Term 4, Week 2 2023

Principal's Message

It's with great excitement that we welcome you back to school for Term 4. After a well-deserved break, it's time to embark on another exciting journey of learning, growth, and achievement.

A Fresh Start:

Term 4 represents a fresh start, a chance to build on the knowledge and experiences gained in the previous terms. It's an opportunity to set new goals, make new friends, and explore new horizons. Whether you're a returning student or a newcomer to our school community, we're thrilled to have you here.

The Importance of Resilience:

As we begin this term, we want to emphasise the importance of resilience. We've all faced challenges and uncertainties over the past year, but it's our ability to bounce back, adapt, and persevere that truly defines us. This term, we'll continue to foster resilience in our students, helping them develop the skills they need to overcome obstacles and thrive in an ever-changing world by utilising ‘Reboot for Life and Learning’. The 5 faces, 3 brains and power education continues by all staff using this language and appropriate supports for each student as they face challenges at school.

Exciting Opportunities Await:

Term 4 is packed with exciting opportunities. From engaging classroom lessons, extracurricular activities, swimming, Up Day, our Mini Mary’s transition program, and Year 6 graduation; there's something for everyone. We encourage our students to get involved, explore their passions, and embrace new experiences. Keep an eye out for announcements throughout the term, especially those related to 2024 (ie. booklists, school fees, staff list, calendars).

Stay Connected:

Communication is key to a successful school year. We encourage parents and students to stay connected with us. Our teachers and staff are here to support you every step of the way, and we value your feedback and input. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Health and Safety:

The health and safety of our students and staff remain a top priority. We will continue to follow all recommended guidelines to ensure a safe learning environment. Please help us by reminding your children to practice good hygiene, and please keep them home if they are feeling unwell.

A Reminder of Our School Values:

Finally, let's not forget the values that define our school community and we will continue to encourage our students to demonstrate the St Mary’s Way to RISE UP in their actions and interactions every day.

In light of the tragegy and unrest that is happening right now in the Middle East, I would like acknowledge how thankful that I am that I live in a country of peace, dignity and hope. As a community I encourage you to pray for the people being affected through loss of life, loss of loved ones, or loss of their homes to find the strength to endure the challenges they are facing and hope for immediate peace within this area. 

We are confident that Term 4 will be a rewarding and successful period of learning and growth. Together, as a strong and supportive school community, we can achieve great things. Welcome back, and let's make this term one to remember!

Here's to a fantastic Term 4!

Emma Timmins

Principal

Religious Life of the School

During the recent spring break our delightful APRE Mrs Sharon Young endeavoured on a Catholic Faith Pilgrimage to Israel.  Walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ exploring her deep connection to biblical stories around the Gospels.   

The pilgrimage began at the Dead Sea where Moses looked over the promise land and Mrs Young also floated! Next she visited the believed Baptismal site of Jesus by John the Baptist and celebrated mass with Bishop McGuckin. What an amazing experience! A spiritually immersive journey that took her to such places as the Sea of Galilee, the Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters of the old city of Jerusalem, the western wailing wall, and seeing the original Bethesda pools where Jesus healed the blind man. 

Petra, one of the new 7 Wonders of the World didn't disappoint and was awe inspiring. A spiritually immersive journey that took her to such places as the Sea of Galilee, the Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters of the old city of Jerusalem, the western wailing wall, and seeing the original Bethesda pools where Jesus healed the blind man. Nazareth, Cana and Mt Tabor allowed Mrs Young to reflect upon Jesus' 1st miracle and where he grew up. Then as they explored Bethlehem their journey took them to an underprivledged school and to the Grotto of the Holy Manger - where Jesus was born. 

Jerusalem was the final part to Mrs Young's pilgrimage and walking in the footsteps of Jesus. This time was a blessing for Mrs Young to spiritually connect to her faith, reflect upon her faith and give thanks for her faith. We are super excited for her return and listening to those moments she experienced! 

Mrs Young Follows in the Footsteps of Jesus!

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Curriculum

As we move into an increasingly online world, the issue of cyberbullying becomes a greater concern for us, especially for our young ones. Cyberbullying occurs when someone uses the internet to deliberately upset, scare, or threaten someone else, particularly those under 18 years old. The eSafety Commissioner website is a helpful resource that provides guidance and support for both parents and kids facing online safety issues. It offers targeted advice, reporting mechanisms, and useful information to help navigate online challenges. More information can be found at this link: Parents | eSafety Commissioner

Recognising Cyberbullying: Cyberbullying can wear many masks:

• Sending hurtful messages or images
• Spreading harmful gossip
• Excluding or humiliating others online
• Creating fake accounts for deception or ridicule

Spotting the signs early can be crucial:

• Emotional distress after internet or mobile use
• Personality changes such as becoming withdrawn
• Avoidance of school or social activities
• Being secretive about online interactions

Responding to Cyberbullying: Your reaction forms the basis level of your child’s comfort:

• Stay Calm: Ensure your child feels safe to discuss online issues with you.
• Assess the Situation: Understand the gravity and empathise with your child's experience.
• Professional Help: If the situation escalates, seek support from school or external professionals.

