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Dear Parents and Carers
Advance Notice - Please mark you Calendars
Susan McLean – Cyber Safety Expert will be visiting St Clare's on Monday 29 July.
Susan will be running workshops with the Year 3 – 6 students at school and will also have a Parent Session on this night at 7pm.
Carpark Works Update
If the weather is favourable the line marking will occur in the carpark today and the final pieces for the permanent L-Z Kiss and Drop area should be finished this week. So all going well we should be able to relocate to the new permanent L-Z Kiss and Drop area very soon.
We take this opportunity to remind families that our carpark is one way with entry from Gate 2 and exit via Gate 5.
Thank you to everyone for your patience as we complete this project which will provide a safe area for our students and staff for drop off and pick up each day.
Upcoming Dates
Monday 17 June
- Years 3 to 6 Assembly at 2.30pm
Wednesday 19 June
- Plaper Free Day
Monday 24 June
- Year 4 Incursion
- Years 2, 3 and 4 Assembly at 2.30pm
Tuesday 25 June
- Year 1 Excursion to Legoland
Wednesday 26 June
- Year 4 Mass at St Patrick's
Thursday 27 June
- Year 3 Incursion
Friday 28 June
- Last Day of Term 3, students finish at 3.10pm
- Pizza and PJ Day
First Holy Communion
A reminder to all Catholic families with students (who are already baptised Catholics) in Year 4 to commit to First Holy Communion preparation for your child/children. Your first commitment begins with completing a survey to say you wish for your child/children to receive the Sacrament of First Holy Communion in 2024. The link for this survey is here. This must be completed this week.
Confirmation
A reminder to all families of students in Year 6 who are baptised Catholics and have received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Sacrament of First Holy Communion that you need to register for the Sacrament of Confirmation this year. Your first commitment begins with completing a survey to say you wish for your child/children to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in 2024. The link for this survey is here. This must be completed this week.
On Tuesday the 4th of June, the student leaders, Mrs Hiller & Mrs Bourke celebrated Holy mass with the SFX community. Mr Escobar (the RE leader for SFX) welcomed us and took us to the hall where we attended mass for Reconciliation Week. We sang hymns, read God’s word and shared the Eucharist together. All student leaders and all Officer SFX students and some teachers participated in the mass very respectfully and calmly. Overall, the visit was amazing and I loved the mass - Leah Xavier
Last Friday we entered a boys and girls soccer team into the Officer District soccer tournament for the very first time. It was an amazing day and our students represented our school wonderfully well.
When: Wednesday 19th June 2024
Why: Let’s make St Clare’s paper and plastic free for the day. We want to improve our environment and reduce the waste at our school.
How: Please don’t send any food wrappers in your child’s lunchbox for the day.
The teachers will also be trying to reduce their paper use for the day.
From the Sustainability Leaders
Brodie and Karman
Parents and Carers - If you can spare any time to cover some new books could you please email gverstraete@stclaresofficer.catholic.edu.au Gab Verstraete. We are happy to show you how to cover the books if this is something you haven’t done before.
We are happy to provide a space at school if a team woud like to come together to cover books after drop off in the mornings.
In our ‘Neighbours to All’ Religion Unit this term, the Year 5s have been working on an ‘Awareness Project’. This has demonstrated their understanding of spreading awareness to our environment and taking care of our global home, Earth. They explored the Catholic Social Teaching Principle ‘Care for our Common Home’ and made connections to The Common Good.
These are some of the amazing posters they created! We are very proud of them!
SCHOOL FEES
LATE ARRIVAL AND EARLY DEPARTURE
Students arriving after 9am must be sigend in at the school office so should be accompanied by an adult/carers who can do so.
Likewise students being collected early must be signed out via PAM or at the school office prior to be collected by a parent. Only parents are able to collect students early - please provide the school with details if someone other than a parent will be collecting them during the school day.
Collection during the lunch break - 1.30pm to 2.10pm can be difficult. Therefore if necessay to collect students early we ask they you do so either before 1.30pm or after 2.10pm.
We remind you that every minute absent from class adds up and does impact learning time.
REPORTING AN ABSENCE
To report your child's absence please do so via PAM, email absent@stclaresofficer.catholic.edu.au or call 5940 6777
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.
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 seek medical or professional help.
Here is the link to the Blended Families edition of SchoolTV
https://stclaresofficer.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/blended-families
CDFpay is a secure, safe and efficient method for ordering and paying for items through school.
Below you will find instructions for setting up your CDFpay account both if you are an existing parent "already have a CDF pay account" or a new parent.
Here is the link to head to our school CDFpay shop St Clare's CDFpay Shop
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.