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Dear Parents and Carers
This year, for Catholic Education Week, St Clare’s students will be inviting a special person (grandparent, aunt, uncle, parent, adult sibling) to come to school with them on Thursday 25 May between 8.50am and 10.30am. They will show their special person their work and their learning space and complete an activity together. Special people can spend as much or as little time as they have in a learning space and can move from learning space to learning space if there are siblings.
First Holy Communion 2023
Please continue to keep our Year 4 students who are preparing for the Sacrament of First Holy Communion in your prayers. Many of them attended Mass at St Patrick’s Parish last Saturday evening to show their commitment to receiving the Sacrament.
A reminder that there is a Parent Evening on Thursday 1 June at 7pm at the St Patrick’s Parish hall. This is for Parents/Carers only and we are unable to offer child care.
Dates to Remember:
Thursday 25 May 8.50 - 10.30am We Celebrate Catholic Education
Special persons visit to Learning Spaces for students
Thursday 1 June Parent Night 7pm - First Holy Communion Information Evening at St Patrick’s Parish
Sat 3 June and Sun 4 June - First Holy Communion Masses at St Patrick’s Parish
Wednesday 14 June 9.15am Mass for F - 2 students at St Clare’s
Sat 17 June and Sun 18 June - First Holy Communion Masses at St Patrick’s Parish
Religious Education Curriculum Updates
This week I share with you the curriculum being covered and reported on in the first semester for Year 1 and Year 2.
Year 1
During Semester One the students in Year One have focused on identifying God as the loving creator and that we are all precious and unique. Students are also learning about our local church and the community as well as the sacrament of Baptism as an invitation to the church to share in God’s love.
Year 2
During Semester One, Year 2 students have explored the relationship Catholics have with God and how He shows his love through His son Jesus. Students looked at Palm Sunday in detail and explored the Easter stories.
This term, students have explored the questions 'How do I celebrate? How do you celebrate? How do we celebrate?' Students explain the importance of religious and non religious celebrations, such as Reconciliation, National Sorry Day, Diwali and ANZAC Day. The students will also be identifying members of the Church community and special celebrations within the life of the Church.
In this edition of SchoolTV - CYBERBULLYING
With the advent of the internet, smart phones and tablets, there is now a whole new digital dimension added to traditional schoolyard bullying. There was once a time when bullying victims were given some respite outside of school hours, but sadly these days, online bullying can occur 24/7. In today’s world, teaching your child about online and cyber safety, is as important as learning to swim or cross the road!
Cyberbullying can be identified as being the repeated behaviour by an aggressor with the intent to harm or embarrass. Technology enables these aggressors to share information widely and quickly, making this form of bullying extremely dangerous and harmful. However, the answer is not to shun the internet nor social media. Instead, parents are encouraged to embrace it and instil a family internet policy to protect their children without limiting the freedom to learn, explore and communicate online.
In this edition of SchoolTV, parents are provided with useful guidelines and advice on how to minimise the risks. Children have the right to feel safe, regardless of whether it is in the schoolyard or online.
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 contact the school counsellor for further information or seek medical or professional help.
Here is the link to the Cyberbullying edition of SchoolTV
https://stclaresofficer.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/cyber-bullying
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.
School Fees
Term 2 fees are now overdue. Please contact the school to arrange payment.
If you are experiencing financial difficulties please contact the school via finance@stclaresofficer.catholic.edu.au for a confidential discussion.
If you financial situation has now changes and you have a Pension or Health Care Card please let us know that this will impact your school fees payable.
2024 Enrolments
Enrolments are now being taken for 2024. If you need an enrolment form plesae contact the school office - we can email or send a hard copy home for you.
First round offers will be emailed in June so we ask you to submit enrolment forms by 31 May 2023.
School Closure Day - Friday 9 June
Reminder the staff have a Professional Practice Day on Friday 9 June so there is NO SCHOOL for students.
Camp Australia are providing care on this day if required. Please ensure you book in as soon as possible.
Monday 22 May - AFL Clinics Year 6, Year 5 AB, Year 5 LH and Year 2 SW
Tuesday 23 May - Year 6 Leaders to SFX Officer Reconciliation Mass
Wednesday 24 May - Year 5 Mass at St Patrick's Church
Thursday 25 May - We Celebrate Catholic Education Special Persons can visit Learning Spcaes from 8.50am to 10.30am
Friday 26 May - National Sorry Day Assembly 8.50am **
Wednesday 31 May - SSV Division Cross Country for selected students
Thursday 1 June - First Holy Communion Parent Workshop
Friday 2 June - Trivia Night
Friday 9 June - School Closure - NO school for students
Monday 12 June - King's Birthday Public Holiday
Wednesday 14 June - Mass for Foundation to Year 2 at St Clare's
Friday 23 June - Last Day of Term 3, Pizza and PJ Day, Whole School Assembly 8.50am **
Book Club Catalogue Edition 4 is coming home with students this week.
The cut-off date for this issue is: Friday 9 June
All orders are to be placed via LOOP. Pleas edo not send cash to school.
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.