Filter Content
- PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
- EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PLAN
- NEW CARLINE PROCEDURE TERM 4
- MISSION - SOCKTOBER
- CONFIRMATION
- MR SIMON'S BIRTHDAY
- THE FRONT DOOR PROJECT
- WHOLE SCHOOL APPROACH TO POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT (WSAPBS)
- JAPANESE
- ACCELERATED ART PROGRAM
- VIRTUAL LITERACY PARENT INFORMATION SESSION
- WALK TO SCHOOL 2020
- HAY FEVER AND ALLERGY SYMPTOMS SIMILAR TO COVID-19 SYMPTOMS
- BOOK WEEK DRESS UP DAY
- DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Welcome back everyone! It is so good to be back at school. Many of you have just seen our new office refurbishment which was aimed at making our school more child safe. There is now a single entry point to the school through the office. Our culture is: children are safe here, the school is aware of who is coming and going, and safety is worth investing in. Our improvements are comfortable, practicable and welcoming.
With our return to school, I would like to reassure all families that Literacy and Numeracy are our main focus. We are so aware that we have missed out on valuable learning time and we are focused and ready to continue our classroom work. We think you have all done a fabulous job in helping your child/ren in remote learning and now we are eager to continue on. The teachers will be given extra time to test the students to ascertain where they are, so that then we can more to the next step on the learning continuum. Parents you should feel really proud of the work that you have done.
We welcome our new Grade 6 student leaders:
Congratulations Josh Upston, Jamie-Lee Abrecht and Ciele Towb.
We look forward to your work with us.
Each year we need to revisit our emergency plan and practise different safety procedures each term.
This week we had Captain Danny Mynard (Chloe’s Dad) from the Trafalgar CFA (Country Fire Authority) visit us after school to show the staff how to use a fire blanket and a fire extinguisher.
We were especially grateful to Danny for his time and expertise. Arigato (thank you) Danny.
New COVID safe procedure for carline at the end of the day for Term 4:
From 3.00pm - if you are parked next to the yellow safety rail at the side of the school, you are welcome to ring Vicki on 56331151 and let her know that you are in carline and ask for your children to be sent to carline (you will not need to get out of the car).
We will have a staff member at the carline gate. This will allow for a more staggered approach to pick up.
SAFETY IS OUR PRIORITY.
October is traditionally the month that we focus on Social Justice and our mission to give to others. On Friday 30th of October (Week 4) we will be holding a Mission activity called Socktober where the students will be invited to wear fun/crazy socks with their school uniform. In previous years we have asked families for a gold coin donation to support the mission work of Catholic Missions. However, during this COVID time we have decided not to run this activity as a fundraiser but rather as an activity to begin our Mission unit. During the Socktober Mission Unit the children will participate in great learning opportunities that are designed to engage their heads, hearts and hands in issues of mission and social justice. This year our focus country is Cambodia.
The school will give a donation to Catholic Mission on our behalf. If as a family you would still like to donate to Catholic Mission, you are welcome to send your donation in to school and we will certainly add your donation to our contribution.
All children who are eligible to receive the sacrament of Confirmation have had a family resource kit emailed to their home. Parents are invited to work through this resource with their child to help develop a deeper understanding of Confirmation as a beginning for their child's preparation. We are warmly welcome to join in with the Warragul parishes too for our workshops. These workshops will all be virtual.
At this stage, it is highly unlikely that Confirmation will be celebrated in large groups in the church and it seems that no Confirmation celebrations will occur until at least 2021.Please feel free to ring the school and speak to Mrs Balfour or Mrs Mulqueen if you have any questions regarding Confirmation.
On Tuesday it was Mr Simon’s birthday. The students organised a party for him and they all had lots of fun. The students set up the party in the classroom while Mr Simon was on yard duty. At the end of lunch time Mr Simon couldn’t work out where his class was, so he went inside and ‘Surprise’, they were all inside ready to party.
We are inviting you to take a photo of your family at your front door/gate in this lockdown time, and email it to school.
office@trafalgar.catholic.edu.au
or kbalfour@trafalgar.catholic.edu.au
We ask that it is landscape setting and clear. It doesn’t have to be a professional photo, just a photo taken on your phone is fine. We aim to put the family photos altogether in a poster or a book to show our unity to each other and to create a great keepsake for this unprecedented time.
It’s not too late to send your photo in. But please be very quick as we want to send it to the printers early next week.
We feel sure that you will support this project. Arigato (Thank you).