Preventative Steps:

• Preserve Evidence: Take screenshots of abusive content for reporting purposes.
• Report the Bullying: Report the incidents to the online platform and, if necessary, to the eSafety Commissioner. The link to the Reporting Forms can be found here: Report forms | eSafety Commissioner
• Avoid Retaliation: Guide your child not to respond to provocations, as it could escalate the situation.
• Privacy Settings: Help your child configure privacy settings to secure their online presence.

Encouraging Positive Connections: Foster a balanced digital diet and healthy offline interactions:

• Engage your child in extracurricular activities like sports or art, which can provide respite away from online issues.
• Encourage relationships with extended family and friends, reminding them of the warm, supportive community they are part of.

Our joint efforts against cyberbullying are critical to ensure that our children navigate the digital world safely and confidently. Your proactive involvement, combined with our school’s support, paves the path towards a nurturing and secure digital environment for our children.

Have a wonderful fortnight,

Jessica Harper

Middle Leader

Positive School Culture

Class RISE UP Award

Congratulations to our first two winning classes for Term 4, 1B and 4/5H! 

1B received the trophy in Week 1 for being the most consistent class in lining up after break times each day. This class worked as a team and proudly displayed the trophy in their class for the week. 

4/5H received the trophy in Week 2 for demonstrating random acts of kindness throughout the school. Staff and students were consulted and the overwhelming majority of votes came in for Year 4/5H. Fantastic work!

Student Awards

Congratulations to the following students who received an Award for Friday, 13th October 2023:

Spotted Rising Up

Congratulations to all the students who have been 'Spotted Rising Up'. The prize winners were Wyatt H and Bailey C, which was announced at Assembly on Friday, 13th October.

Please celebrate with your child if they have brought home a Spotted Rising Up slip. It means that they were 'spotted' displaying one or more of the RISE UP positive behaviours. 

Administration

School Fees for 2024

2024 Booklist Prices

Student Travel Rebates for Buses

Library News

Book Club

Our final Scholastic Book Club for 2023 is now open and brochures were sent home to students this week.  Orders must be submitted by Thursday 19 October. 

In this issue you’ll find award-winning books and bestsellers, as well as old and new favourites. They span a wide range of children’s reading levels and interests and many are inexpensive costing as little as $3.

It is easy to order. The Book Club LOOP platform for parents allows you to pay by credit card. Your child’s order is submitted directly to school safe and sound and the books will be delivered to class. You can place your child’s order at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or using the LOOP app, which can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.

Cash orders can be returned to the school, together with the order form at the back of the brochure.

As this is our last Book Club for the year, it is a great opportunity to let your children choose books that they would like to read over the summer holidays.  Books also make great gifts for Christmas!  Each order helps earn free books and resources for our school and we value the ongoing support of our school community.  Happy reading!

Readers’ Challenge

Our teams of readers from Years 3 and 4 are eagerly preparing for the next Readers’ Challenge, which will be held at Warwick State High School at 4pm on Thursday 2 November.  The Challenge is a fantastic opportunity to develop comprehension skills, with students working together in teams to answer a series of questions on the three titles that they have read.  We look forward to a fun afternoon of competition with other local schools across the region.  Parents are welcome to attend.

Please note that students are only required to read Chapter 3 of The Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill.

Sport

Qld State Athletics Trials

This week St Mary's Warwick had two of our students represent the Darling Downs team at the State Athletics Trials held in Brisbane.  These trials hosted a total of 12 different regions across Queensland with 3 or 4 being selected out of up to 48 participants in each sporting event.  Our Warwick superstars, Patrick Kajewski and Samantha Groves competed their hearts out in their events and we are extremely proud of their amazing efforts.  Their results from the day are as follows:

Patrick - Discus - throwing a whopping personal best of 29.98m and making the Top 8 overall.

Samantha - High Jump - jumping 1.18m and coming 18th overall.

Samantha - Long Jump - also coming 18th overall.

Congratulations Patrick and Samantha, you have done us proud and you should be very proud of your achievements!

Tuckshop

Tuckshop Helpers Needed !

We are still in need of more regular tuckshop helpers on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.  Please consider this especially if you order from the tuckshop. If you are able to volunteer your time for either of these days it would much appreciated, so please contact the school office.

Parent Network

Thank you to the parents who joined Sarah Ralston, creator of 'Reboot for Life and Learning' last week to discuss "Power" and how this affects each child's life, and how as parents you can support your child through their challenges. 

