St Jerome's Newsletter
Week 10 - Term 3 (Thursday 24 September)
St Jerome’s Primary School acknowledges and pays respect to the Traditional Owners and Elders, both past and present, of the lands on which this school is located.
Dear Parents and members of our school community
St Jerome
Dear Parents and Guardians,
As we head toward the term break, I take this opportunity to thank everyone for your fabulous support over the past ten weeks, making this such a successful term for all. We have had many highlights, lots of hard work and a term full of amazing opportunities for our students.
Again, this is the perfect reminder of the need to remain vigilant with your child/ren’s use of technology over the holidays, and particularly if they access social media apps. As parents of primary school aged children, I encourage you to review the e-safety guide for further information: https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide
Beacon Cyber Safety App
Further to the e-safety guide is the Beacon Cyber Safety App. With funding from Bankwest, the Telethon Kids Institute has developed a cyber safety educational App designed to keep parents and carers up to date with trusted, tailored information to help you teach your children to interact safely online. The Beacon App is the result of a decade of WA research on children’s technology use, cyber safety, and parent behaviour. The App aims to provide parents and carers with knowledge and skills to help children thrive in a digital world by building capacity to support children to use digital technology in a positive way. The App delivers reliable information backed by research and behavioural science, as well as ideas, strategies, and personalised support.
We encourage parents to check out this resource, which is available to download now for both iOS and Android. More information about the toolkit can be accessed using this link: Beacon Cyber Safety Toolkit Guide
St Jerome's Feast Day - 30 September
In October 2011, I had the joy of travelling to Israel and visiting the Holy Places. When my husband and I visited the Church of St Catherine in Bethlehem, the guide took us to a two-room cave to the side of the main church. I had recently been appointed as Principal at St Jerome’s and I was delighted to learn that this was the place where St Jerome had spent 37 years translating the Gospels from Hebrew into Latin.
On the right hand side of the Church nave, steps lead down to a complex of subterranean chambers. At the end, on the right, are the rooms where Jerome lived and worked. The caves have been identified as the burial places of Jerome (whose remains were later taken to Rome), his successor St Eusebius, and Saints Paula and Eustochium.
St Jerome certainly demonstrated that dedication to the task at hand yields wonderful results. He is often depicted holding a quill pen and a Bible, both very relevant to students of any era.
Happy St Jerome’s Feast Day to everyone.
Have a very relaxed holiday. School resumes on Monday 12 October.
Principal
Class Placement Requests for 2021
A reminder to please consider carefully the letter below on 2021 Class Placements.
Any requests regarding exceptional circumstances must be made in writing by Thursday 15 October.
Kindy Enrolments for 2021 - Important Reminder
Please check that you have enrolled your child for next year, as there is now only one place available.
MJR Focus - to be a ‘Team Player’ both at home and at school.
MJR Focus is to be a Team player both at home and at school.
Here are some videos about Teamwork that you might like to watch with your children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZqFYtWCWXg K-2 Being a team player.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIscHrqOVAY Yrs 3-4 Are you a team player?
Gospel Reflection
Last Sunday’s Gospel ( Matthew18 :21 -35) was focused on Forgiveness and compassion.
You might like to watch these videos with your children and talk about the themes of Forgiveness and compassion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht5AyphBx1w&list=RDr6HgFyD5Bzg&index=3 comic book version yr 3-6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvrgEBJbddI movie version yr 3-6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlkAqNmbj2w animated version yr 1-6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGmfyWLoifs PP - Yr 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSMSqIK08es PP - Yr 2
Charities our students have supported this term
Thank you to all those students who have taken it upon themselves to organise stalls to raise money for a variety of charities. Thank you to all the students who then supported them by participating in the activities and buying tickets and books etc, from the many and varied stalls.
The students should be proud of their efforts.
· Students from 5B raised $318.00 for the Cancer foundation
· Students from 4 Green raised $182.50 Fr Chris’s school in Mozambique
· Students from 4B and 4G raised $101.90 for Native Arc
· Students from 5B were also involved in raising awareness of Coral Bleaching and with Ms Matthews help raised $600.80
· The Student Councillors, with the support of Mrs Alaniz organised a Bookswap for Indigenous Literature and raised $435.95
· Our Lapathon for Lifelink and other charities that we support throughout the year, raised a staggering $5038.75
Thank you to everyone for taking part in our Lapathon this year and for all the support from families and friends. Youo should all be very proud of your effort.
World Peace Day
Two of our wonderful Year Five students, Levi and Kathryn along with Mrs Hoare represented the School at the recent tree planting at Yandi Park to commemorate World Peace Day. At the ceremony the children learnt about the Ginko Biloba trees which were planted as a symbol of peace in our city. Along with the shade they provide and their beauty, they bring hope for the people of Hiroshima. These trees were second generation trees, grown from the seeds of the original Ginko tree that survived the terrible bombing of Hiroshima. This beautiful ceremony was organised by the ‘Mayors for Peace’.
