WHY ATTENDENCE MATTERS

One of the most powerful ways to prepare a child for success in life is through regular school attendance. It is very important to encourage your children to regularly attend school, as it will lead to better performance not only in school but throughout their lives. Encouraging consistent attendance helps your child get better grades, develop healthy life habits, avoid dangerous behaviour and have a better chance of graduating from high school.

It can be difficult for teachers to teach the class and build their students skills when a number of children are regularly absent. When students are not frequently absent, their grades and reading skills often improve—even among those students who are struggling in school. Students who frequently attend school feel more connected to their community and develop strong social skills and friendships, which are important life skills. These students also are much more likely to graduate from high school.

Just two absences per month, even if excused, can increase the chances that a student will drop out of high school or have other negative impacts. The effects of absences are noticeable as early as Kindergarten.

High school students who on average miss an average of two days per month struggle to keep up with their peers academically, resulting in lower grades and below grade level reading skills. However, when students read on grade level by the end of third grade, (when students stop learning to read and start reading to learn) they increase their chances of graduating high school and attending university three to four times more than their peers who struggle with reading.

Each year in February we hold a census from the Government to check our attendance numbers for our students in our community. It is quite alarming to find that a number of our students are not meeting the guidelines set by the government. Students need to attend 90% of the year, if children fall below this number they are in breach. To put this in perspective you need to have less than 9 absent days per year to comply. Also, there is a requirement that all absences are explained. When the Government completes the census, they look at each of our reports and notice how many children are not above the 90% and are in fact well below the necessary quota. Also, there are many absences that are not explained.

Due to this as a school we have decided to look at attendance every term in week five and week ten. We are required by law to have written explanations for absentee days by students. I appreciate you are the parents of your child but by law I am required to follow up on each family. This census is linked to funding and government regulations. We need to ensure that we have an explanation for every absence from school. These audits are now part of our life every year so please take the time to follow up with a written explanation. I appreciate that some children have underlying heath issues and when you have the explanation this will allow them to have the time off school that they require, and you are within the guidelines. Also, if a child is medically sick then they need to stay home this is an acceptable absence, but we will still require an explanation.

TRIPLE P PARENTING WORKSHOPS

This amazing organisation hold wonderful workshops for the community. The first workshop was on Positive Parenting, and it was to be held I February unfortunately we only had three parents who were attending therefore it had to be cancelled.

Phone: 9274 5101 or mshub@mundaring.wa.gov.au to register your interest

Triple P have been able to reschedule the Power of Positive Parents for May 5th we will send out a flyer soon. These workshops are to give parents practical solutions to raising happy children.

KINDERGARTEN OUTDOOR SPACE

During the April holidays work will begin in the Kindy area, we will see the sand pit and bike paths take form. It may take a few extra weeks to complete but we will begin the transformation in this area.

ATTENTION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR

Attention seeking is the most common form of misbehaviour in children, and it can take many forms: eating problems, 24 hour a day questioning, showing off, constant interruptions, whining and tantrums. This kind of behaviour is very effective; it is annoying, hard to ignore and is often unknowingly reinforced by parents’ responses.

How do you know if your child’s misbehaviour is purely seeking your attention? If you are annoyed or irritated by a particular behaviour, there’s a good chance it is designed to get your attention. Ask yourself if the behaviour would stop if you ignored it. If the answer is yes, the behaviour is usually attention seeking because this type of behaviour requires feedback to continue.

Children who engage in attention seeking behaviours want to keep their parents (or teachers) busy and fully occupied. Try the following to reduce this kind of behaviour in your children:

• Ignore the behaviour as much as possible. As soon as you respond, either positively or negatively, the child has won. Children will often settle for second best….negative attention is better than no attention from their perspective.
• Help the attention seeker to feel useful. Give them little jobs to do and thank them for their help. They will seek this avenue more often if they feel needed.
• Provide lots of positive attention…..play with them, talk to them, encourage, praise and value their efforts and contributions.
• Catch children being good…..they need to get the message that cooperative, positive behaviour gets them more attention than negative, attention seeking behaviour.
• Plan to spend some time with each of your children. Sometimes children exhibit attention seeking behaviour because they feel a brother or sister is receiving all the attention (this is often the case when a new baby arrives in the house).

