T2 W7 2021 Newsletter

Newsletter #9 Term 2 Week 7 Friday June 4 2021

In this issue...

Principal's Message Faith for the Journey What's The Principal Reading?

Merit Award Winners Key Dates Assistant Principal's News Wellbeing News P&F News Community News

St Michael's School is a school community founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1914.

We aspire to be a secure, caring learning environment where commitment to Faith, Truth, Service and Compassion are encouraged as a way of life. a: 3 James Street, Bassendean WA 6054 ph: 08 6278 9888

www.stmichaelsbass.wa.edu.au e: admin@stmichaelsbass.wa.edu.au

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MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL Dear Parents and Caregivers, Congratulations to our First Communicants who received the sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time on Sunday! Thank you to Mrs Turner, Mr Powles and all staff who assisted with the preparation of this event.

A reminder that this coming Tuesday 8th June (following the long weekend) is our 'Catholic Day'. Each year, staff in Catholic schools receive an extra day of leave in lieu of the after hours events, such as weekend sacramental Masses, that they are expected to attend. The St. Michael's 'Catholic Day' has been scheduled for Tuesday (as advertised in the newsletter at the end of 2020), and the school will be closed for staff and students. We hope that you all enjoy an extra long weekend and we look forward to welcoming the students back at school on Wednesday 9th June.

School Finance Strategic Planning Sessions Given that both the school and P & F are currently in very positive financial positions, the leadership team would like to engage with parents to generate ideas around future resources, programs or projects we would like to target with school and P & F funds. Parents who would like to be involved can choose one of two opportunities to provide feedback and share ideas: 9am in the staffroom on Wednesday 9 June over coffee.

A combined Advisory Council/P & F session over wine and cheese on Monday 14 June at 6pm in the library (to be followed by the P & F meeting). Bring a friend!

We have planned a session which incorporates a variety of Kagan Co-operative Learning structures to allow parents to experience how students learn co-operatively in our classrooms. We would love to see you there next week!

Parent Code of Conduct As you are no doubt aware, all CEWA schools, including St. Michael's, have a School Code of Conduct (which can be found on our website: www.stmichaelsbass.wa.edu.au/policies). The purpose of our Code of Conduct is, firstly and most importantly, to ensure child protection. Secondly, it is to outline our expectations of behaviour for parents and staff, to ensure that we are modelling healthy relationships for students and interacting respectfully with all members of the community.

Our Code of Conduct is such a vital document, and whether it be through our employment contract or our school enrolment contract, we all agree to behave in the ways described in our Code of Conduct for two reasons.

First, our students learn best in a stable, predictable, secure physical and emotional environment. The Code describes how we must all behave to create and maintain our healthy learning community. Therefore, any breach of the Code threatens our students’ learning.

Second, we know the most effective way to keep our children safe, no matter where they are, is by teaching them to choose healthy relationships. The Code of Conduct describes what such relationships look like. All of us must be examples to our students in our behaviour of the kinds of relationships we want them to have. This is especially important in situations of conflict with others. We know children watch and learn more from what adults do, than what they say.

Therefore, any failure to act in accordance with the standards in our Code of Conduct puts our students at risk.

In the last newsletter, I summarised some recent research into the occupational health, safety and wellbeing of staff in schools. This highlighted the alarming rates that school staff experience offensive behaviours such as bullying, threats of violence and actual violence. School staff are reportedly experiencing these behaviours in the workplace between four and nine times more than the general population.

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I must stress that the majority of our parents here at St. Michael’s are incredibly supportive (evidenced by our recent school climate survey results). We are so appreciative of this and highly value the many trusting and open relationships we have fostered with parents. Unfortunately, in recent times, the staff and I have experienced an increase in aggressive communication from a minority of parents. Whilst our students are always our highest priority, as an employer, I have a legal obligation to ensure a safe workplace for our staff, and so it is with a heavy heart that I need to address this issue.

We understand that when parents have concerns about their child, this can be a very emotive issue. We also understand that levels of anxiety and trauma are currently heightened for all of us as a result of living through a global pandemic. However, there is never an acceptable excuse for aggressive behaviour towards our staff.

It is important to remember that we are all here for the same reason, for the children. As a staff, we want to work in partnership with all parents to best support students, and the best way to achieve this is through calm, respectful communication. Often, parents’ concerns occur due to a simple misunderstanding that can be quickly and easily cleared up through a conversation with the child’s teacher. It is vital that parents fact check their information with the teacher in order to put their mind at ease and to foster and maintain positive relationships, rather than writing an angry email. This can be respectfully done using questioning strategies such as, ‘Is it true that..?’ or ‘Can you tell me more about….?’ and is always best done in person.

