to be Resilient, Inclusive and then being a Team Worker. Presently, we are inviting the students to ask you about resilience and to video the responses and send them into school so that we can learn about resilience from you. We encourage your family to take part in this activity.
In class lessons, students will be encouraged to be problem solvers and practise implementing 'keeping calm' strategies when they are trying to learn something new or when they are trying to master a skill that is tricky for them.
At St Joseph's School we will try to remember that anything worth learning takes time. So keep at it and don't give up!
May God continue to bless and guide us in our learning.
Trish Mulqueen
Principal
Remember students do not bring their own sport equipment to school. We have plenty of school sports equipment to play with. Often balls get kicked onto the roof and stay there until we can get someone to get them down.
We find it much easier to be 'inclusive' if the sporting equipment belongs to the school and not an individual student.
We trust that you understand this rule and support it.
As we gather on this sacred land, let us acknowledge that we are standing on Country for which the members and Elders of the local Aboriginal community and their ancestors have been custodians for thousands of years; land on which they have performed age-old ceremonies, celebrations initiations and renewals. We acknowledge their living culture and their unique role in the life of this area today.
JULY
Friday 31st SRC surveys to be completed.
AUGUST
Tues 11th P&F AGM 6.00pm Virtual Meeting
Mon 17th School Advisory Committee Virtual Meeting
Thurs 20th Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews
SEPTEMBER
Mon 7th to
Fri 11th National Child Protection Week