God Bless

Paula Mackenzie

Principal

PARENT TEACHER MEETINGS

Parent Teacher meetings will take place during Week 9 and Week 10. We will be using the same booking system as 2022, called Parent Teacher Online (PTO). A link and instructions will be sent out via SEQTA during Week 8 to book a time for your interview. Please be aware that the scheduled interview times will be 10 minutes only. Please note that if you miss your chosen time slot you will need to contact the classroom teacher and try to reschedule for another day and time.

INTERIM REPORTS - UPDATE

Interim reports will be made ‘live’ on Friday 24 March (Week 8). Your child’s Interim Report will be available via SEQTA and will be able to be accessed the same way you access the current end of semester reports. Please make sure you can log into SEQTA Engage.

SWIMMING LESSONS: PRE-PRIMARY - YEAR 2

Interm swimming lessons for Pre-Primary to Year 2 will start Term 1, Week 9, Monday 27 March and finish Week 10, Thursday 6 April. An Interm Swimming Enrolment Form is being sent home with your child this week.

Please complete the Enrolment Form and return it to your child’s classroom teacher by Friday 17 March.

Your child's classroom teacher will keep you updated on clothing, times etc.

• Location - Aqua Tots Swimming School, Maida Vale (21 Gooseberry Hill Rd, Maida Vale)
• Date - Commencing on Monday 27 March 2023
• Times - Still waiting for official confirmation (I will let you know as soon as I know).
• Cost - $0.00 - Leave this section blank - Interm swimming fees are included in your school fees.
• If your child has a disability or they will ‘not’ be swimming, please notify your classroom teacher immediately.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child's classroom teacher.

PLAYING AFTER SCHOOL

Children must be under the supervision of their parents and NOT on the playground equipment before or after school, this includes playing with balls on the courts, unless specific permission is granted for after-school sporting activities. We please ask that after you have collected your child at the end of the day from the classroom, to leave the school grounds promptly. ALL PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT IS OUT OF BOUNDS. Can you please ensure that family members or friends that are picking up your children are made aware of this as well.

TEACHING EMPATHY TO STUDENTS

Empathy is a very important emotional skill. As parents and teachers, it’s our role to teach our children empathy. Although some people have a natural tendency to be more understanding and empathetic toward others, our role is to promote empathy in all children.

Regardless of their natural starting point, children can all improve their ability to put themselves in another person’s shoes. This will help them build better relationships

A person’s level of empathy can tell us a lot about a person’s emotional intelligence. If they are more empathetic, they’re usually more confident. If you can be empathetic, it usually means you feel good enough about yourself to be able to share it with others.

Some things to remember about empathy

• Empathy develops at a very early age, thorough modelling. Modelling uses a mechanism in the brain called neuro-mirroring. What happens in the brain is that it recreates the action of the person we’re watching, and we therefore feel what they’re feeling. This is how we naturally develop empathy. If what we mirror is too overwhelming, the brain automatically shuts down/minimizes the mirroring to help us cope. Even though all this happens subconsciously, we can help our children develop positive empathy by choosing what to expose them to.
• The science of empathy works with grownups just as well as it works with kids.
• It’s important to remember that it’s impossible to be empathic all the time. At certain times we can emotionally afford to be more empathic than others.
• Empathy sits on a scale. Some people show more empathy, and some people show less. This is natural.
• The best way to teach empathy is to model empathy.

Although some of the empathy we can model is non-verbal, verbal cues can give us a lot of insight into empathy. If you don’t hear your kids using empathic language, it’s simply because they haven’t heard it from the adults in their lives. Use empathic phrases more often if you want to hear them from your kids.

Model empathy

Any time you want to teach a skill to a child, it’s important to model it yourself. This way, the child understands what empathy looks like, sounds like, and feels like. Plus, it’s easier to teach a skill that you’ve already mastered yourself.

Remember to model empathy even when you’re upset with or giving consequences to your child. This reinforces the idea that empathy can and should be used even when you’re feeling disappointed, hurt, or angry. The more children receive empathy, the more likely they are to offer it to others.

Discuss emotions

Talk openly about emotions rather than dismissing or burying them. Let’s say your child is scared of the dark. Instead of saying, “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” explore the child’s feelings: “Are you scared of the dark? What scares you about the dark?”