Much of the issues we are experiencing at the moment are due to aggressive and accusatory emails. When we use emails to communicate, the recipient is unable to gauge our body language and tone of voice and therefore written communication can be easily misinterpreted. Hence, I ask that parents use email only to communicate brief items of information to staff or to set up an appointment, not as a means of discussing important issues – this needs to be done face to face or over the phone. Please be aware that I have instructed staff, for their own work/life balance, not to read or respond to emails outside of normal working hours and to respond to emails within 48 hours (working days) as most of their time is spent teaching, rather than at a computer.

Aggressive, accusatory, threatening, abusive or bullying behaviour towards staff breaches our Code of Conduct and our Catholic ethos. This behaviour is unacceptable whether in person or via email. Teachers are professionals and deserve to be treated as such. I have a duty of care as an employer to ensure a safe working environment for our staff (which includes their mental and emotional wellbeing) and have the authority to impose sanctions on anyone who acts in a manner that is contrary to our Code of Conduct. While sanctions are always a last resort, these measures can and will be used if I feel there a risk to the well-being of School Staff as I am required under workplace occupational health and safety legislation.

We are incredibly blessed at St. Michael’s to employ wonderfully professional, talented and dedicated staff. I know you share my concern for the safety and wellbeing of everyone in our school community and I thank you for working with us to support both students and staff, ensuring we foster and maintain positive relationships and a safe and joyous environment for everyone to learn and work.

Communication Survey We are currently responding to feedback about streamlining our communication methods. Please see the Assistant Principals' section of this newsletter for a survey about the continued use of the school app.

Wishing you a wonderful long weekend!

God Bless Dr Siobhan Galos Principal

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FAITH FOR THE JOURNEY Prayer for Ordinary Time God, I appreciate the extra effort and energy we pour into our holy days. I love when the sanctuary is fuller than usual.

I love the banners and flowers and special music.

And, God, I love ordinary days like today.

Days when we bring our best to worship you in the regular part of the Church year.

Days like today remind me how much of our life is spent in ordinary time. We go to work.

We go to school.

We wish it was the weekend or vacation or any day but today.

God, give us the courage to live in the now.

Help us to live into the ordinary days of our lives and of the Church year. Remind us again that this day is a gift from you in all its ordinariness. For this day, we give you thanks, Gracious God, because you gave us another day to love you and to love each other. On this ordinary day in ordinary time, we will worship you, Loving God. Amen.

WHAT'S THE PRINCIPAL READING? LEADERSHIP TEAM BOOK CLUB Metacognition: Teaching children to think.

Michael Griffin The leadership team have commenced a new book for our book club, Michael Griffin's book on metacognition (thinking about your thinking processes).

Griffin talks about metacognition as active learning - knowing what you think, why you think that way and how you arrived at your thoughts. He purports that a metacognitive approach to teaching generates better quality thinking and greater autonomy and confidence in learners.

Griffin also discusses how curiosity and the desire for new knowledge is an essential driver of selfdirected learning. He recommends teachers deliberately leave gaps in knowledge delivery and that they do not supply the answers! Griffins recommendations support our current focus on critical and creative thinking as he emphasises the importance of allowing students to question, investigate, discover and solve problems. Similarly, Griffin's work aligns with our early childhood National Quality Standards (NQS) focus on student agency and choice. He outlines the importance of student choice in learning and suggests that when we help students too much, we rob them of agency (the belief that they can have control over their learning).

I cannot teach anyone anything. I can only make them think.

Socrates

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MERIT AWARD WINNERS Physical Education

Reading Recovery

Y3 - Matthew G., Eva M. Y4 - Olivia W., Oliver P. Y5 - Bella F., Jude P. Y6 - Natasha P., Alec S.

Y1 - Olivia E., Blaize P., Ava F., Keanu M. Y2 - Luka A.

Italian

Music

Y3 - Molly F. Y4 - Ayla CM. Y5 - Oliver K. Y6 - Zoe R.

Y3 - Annabelle T., Henry R. Y4 - Archie S., Grace L. Y5 - Clementine R-S., Siena L. Y6 - Abbey S., Chelsea S.

Art

Science

PP - Imogen B Y1 - Keanu M Y2- Grace L

PP - Imogen B., Thomas B. Y1 - Atticus R., Olivia L. Y2 - Boe B., Zara E.