WHOLE SCHOOL APPROACH TO POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR 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.
We have been working through our School Wide Expectations (SWE).
1. Respect
2. Resilience
3. Inclusiveness &
4. Teamwork
We have released a video clip about Resilience which includes a number of our parents and students talking about the importance of resilience in our school and living. The video clip is available on our facebook page. I’d like to encourage you to share the video. You can also view it on the school website. www.trafalgar.catholic.edu.au
The staff felt that it was really important to include our parents in this whole school approach. To quote a well used recent line:
“We’re all in this together”.
Thank you so much to the parents who helped to make this clip possble.
Arigato (Thank you).
We are very proud of our Japanese program at school. Everyone is trying really hard to use Japanese more each day. The research shows us clearly that when classroom teachers try to incorporate Japanese words in their daily talk, that this makes a tremendous difference in the students learning the language. Research also shows us clearly that when students learn another language that this learning reinforces and strengthens their understanding of their first language. So the students win on both levels. Thanks everyone for your work in this space.
Actually I should say Arigato (Thank you).
Students who display artistic strengths are invited to participate in 5 one hour art sessions over 5 weeks. Students are given an opportunity to explore different artistic ideas whilst using a variety of materials. They are able to choose what they would like to investigate and research in each session. Students can choose to create in 2D or 3D with the use of technology incorporated into each session and they can choose to work collaboratively or individually. The teacher acts as a facilitator and mentor to the students and at the end of the 5 weeks students reflect on their learning.
Because we were successful in obtaining the One Good Community Grant through GPHN (Gippsland Primary Health Network) we are now able to offer more opportunities to students for this program. We are very grateful to the Federal Government for this money and will put it to especially good use.
VIRTUAL LITERACY PARENT INFORMATION SESSION
Recently our F/1 teachers ran a 'Virtual Literacy Information Session'. The session aimed to educate parents on how we teach literacy at school and to give parents ideas on how they can help. There is no doubt that when teachers and parents work together, great things happen.
If you missed this session, you can find a recording of it on our school’s website www.trafalgar.catholic.edu.au and go to the heading ‘Teaching and Learning’.
Welcome back to school. It’s now time to get ready to walk to school 2020!
We know children and families have been walking in their local communities, we hope we can see this carry over to the way we get to and from school. The Walk to School activity helps kids build active habits when they are young, setting them up for healthy, active lives.
In previous years we have had designated meeting places where we have walked together as a school community. In this current COVID environment, we are not encouraging large groups of students or families to walk together, instead we are encouraging you to walk with perhaps one or two other famiies from an agreed meeting place. It could be McGregor Park, Trafalgar Football Oval, or somewhere else.
This year there are new activities to get kids walking, riding, scooting or skating to and from school.
- Map your own Adventure Trail
- Play on your way
- Family Strava Challenges
Put a spring in the step of our school children by encouraging them to be a part of Walk to School 2020.
HAY FEVER AND ALLERGY SYMPTOMS SIMILAR TO COVID-19 SYMPTOMS
Seasonal Allergies, sometimes called ‘hay fever’ of seasonal allergic rhinitis, are symptoms that happen during certain times of the year or for some present all year round. As there are some similarities between Hay fever and other allergies symptoms and those of COVID-19, it may be difficult to tell the difference between them.
If students or parents are unsure about what may be affecting them, you are advised to contact your medical practitioner and liaise with your child’s teacher to make appropriate adjustments.
Medication and current allergy plans providing treatment information must be provided to the school along with a medical certificate, which details the allergens. This information is important. Students may also wish to have medication available to take pre-emptively during school time if hay fever or allergy symptoms are likely.
If the school has concerns that a student or staff member may have COVID-19 symptoms and no information has been provided that indicates hay fever or other allergy symptoms, then the advice is they should be tested immediately.
Dates
OCTOBER
16th Virtual Grandparents Liturgy in classrooms
19th School Advisory Committee Virtual Meeting 4.30pm
20th Book Week dress up day
23rd Grand final Eve Public Holiday
30th Sock-tober Event
NOVEMBER
2nd Pupil Free Day (Assessment Day for teachers)
3rd Melbourne Cup Holiday
6th School Photos
DECEMBER
8th Statewide Orientation Day
10th End of Year/Graduation Liturgy & celebration
11th Japanese Day (rescheduled)
14th Gr 6 Last Day (activities day for Gr 5 & 6s)
16th Last day for all students (1pm dismissal)
17th First Aid Training for staff
18th Planning day for staff