If your child doesn’t like another child, don’t immediately say, “That’s wrong,” but ask why the child feels that way. This can lead to a discussion about the other child’s actions and why the child might be acting that way (e.g., They just moved to a new school and are feeling angry because they miss their old school and their friends).

Never punish a child for feeling sad or angry. Make it clear that all emotions are welcome and learn to manage them in a healthy way through discussion and reflection.

Help out at home, in the community, or globally

Helping others develop kindness and caring. It can also give children the opportunity to interact with people of diverse backgrounds, ages, and circumstances, making it easier to show empathy for all people.

Read through our list of activities that make a difference at home, in the community, and globally, then pick an activity or two and get started.

Praise empathetic behaviour

When your child shows empathy for others, praise the behaviour. Focusing on and encouraging empathetic behaviour encourages more of it in the future.

Make the praise specific: “You brought your sister a Band-Aid for her scraped knee so she could feel better. That was so kind and helpful!”

THE RESILIENCE SHIELD PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY

On Tuesday 7 March our school hosted an inciteful day with two other Catholic schools.

The Resilience Shield Pty Ltd (‘TRS’) is a 100% Australian veteran-owned business committed to improving individual and collective resilience. Their proprietary Resilience Shield model was developed by Dr Dan Pronk, Ben Pronk DSC, and Tim Curtis, all of whom are Australian SAS veterans with combat experience in theatres including Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Leone and Timor Leste as well as on counter terrorism/ special recovery operations. Their service experience drove a deep desire to understand exactly what resilience was and – crucially – how it could be developed and improved.

Teachers were introduced to the elements of The Resilience Shield.

The Resilience Shield is a dynamic, multi-factorial and modifiable model that identifies the key characteristics of resilience and provides a framework for defense against the chronic and acute stressors that impact all of us on a daily basis. The day opened with a discussion of why life is not fair, why there is no happiness without struggle and the virtues of going – always – a little further, before conducting a detailed analysis of the concept of resilience and the impacts of stress. Participants were then introduced to the Resilience Shield model in great detail, with a section of the day dedicated to each ‘layer’ of the Shield - Innate, Mind, Body, Social, Professional and Adaptation.

BUILDING RESILIENCE IN YOUNG CHILDREN

Building resilience in young children is an important aspect of their development. Here are some tips that can help:

1. Encourage self-esteem: Children who have a strong sense of self-worth and self-esteem are more likely to be resilient. Encourage your child to take on challenges, make mistakes and learn from them, and celebrate their achievements.
2. Teach problem-solving skills: Teach your child how to identify and solve problems on their own. This will help them develop the skills they need to handle challenges and setbacks.
3. Foster independence: Encourage your child to try new things, take risks, and make their own decisions. This will help them build confidence and become more self-sufficient.
4. Model resilience: Children learn by example. If you handle challenges and setbacks with grace and determination, your child will be more likely to do the same.
5. Teach stress management techniques: Teach your child simple stress management techniques like deep breathing, meditation, and physical activity. These skills will help them manage stress and maintain their emotional balance.
6. Encourage healthy relationships: Surround your child with positive, supportive people and help them develop strong relationships with friends and family members.
7. Provide a safe and stable environment: A stable, supportive home environment is crucial for building resilience in children. Provide your child with a safe, predictable, and loving environment where they can feel secure and valued.

Remember, building resilience take time and effort, but it is an important investment in your child's future.

If you have placed an online order through QuickCliq and your child is unwell or the canteen is closed, you MUST cancel your order before the cut off time of 9.00am by going online and following these instructions:

Log into your QuickCliq account -> click Active/Cancel order -> Scroll to the right -> click Cancel against the order.

Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays are the busiest days for the canteen. If you can't help for the entire day, that's not a problem, we would be grateful if you could help between the hours of 11.15am to 12.30pm. As a "thank you" for your help, the canteen will provide you with lunch, a cold drink and bottomless cups of tea/coffee. Please call into the canteen and have a chat with Kylie (our canteen manager) to let her know when you are available.

Uniform Shop Opening Hours

Monday 8.00am till 10.00am

Wednesday 1.30pm till 3.30pm

ONLINE UNIFORM ORDER FORM

If you need to place an order please click the below link, complete the form and either sent it to uniform@stbrigidsms.wa.edu.au or alternatively you can send the form in with your student to be handed into the office.

https://stbrigidsms.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Uniform-Order-form-2022.pdf