Dear Parents and Carers

As we enter this special time of Advent we share with you a message from Bishop Greg

As indicated last week the end of the 2024 school year is approaching very quickly.

"Up Day" will occur on Monday 9 December, students will be in their 2025 Learning Group from 9am to 10.50am.  Therefore in preparation, this Friday your child will come home with the information around their LG and teacher for 2025.  As you can appreciate a significant amount of time and consideration is taken on placement of every student to provide them with the best learning environment.  

The 2025 Student Leader speeches are being held from 11.30am to 1pm on Monday 9 December.  Parents are welcome to attend.

On this day also our current Year 6 students attending SFX will attend the Orientation Day for Year 7 2025.  Please ensure you complete the notification through PAM or contact the school to let us know you child is attending Orientation.  Likewise, for those attending other Secondary Schools please ensure you notify us when they are attending their Orientation Day(s).

The final 2024 Semster 2 reports for students will be available to parents via PAM on Friday 13 December.  

Our Whole School End of Year Mass will be held on the last day of school Tuesday 17 December at 9am.  Families are invited and encouraged to join us.  This will be a busy morning as we have been notified by Cardinia Council that the Official Opening of the Officer Regional Park on Lansell Drive.  There will be traffic management and inspectors in the neighbouring streets so please leave sufficient time to get obtain a park in an appropriate area (they will be patrolling for vehicles parked in "No Standing" zones). Traffic movement in and out of Lansell Drive will also be impacted for the day.  See the diagram below.

Advent  - Week 1

Luke 21:25-28. 34-36

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke

Your redemption is near at hand.

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; men dying of fear as they await what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.

‘Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will be sprung on you suddenly, like a trap. For it will come down on every living man on the face of the earth. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.’

Reflecting on the above Gospel you might like to discuss the following with your child/children:

What are some things that you look forward to?

How do you prepare for them?

How much do you look forward to Christmas?

Over the next four weeks how can we prepare for Christmas?

Jesus asks us to watch out in Advent so that we can prepare for his coming. How can we ‘watch out’?

Source: Liturgy Help

In order to plan for the 2025 SSV Swimming Carnival, we are seeking information regarding the swimming ability of students who are in years 4, 5 and 6 in 2025 

If your child can competently swim 50 metres non-stop using any of the following strokes - freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke or butterfly - and would like to be considered for the St Clare’s District Swimming Team in 2025, please complete the link below, ensuring you attach the following documents to verify your child’s capability:

• Letter from your current or past swim squad coach verifying your child’s competency
• Dated copy of the highest proficiency certificate awarded to your child from your child’s swim school stating his/her ability to swim 50 metres non-stop.

Registration Link

Your child CANNOT be considered for selection without these items of documentation. If you have sent these documents in previous years, you are asked to send them again as new copies are required for 2025. 

The registration and documentation must be provided by Friday 13 December 2024

Congratulations to Ciara Chong whose Artwork was the winning entry for the DOSCEL Christmas Card Competition.

We are very excited to share her amazing picture.  

Good News: New CDFpay mobile app coming soon!

St Clare's will be using the new CDFpay mobile app for online events & fundraising purchases at our school from the start of Term 1 2025. 

What do you need to do?

• Keep using your current CDFpay login to access CDFpay until the end of Term 4 2024.
• Use up as much of your CDFpay account balance as possible before the end of Term 4 2024. We will let you know the process for account balance transfers at the end of the year.   
• Keep an eye out for further communications advising you when the new CDFpay mobile app is available to download for our school, and how to set up your new account.

Can I continue using the current CDFpay platform in Term 1 2025?

No, the current CDFpay platform will no longer be available, and you will be directed to register for a new CDFpay account.

We look forward to providing you with a further update soon.

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.