The takeaways from this evening for parents were:

1. Understanding the concept of Power and the different types: Power over, Power under and Power with.

2. Acknowledging the misconceptions of bullying and having greater clarity of the definition. 

3. Recognising the importance of connections within each child's various social circles. 

If you would like further information, please do not hesitate to contact your child's class teacher. 

Parenting Ideas

Parenting Made Easy(er)

At one point, you were probably feeling pretty optimistic about raising kids, despite the overwhelming evidence that most parents struggle with parenting. Perhaps, like me, you were confident that your kids wouldn’t turn out like the other kids in your extended family or neighbourhood. Maybe you were plucky enough to actually share some parenting advice with other parents who were having a tough time, even though you still didn’t even have children of your own! (I may have done that too!)

But if you’re also like me, it’s likely that your children arrived and showed you that even though you can drive a car, maintain employment, cook, clean, and essentially be an adult reasonably well most of the time, when it comes to raising kids… it could be a step too far.

Parenting is a lot like going on a hike. You can pack all the right gear, read up on the trail, and even hire a guide, but there are always unexpected twists and turns that you can't quite prepare for. As you have already discovered, nothing can quite prepare you for the constant exhaustion that comes with having a tiny human who never seems to sleep. Or the never-ending battle against clutter and mess - from texta scribbled on the wall to Lego pieces scattered all over the floor, it can feel like a never-ending game of cleanup. And trying to reason with a toddler who has decided that they absolutely must wear their superhero cape to bed… wearying. Or the frustration of trying to get out the door on time with a child who insists on wearing their shoes on the wrong feet - or wearing no shoes at all. Potty training and dealing with picky eaters add to the challenge. Big kids offer opportunities for challenges in all kinds of different ways, equally exhausting, and equally tricky.

Parental Burnout

A 42-nation study published in 2021 shows high levels of stress in parenting is leading to parenting burnout at record levels, with the most individualistic countries showing the highest levels of stress. Society - that is… us - doesn’t support what makes families happy, kids flourish, and parents well. 

But there are things we can do. This article outlines three essential elements for creating a happy family. Consider it a ‘back-to-basics’ reminder for those times when you’re over it, befuddled, and just want answers now.

Love

Ok. So it sounds too simple, right? What do I really mean when I speak about ‘love’? There are a couple of sayings I’ve used for decades to outline what this is about. First off, 

To a child, LOVE is spelled T-I-M-E.

If this statement is true (and I believe it is universally correct), what does ‘Hurry Up’ say to a child? Or ‘Calm Down’ or ‘Stop it’?

Every one of us has said those things, often on a rushed morning when a child is refusing to cooperate, we’re feeling pressure, and the clock is ticking. 

As an adult, if someone said those things to you - hurry up, calm down, stop it - would that improve your relationship and your behaviour? Or is it possible that things might escalate?

Slowing things down is counter-intuitive. However, experience has shown me that in close to 100% of cases, staying calm, pausing, and spending time with a child who’s feeling challenged (or providing you with a challenge!) makes all the difference. 

Perhaps the main reason it works so well is because of the second saying I love to share when I talk about this topic:

Just like dollars are the currency of our economy, connection is the currency of our relationships.

Slowing down allows us to connect with our children better. We connect when our child feels seen, heard, and valued. This will typically mean we have stopped what we’re doing, looked them in the eyes, and listened to them with the same intensity we might listen to the broadcast of the lottery numbers when each number corresponds with what’s on our hypothetical lottery ticket!

We’re often inclined to be dismissive, and we turn away with a well-intentioned “you’ll be ok sweetheart.” From time to time we become annoyed and disapproving, turning against our children with anger, saying “that’s it, I’ve had enough! No more screens/time with friends etc. for you till Monday!”

As justified as your anger and frustration towards this inconvenient child feels, as parents, we need to recognise that both of these responses rupture the relationship we have with our children. Our child comes to feel as though we don’t understand (even when they’re in the wrong). They feel stupid and incompetent. And they feel as though we’re always trying to be in control.

Studies indicate that we’ll do better in our family relationships when we (counter-intuitively) show more love when our kids are disobedient, challenging, or overwhelmed. It goes like this:

1. Stay level and balanced.
2. Name the emotion you’re seeing in your child. (“You’re having a really rough time, huh?”) 
3. Ask them if they want some space or they want you near them.
4. Give them the time they need to feel safe and pull things together.
5. Invite them to work with you on a solution. (“What should we do to make this right?”)

Note. This is a super simplified version of the process. It will take some practice. But it outlines a general map of how to get from emotionally overwhelmed to connected and then focused on making things better. And you’ll note that this process keeps the relationship intact, helps the child feel like we believe in them (so they’re feeling capable and competent), and gives them a sense of control (so they don’t feel like they have to fight with you about things).