Shoe Box Appeal
Next Term in Weeks 1 and 2 our classrooms will participate in the Shoebox Appeal run by Samaritan's Purse. Children will be invited to bring in a small gift to be packed in a shoebox for a child in need. Details will be sent home through See Saw. You can access further information about this appeal by visiting www.samaritanspurse.org.au
Assistant Principal RE
REMINDER TO BRING WATER BOTTLES
As the weather is beginning to warm up, please remember to bring a bottle of water to school each day. Why water? It is essential to stay hydrated!
It is recommended that:
• Children aged 5 – 8 years drink 1000ml per day (4 big cups) • children aged 9 – 12 years drink 1500ml per day (6 big cups) • young people aged 13+ years drink 2000ml per day (8 big cups).
Bottles of water are sold at the school canteen for those children who have forgotten their bottle.
Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum - Parent Tips
Tip #15 – Have a family rule that mobile phones are not to be in the bedroom after a certain agreed time. Everyone in the family can leave their phones in a central place overnight.
Tip #16 – Teach your child their name, address and phone number. Also teach them that they do not have to give out this information to everyone who asks. It is for use in emergency or unsafe situations.
4 Steps to Helping Your Child Think More Positively
Parents are often frustrated and surprised by children’s negative thinking patterns and the words and actions that develop from this. The fact is most people have negative thoughts, including children and teenagers! It’s part of being human. Have you heard statements from your child, such as… “I don’t want to go to swimming. I’m not good”, or “I can’t do maths. I’m just dumb,” “I don’t want to try football. Everyone will laugh at me”?
Here are some steps to help your child FLIP their thinking to more positive thoughts.
1. Children (and adults!) often confuse thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Before your child is able to challenge unhelpful thoughts, they need to know what they are. Some good ideas are:
· Get out your favourite book with pictures and try to guess what each character is thinking.
· Explain that a thought comes from your head and a feeling comes from your heart and body.
· Ask your child to draw a situation that happened that day, then draw speech bubbles over people’s heads and fill in the thought.
2. Discuss the difference between helpful and unhelpful thoughts. Explain that some thoughts make us feel good, “I love playing with my friends!”, some make us feel bad, “I can’t do anything right,” and some make us feel neutral, “Hmmm. Where are my shoes?”. Giving a name for positive and negative thoughts can be a great way to distinguish between them. Some ideas are:
· Cheerful Chat vs Terrible Talk
· Mr Worry vs Mr Calm
· Negative Nelly vs Happy Chappy
3. Gently challenge the thought by asking questions. Help your child get started with questioning the thoughts that pop into their head. Start by asking open, non-judgmental questions to challenge the negative thoughts. Be detectives in finding the whereabouts of positive thoughts.
· If a friend had the same thought, what advice would you give to them?
· Is there a different way to think about that?
· Has this happened before? How did you handle the situation?
· Is your mind coming up with the worst case scenario? Could the outcome be not so bad?
· If that did happen, how could you handle it?
4. Help them come up with an alternative. Make a list of your child’s most common negative thoughts and together come up with challenges for each one. HINT: Do not come up with unrealistically positive statements, e.g. if a child negative thought is “I hate snakes. I will freak out”, don’t put, “Snakes don’t bother me. I love them.” They will quickly discover the truth. Instead come up with a balanced and manageable statement such as, “I don’t like snakes either, but if I see one I can breathe and walk away.”
Here’s a link to a helpful chart with practical statement suggestions. You could add your own! https://www.confidentlife.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Reframing-chart-for-kids.pdf
Assistant Principal Curriculum
Leave it to Jinx
Uniform News
SHOP CLOSURE: Our shop will be closed on Tuesday (13/10) after the holidays, the first trading day will be Thursday the 15th. We continue to be open on both Tuesdays and Thursdays until the end of term from 8.15am through to 3.30pm.
For anyone wanting to get organized for 2021, feel free to head in and either purchase, or perhaps layby, before the extremely busy times we experience at the end of the year. For children transitioning from Pre-Primary to Year 1 in 2021 the uniform requirements list can be found on our website.
Knitting Club
We have enjoyed supporting Beanies for Babies in the Pacific this term. We thank those members of our community who are also knitting squares for vulnerable babies in KEMH. Can you please hand in your squares in week 1 next term so that we can pass these on to the hospital.
With thanks
Joanna
Library News
The Book Week Parade will be held on Wednesday October 21st, in Week 2. Students are invited to come dressed as their favourite character from a book. They can also dress according to the 2020 theme: Curious Creatures, Wild Minds!
There will be a 9am parade. Further details regarding parent attendance will be provided after the school holidays.
Jackson Bennett-Surtees
Librarian
ALADDIN – COMING SOON!! December 4th. Save the date!
Sports News
Contact Details
Email: admin@stjeromes.wa.edu.au
Website: www.stjeromes.wa.edu.au
Location: 38 Troode Street, Lake Coogee, WA, Australia
Phone: 08 9499 9500