Dear Parents and Carers

Catholic Education Week - Friday 17 May to Friday 24 May

We invite you to join us for our "Celebrate Education" event on Wednesday 22 May from 3.30pm to 4.30pm.  Our School Choir will perform at 3.30pm, the Learning Spaces will be open for family to visit with the students to see the learning that has been occuring at school and you may also visit the single subject areas to view the activities that occur in these classes.

• 9am Welcome to Country (on the green if weather allows for this)
• 9.10am Smoking Ceremony (on the green if weather allows for this)
• 9.25am Prayer Service
• 9.45am Students parade in traditional dress
• 10am Students (only) return to Learning Group spaces for learning.

25 Years of Service to Catholic Education
This year’s Catholic Education Week marks a special milestone for two St Clare’s teachers who will both celebrate 25 years of service in Catholic schools.

Dom Arcaro and Alisha Johnston were recognised for their commitment to Catholic Education last Friday at the Diocese of Sale Catholic Education Ltd (DOSCEL) Mass, held at St Thomas the Apostle Church, Cranbourne East. This celebration marked the beginning of Catholic Education Week with this year’s theme – ‘Making All Things New’ – inspired by Scripture from Revelations.

Dom and Alisha have worked hard to provide quality education to the many students that they have taught in Catholic schools in both the Melbourne and Sale Diocese over the last 25 years. They have built positive relationships amongst students, families and colleagues and both highly valued their time as Religious Education Leaders.

Both Alisha and Dom have embraced the experience of working in a new and growing school and contributing to developing the St Clare’s community from its inception in 2015 with 93 students to today’s enrolment of over 600.

 
We congratulate Dom and Alisha and thank them for their dedicated service and their support to building Faith Wisdom and Courage amongst all at St Clare’s.

Pentecost

The word Pentecost comes from the Greek for fiftieth day. Pentecost Sunday ends the season of Easter and comes as a Sabbath day after seven weeks of seven days. In Jewish tradition the 50th day after the Passover was celebrated as a blessing of the harvest and rather than the unleavened bread of Passover it was celebrated by leavening the bread. It was for this reason that the disciples were gathered together when they experienced the Holy Spirit empowering them. In Christian tradition, Pentecost is celebrated as the arrival of the Spirit, promised by Jesus, that animated the disciples to spread the gospel of Jesus and gather believers to form what would eventually become the Church.

http://stpatsre.weebly.com/religious-artworks.html

During Term Two the Year Two students have been working hard in many different areas of learning.  We have enjoyed celebrating special events and striving to achieve our best learning in all that we do. Here are just a few snippets of what’s been happening in Year 2.  

Mother’s Day 

We were thrilled to have Bunnings join us to help create our beautiful Mother's Day gifts! Their team guided us in crafting lovely pot plants, perfect for celebrating the special women in our lives. The enthusiasm was contagious as everyone personalised their pots. We hope all the wonderful mothers, grandmothers, and mother figures enjoyed a fantastic day filled with love and appreciation. Thank you, Bunnings, for helping us make  Mother’s Day special!

Catholic Education Week 

This week is Catholic Education Week. It is about celebrating the excellent teaching and learning that happens in Catholic Schools. We have been appreciating the beautiful school community we belong to by identifying why we love St Clare’s. 

Maths 

We are excited to share our recent studies in Mathematics which have focused on 2D shapes and their fascinating features. The students have been actively constructing, identifying and labelling shapes such as squares, triangles, circles, and rectangles and other quadrilaterals. The children have learned to recognise and describe vertices (corners where two lines meet) and edges (the lines that form the boundary of the shape). Additionally, we have delved into the concept of parallel lines, understanding how these lines run alongside each other without ever crossing, as well as other Mathematical vocabulary such as horizontal and vertical lines.

This exploration not only enhances their geometric vocabulary but also strengthens their spatial awareness and problem-solving skills. We encourage you to ask your child about what they've learned and perhaps even find and discuss examples of these shapes and features in your daily surroundings. It is lots of fun to do.

Writing

In Year Two this term we have been focusing on creating narratives. We have stepped through the process of planning a narrative using a story mountain, including a beginning, build-up, dilemma, resolution and ending. From here, we have then worked through writing each stage of the narrative before putting it altogether to create an engaging story.  

A SPECIAL REPORT: Managing Overwhelm

Due to the pandemic, the world we now live in is a very different place. The hyperconnected nature of our current environment means that we are constantly being reminded of the challenges we face via numerous media and social media channels. Our connectivity to the digital world exposes us to a barrage of messages that can leave us feeling overwhelmed. As a result, many children and their parents are reporting higher levels of stress and anxiety.

Our brains have not evolved fast enough to adapt to this digital landscape. The combination of constant access to information and having little control over the situations presented, can be stressful and overwhelming. It is therefore important for adult carers to check in with their children and be aware of what information they may have been exposed to. It may not necessarily be the information itself that is harmful, but more their inability to process and make sense of it. Providing children with the skills and strategies to cope will enable them to flourish and thrive, socially, emotionally and academically.

The blueprint for parenting, based on our own experiences, is no longer fit for purpose in raising kids as citizens of tomorrow. This can be inherently stressful and overwhelming, not only for parents and carers, but children alike. If left untreated or unmanaged, constant stress and anxiety can lead to a number of behavioural issues or health consequences.

This Special Report suggests a number of strategies to help manage any feelings of overwhelm that you or your child may be experiencing.

We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this Special Report, and as always, we welcome your feedback.

If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to a special report:

https://stclaresofficer.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-managing-overwhelm

Edition 4 for 2024 will be sent home with students this week. 

Orders for this edition will close on Friday 7 June

All orders are to be placed via LOOP.  We cannot accept money at school for orders.

Cardinia Shire Council invites everyone to ‘Have your say on the new name for Officer District Park’.

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.