On Friday 1 December, Australian religious songwriter and singer Andrew Chinn visited our school to share his songs with our children. He ran workshops throughout the day in preparation for our Christmas Concert in the afternoon. Andrew led us to explore the Christmas story through song, music and prayer. A special thank you to all our parents and teachers for your support which enabled such a successful event for our children to occur.

This blurb was in my Parish newsletter over the weekend and is from Nick Brodie. I thought I would share it with you:

Pope Francis has characterised Advent as 'a continuous call to hope; it reminds us that God is present in history." Every year we prepare for Christ's final return by preparing to celebrate his birth, all while reminding ourselves that he is already present. This season is therefore a time in which every Christian is called 'to listen to the Lord who knocks', as the Pope put it. Jesus is knocking already; it is we who need to wake from our slumber and spring into action.

The Church isn't a waiting room - we need to do more than sit and wait. While Advent is a season of expectation, it is also an annual reminder that the Christian adventure is already underway! This is what being 'on guard' really means. It is not a negative sort of guardedness, closed off from the world. Rather, the gist of Jesus' message is about readiness, preparedness and awareness. As Pope Francis says, this means we should strive to avoid being 'overwhelmed by distraction or superficiality'.

Taken from Nick Brodie

At Mass, last weekend, the first (of four) candle of the Advent wreath was lit. This candle is known as the Prophet’s Candle reminding us that Jesus is coming. The virtue of HOPE is at the centre of this week.

Friday 15 December - Last Day of School for students

Tuesday 19 December - School Office closes for December/January Holidays

Monday 29 Janaury - School Office Opens for 2024 School Year

Wednesday 31 January - First Day fo School for 2024 Foundation students ONLY until 12.30pm

Thursday 1 February - All students start school for 2024 

As part of the Year 5 Inquiry Unit students created a shop and below are the Buisness Reports folowing their days of sales on Thursday 30 November.

Business report - Super Kool Hats

On Thursday the 30th of November,  1WO came to our classroom and bought some stuff from us. There were 6 groups to buy from and the most profitable group was the Jewelry group which made $224 in profit.                                                                        

We made $75 dollars by selling our super kool hats to the year 1s. We put at least 40 mins in each lesson to work on our hats and we sold a lot of our products to the year 1s which was pretty successful!

We had custom hats and these things called ‘stick ons’ which we put on hats in case they didn’t want any drawings on them. People really liked our hats, especially the big hats!

By Logan, Flynn and Ashton

Origami Business report 

Group:Origami

The Market Day was very successful since the year 5 students got to sell their products and the year 1 students got to learn about how to spend their money wisely.

What we sold-we sold paper planes,chatterboxes,ring boxes and ninja stars.

We made $168 with a profit of $112

There were a lot of challenges such as having enough stock and keeping up with all the people coming. 

We learnt a lot about money and businesses so it was a very educational and enjoyable market day.

The market stalls had varieties of cool products so everyone was happy especially the year 1’s.

By Tiago, Oliver, Thomas, Kai

Jewellery business report

What we did: We had stalls in our classroom and the year 1’s came to buy from our stalls. Our group was selling jewellery and we made lots of sales.

Profit: $278

Earnings after float was taken out:$227

Learnings: How to help many customers at the same time and handling pressure. Also how to work as a business and split up and work together.

What we sold:

-Crowns: $18

-Necklaces: $8

-Bracelets: $7

-Ring boxes: $5

-Rings: $3

-Legendary items : $8

Challenges: So many people came to our stall and we were under pressure. 

Success: We sold everything and we were out of stock. Also we stayed calm and we had a lot of customers and good reviews. 

By Prabhansh, Gurshaan, Okith and Tennille

5AB & 1WO’s market stalls newsletter!

On Thursday the 30th of November the year 5’s did a market stall with our buddy class in  1WO. The people in our group were Aaliyah , Achok , Alfred and Rhianna. We made drawings, drawing bundles and arts and crafts. This activity was fun but at the same time taught us how to give change , sell products , make good deals, discounts and handle customers.

In total our group made approximately $118. All the learning will help in the future and we have learnt a lot of familiar words related to money. It was really challenging having to cope with many eager customers. Having multiple people/business partners made it really easy and helpful. We were all really surprised on how smart the year ones are at money and change, it shocked us to see how well the year ones are at their age.

We learnt that little kids love to spend money and specific things run out of stock quickly. Although we wish our group made multiples of specific things because stuff went out of stock very quickly. We hope that the year 5’s next year get to experience this fun amazing task next year with their year one buddys.

Rihanna , Achok, Alfred and Aaliyah

Business report   

On the 30th of November 2023 1WO came to 5AB, the year 5s to buy  products. We made all kinds of things, such as Bookmarks, Origami, Jewellery, Finger Puppets, Art and Hats. Everyone in 5AB had a great time and learnt about business.

The year ones in 1WO were surprisingly smart with their money and had a fun and exciting time. Our group sold bookmarks, we made a profit of $117 and came 4th but the atmosphere wasn’t a competition but a fun time. They knew so much about money.

Profit:

$117 after the starting balance being taken out but without was $177.

Stock:

We made about fifty items and sold the majority of the items.We sold all kinds of bookmarks like corner bookmarks and name bookmarks.

By Felicity, Nixon, Gurnoor, Matthew

In this edition of SchoolTV - RESILIENCE

Resilience is one of those skills that all kids need and should have. It refers to their ability to cope and adapt in situations when confronted with challenges such as adversity, trauma, tragedy, or even stress. It is essential to their mental health and wellbeing as part of their journey to adulthood. It is a skill that can be learned from an early age through the support of an adult role model.

However, being resilient does not mean your child won't experience any difficulties, but it will better equip them to manage those situations. Over-protective parenting can be viewed as being unhelpful towards the building of resilience. Although this may be a natural instinct, potentially experiencing failure is all part of the process. Encouraging children to take healthy risks will help them trust their capacity to deal with uncomfortable situations and increase their capacity for courage.

In this edition of SchoolTV, parents will gain an understanding of how to support their child’s brave behaviour to help them adapt and build resilience.

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, seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to the Resilience edition of SchoolTV

https://stclaresofficer.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/resilience

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.