Dear Parents and Carers

How wonderful it was to celebrate our St Clare's Feast Day is so many ways.  The students had an amazing day on Friday with sports, donuts and disco to name a few of the activities.  It was then lovely to have so many come together at Mass on Saturday evening at St Patrick's where we then enjoyed Pizza afterwards.  What a big two days of celebration.

There are photos further in the newsletter.

UPCOMING DATES

Friday 18 August - Year 6 Winter Sport at St Clare's

Thank you to all those families that came to experience faith (Mass) and food (pizza) on Saturday evening. The students really enjoyed participating in the Parable of the Bikie (the Good Samaritan). What a wonderful time our students had over last Friday (prayer, Kaboom incursion and donuts) and Saturday to celebrate St Clare’s Feast day.

The Feast of the Assumption

The Catholic Church recognises and celebrates the specialness of

Jesus’ mother - Mary. Tuesday August 15 is the Feast of the Assumption and a Holy Day of Obligation for all Catholics. Mary gave her entire life to God, listening to God's message and

saying “Yes” even when it was going to make her life very difficult. The Assumption celebrates Mary being welcomed into God’s presence. The Catholic Church recognises Mary’s service and her whole hearted self-giving through this special feast day. The Feast of the Assumption gives people a chance to remember and celebrate the role that Mary played in Jesus’ life and mission – to teach about the love of God and love for others.

Confirmation

Many of our Year 6 students who are being Confirmed this Saturday 19 August attended a Commitment Mass on Saturday 5 August. They have their Confirmation reflection Day this Wednesday and will be attending Mass at St Patrick’s Parish, Pakenham. Please pray for them as they prepare for this Sacrament.

Reconciliation

A reminder that Reconciliation will occur for baptised Catholic students in Year 3 in Term 4.

We have a large number of unnamed drink bottles in lost property at the office.

Please come and claim if they belong to your child.  Any not collected by Friday afternoon will be disposed of.

Protective Behaviours

Each term we focus on our School Wide expectations, particularly Respect and Safety.

This term, across the school, we are focussing on:

• Who are our safe people (Safety Network)
• Safe/unsafe feelings and actions 
• Early warning signs – responses (feelings and physical) when we feel unsafe
• We have a right to body autonomy (body bubble/space) 
• We can identify public and private body parts and name these
• When touch might be necessary (safe people hugging us or giving us a kiss, doctors, nurses, Allied Health professionals)
• The difference between secrets and surprises

If you wish to discuss this further or would like any clarification please contact Gab Verstraete (Child Safety Officer)         gverstraete@stclaresofficer.catholic.edu.au

In this edition of SchoolTV - ANXIETY

Most young people today experience anxiety at some point in their life. Sometimes that slight rush of anxiety that occurs prior to an exam or sporting event, can enhance their performance. However, experiencing too much anxiety, over long periods of time, can be extremely damaging to their health and wellbeing. There is a difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ anxiety.

Statistics show, that the psychological health of young people today is far worse than it was a generation ago. This is having an adverse affect on children in both primary and secondary levels. Some of their issues of concern include stress, school, study, body image and friendship.

Parents need to be aware of the warning signs of ‘bad’ anxiety. There are preventative measures parents can implement as well as teaching kids the skills to cope more efficiently with their anxiety.

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 Anxiety edition of SchoolTV

https://stclaresofficer.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/youth-anxiety

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.