There are other ways that we show love too: 

• It’s when we smile when our child enters the room (try it). 
• It’s when we squeeze them as we walk by them. 
• It’s when we walk to them before we speak, rather than shouting from one room to the next.
• It’s when we see them doing one of their chores and we go and help them with it.
• It’s when we remind them that we love them.
• It’s when we share a joke, text them (if they have a phone) just to say we’re thinking of them, or share a story about our day with them because we know they’ll like it.
• It’s bedtime snuggles, treats at the local cafe on a Saturday morning, a movie night, or a bike ride.

At the heart of all of these are those two critical elements: time and connection; slowing down and seeing, hearing, and valuing.

Next time things are going bonkers, take a beat and try it. You’ll see things change for the better more often than not.

Limits

There has been more ink spilt on the topic of kids and limits than almost any other parenting issue. I’ve written entire books on the topic. For now, I’m going to focus on just a couple of things:

1. We fundamentally misunderstand what discipline means. 
2. Our focus should be on helping, not hurting. 
3. Collaboration is the ultimate way forward.

Let’s start with definitions. Look up discipline in the dictionary and one of the first definitions it will give you is punishment. And… that’s how most parents define discipline. When a child requires ‘discipline’ it means they’re going to experience punishment (often euphemistically called ‘consequences’ - which is the same thing in this case).

However, this hasn’t always been the case. In Webster’s 1828 dictionary, discipline is defined as education; instruction; cultivation and improvement. 

In short, discipline is about helping.

Punish is the word we most often associate with discipline, so let’s consider its meaning. The word punish means ‘to subject to pain, loss, confinement… as a penalty for some offence, transgression, or fault.’ Or it means ‘to inflict a penalty’ or ‘to abuse, mistreat, or hurt’.

In a word, to punish is to hurt.

So… what do we do with our children when they require discipline? Do we help them or do we hurt them? What might work best?

Decades of studies have shown that hurting is ineffective. In fact, it’s counterproductive. 

If we really want to help our children, we do it best by working with them rather than doing things to them. To help, I’ve developed the 3 Es of Effective Discipline: Explore, Explain, and Empower.

When we explore, we walk through the steps I’ve outlined in ‘Love’, the first section of this article. It’s really about time-in, together, connecting. When we understand where our child is struggling, we move to explain.

When we explain, we keep it short and simple. Most of the time our children already know what is expected. So we restate, “You know, and I know, that hitting your siblings is not ok. We’re always working on managing our feelings and asking for help if we need it.”

Then, assuming they feel understood and we know they get our expectations loud and clear, we empower. This does not mean we let them decide what should happen. It means we invite their ideas on how to move forward, and offer gentle collaboration and guidance to help them figure things out. It might mean they apologise to someone who’s been hurt, make restitution for something lost, broken, or stolen, or simply promise to do better next time. 

This process ensures that relationships are kept strong, children know we trust their innate ability to figure things out, and have a sense of control over outcomes. It’s the perfect trifecta. 

Plus, discipline decisions developed this way lead to greater buy-in from kids, and a deeper level of intrinsic motivation. Kids feel trusted and capable. 

Laughter

We tend to take parenting pretty seriously a lot of the time. And when that happens, we easily turn into cranky (or tired) parents. Parenting with fun in mind can be tiring. Yet…

Laughter is a great form of stress relief! No joke ;)

A high quality belly laugh stimulates your heart, lungs and muscles, and increases the endorphins that are released by your brain. It eases your stress/response system and helps you feel more relaxed. And according to the Mayo Clinic the long term benefits of loads of laughter include improved immune function, pain relief, increased life satisfaction, and greater happiness (the last one there is kind of obvious right?).

How do we get more laughter at home? Here are a few of my favourite suggestions:

• Rough and tumble play (but be careful to make sure it doesn’t end in tears!)
• Music and dancing - even in the kitchen, or when cleaning up
• Simple games like ‘spotto’, the yes/no game, or word association games
• Outings like a ride, walk, swim, kicking a ball, etc.
• Concerts at home where the kids are the stars of the show
• Spending time with friends
• Camping

Most families have something they love to do for fun. Laughter is an umbrella term for not taking life too seriously - and these ideas are just some of the ways that you can make this happen.

Make family life fun

Let’s not pretend… raising a family brings a certain amount of stress and challenge. Kids push boundaries. We feel exhausted and stretched. And sometimes everything simply feels like it demands effort. Building a life full of love and laughter (with appropriate and carefully developed limits) is a recipe for making things that little bit easier, and perhaps feeling optimistic about how things will turn out after all.

https://www.happyfamilies.com.au/

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