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Dear Parents and Guardians
Events this term:
- 17 July Athletics Carnival – Years 3-6
- 18 July Parent-Teacher Interviews
- 19 July Parent-Teacher Interviews
- Various Fridays Interschool Winter Sport Program (Year 6s)
- 24 July Principals’ Meeting hosted at St Clare’s
- 3 August Foundation – 100 days of Foundation, Year 3 Excursion to CERES
- 7 August Friday’s single subject timetable today
- 11 August St Clare’s Feast Day, Fun Games and Activities
- 12 August St Clare’s Feast Day MASS and pizza – Parish Mass at 6pm
- 14 August School Closure – RE with Fr Elio Capra
- 16 August Confirmation Retreat Day for Year 6
- 18 August Bishop Greg’s visit to St Clare’s School
- 19 August Confirmation Masses 3:00pm and 6:00pm
- 21 August Book Week Parade
- 28 August Year 4 Camp to Grantville - overnight, Foundation Excursion to Chesterfield Farm, Year 3 Swimming #1
- 29 August Year 4 campers return
- 30 August Year 4 Rest Day – no school for Year 4 students only, Year 3 Swimming #2
- 31 August Year 3 Swimming #3
- 1 September Fathers’ Day Assembly lead by Foundation students Child Safety Week
- 4 September Year 3 Swimming #4
- 6 September Year 3 Swimming #5
- 7 September Year 3 Swimming #6
- 8 September Year 6 Excursion to Parliament House
- 11 September Year 1 Excursion
- 13 September Divisional Athletics – qualifying students
- 15 September Footy Colour Day and Fun Food
Parent-Teacher Interviews
Tuesday 18 & Wednesday 19 July
3:30 - 6:00 (please ensure you are on time as interviews run back to back)
In the Modular
Bookings online via the link sent out yesterday
(If you had a PSG meeting last term, this takes the place of the Parent-Teacher Interview)
UNIFORM
With the new term, it is timely to remind parents that all students are to wear their uniform perfectly and proudly. This includes footwear, the tie and the correct uniform on the correct day.
SAVE THE DATE – FUN FOOD AND FAITH
On Saturday 12 August, St Clare’s will be celebrating Mass together at St Patrick’s Church at the 6pm Parish Mass. Afterwards, families are welcome to stay for pizza. Further details and a booking form will be available shortly.
THANK YOU P&F
Last term the P&F provided funds to purchase indoor games for each of the Learning Groups. The students have already had enormous playing these games – and learning how to win and how to lose. IT was delightful to see the large number of parents joining in with the games on the final day of last term.
St Clare’s Feast Day Friday 11 August and Parish Mass Saturday 12 August 6pm
Planning for St Clare’s Feast Day at school is well underway.
All families are invited to a St Clare’s Feast Day Mass on Saturday 12 August at St Patrick’s Parish Pakenham at 6pm. After Mass we will celebrate with pizza in the hall. Please mark this date on your calendar.
Sacraments - Confirmation (Year 6) and Reconciliation (Year 3 Term 4)
All Year 6 families who have students who are baptised Catholics and have received the Sacrament of First Holy Communion have received an email in regard to the dates and they have been asked to complete a survey. If you are not aware of this email please check your SPAM folder.
Please note slight changes in times and/or dates:
Please complete the Application for Leave During Term Form if your child is going to be absent for more than 3 school days. The form is below and can also be accessed via PAM in the Knowledgebank.
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 3 fees are now due and payable.
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.
In this edition of SchoolTV - BLENDED FAMILIES
Blended or stepfamilies, come in all shapes and sizes. Today, the term “blended family” is more commonly used as opposed to “stepfamily”. Although their original meanings differ slightly, today both terms are used interchangeably. This is mostly due to some of the negative connotations associated with fairytale characters such as the evil stepmother or stepsister.
The blended family is the fastest growing family dynamic in the world with one in five families now being a ‘step’ or ‘blended’ family. However, when families “blend,” it rarely progresses smoothly. Some children resist change, and parents become frustrated when the new family doesn’t function in the same way as the previous one.
For many step-parent’s, the greatest challenge lies in determining what their role is within the family. The process can be both rewarding and challenging. Children affected by the union of a new couple may not be excited at the prospect of becoming part of a new family.
Although blending families requires adjustment and patience from everyone involved, in this edition of SchoolTV, parents will be given some guidelines of real expectations that can help their new family work through the growing pains.
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 Blended Families edition of SchoolTV
https://stclaresofficer.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/blended-families
Thank you for our games!
A very big thank you to our P and F parents/carers who worked so hard to raise funds for new games for each Learning Group. Many parents/carers joined students on the last day of Term 2 in the morning to try out the new games.
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.