KEY DATES 7 June

WA Day Public Holiday

8 June

St. Michael's Catholic Day (Pupil Free Day)

9 June

Strategic Financial Meeting 9am in School Library

14 June

Strategic Financial Meeting 6pm in School Library

16 June

Year 4 Mass

18 June

Constable Care Incursion

28 June

Reports available through Seqta Engage

30 June

NAIDOC Mass and NAIDOC Celebrations

2 July

Students Disco and final day of term for students

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ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL'S NEWS Interschool Cross Country On Monday 24 May, 40 students departed school to represent St Michael's at the Interschool Cross Country. Held at Good Shepherd, Kelmscott, the runners endured wet and chilly conditions for their run along the creek next to the school. While the conditions were challenging, our students pushed themselves and tried their best. We are proud of their efforts which enabled them to achieve second place for the day! Students who placed highly for the day were: Year 6: Madeline W 2nd, Zoe R 3rd Year 5: Lillian T 2nd Year 4: Isla S 1st Thank you to Miss B and Mrs Turner, along with our parent helper Warren Wright, for supporting the students and your help on the day. Thank you to Brad Myers for the pictures.

Sacraments On Sunday 30 May, a combination of students from St Michael's and children from St Joseph's Parish celebrated First Eucharist. After being postponed due to COVID lockdown a month ago, the children were able to receive the body of Christ for the first time. Thank you to Mrs Turner for preparing the students and overseeing the event. Also thank you to Rina Knubley and Catherine from the parish for their work preparing the Mass and coordinating children from the parish.

Finally, a big thank you to Father Ben for overseeing the celebration and sharing pictures from when he celebrated his First Eucharist.

Our next school Mass will be on Wednesday 16 June at 9am. Parents are welcome to attend.

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ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL'S NEWS

Parent Feedback on Communication

This year, we have made some changes to the way we communicate with the school community and seek your feedback moving forward. With the introduction of SeeSaw across more year levels, we are using the Connected App less. We have also changed the format of the school newsletter and moved to a fortnightly publication. Please click here to give feedback on the use of the Connected App and the fortnightly newsletter.

Sacred Saints On Friday 28th May, the students in Year 5 and Year 6 competed in the Sacred Saints competition against Saint Brigids, Matthew Gibney and Good Shepherd. The students were involved in netball (2 teams), soccer (2 teams) and football. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day for the students to be out playing sport. We had a successful day winning our two netball games, one of the soccer matches and the footy. This resulted in us being the winning school for the day- another shield for PE teacher Miss B. All the students participated in good spirits and represented the school with pride. Well done to all involved.

LifeLink On Wednesday 2 June, MrPowles and three Year 6 students, Alec, Imali and Sean, attended the launch of Archbishop Timothy Costeloe's LifeLink Appeal. LifeLink is the major fundraiser of the Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Perth. The funds raised support Catholic agencies so they can help the people of Perth in need. The Year 6 students will be speaking about LifeLink at the next assembly and we will have more information about our fundraiser next term.

Warm regards, Mrs Jemima Saunders and Mr Ryan Powles Assistant Principals

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CLASS NEWS- SOCIAL STORIES What is a Social Story?

We experience many firsts in life; a first visit to the dentist/ doctor, a first trip on a plane or a first experience attending a birthday party or a wedding. These ‘firsts’ can be challenging for some students who may not understand the expectations for these situations or what socially appropriate behaviour and responses may be required in each. Social stories, social narratives, social scripts or story-based interventions are strategies that can support our students when experiencing these ‘firsts’. The social story can also help support, model and teach students what they may expect to see or hear in certain situations.

Why use Social Stories?

Social scripts and narratives can be created for almost any situation. In the school context, a social narrative could be created to help a student understand why they can’t always be first in a line, or support a student greeting adults or teach students expectations around taking part in classroom mat sessions.

Where did Social Stories originate?

Originally, these stories were developed by Carole Gray in 1991 primarily for students with autism.

In recent times, many learning and behaviour specialists identify that social narratives can be effective to support a range of students with managing behaviours in different settings and with learning new skills.

How can Social Stories be used?

Often social stories are used with other strategies and are most effective this way. Some social narratives are created as copied books or on ipads. Students love to see themselves as the ‘character’ in their social narrative. Typically, adults will read the story with the student to ensure they have understood the messages in the script. For example, if a story is written about appropriate playground behaviour, the story may be read just before playtime as a shared reminder of expectations. The adult may ask, ‘What does the story tell us to do?’ Once the student understands the social situation or learns the social behaviour and does it without prompting from adults, the story can be read less often and gradually phased out.

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WELLBEING NEWS

Building Resilience from Parenting Ideas - Michael Grose

Recently, I saw a mother give a simple, yet profound resilience lesson to her three year old. The toddler fell into his dog’s bowl, saturating his t-shirt and giving himself a fright. His mum quickly helped him saying, “Oh well!” The threeyear-old bravely parroted his mother, saying, “Oh well!” and dashed off to play.

Every day there are opportunities for parents to give their children lessons in resilience. Promoting personal resilience focuses on helping kids cope with life’s hurts, disappointments and challenges in the present, while building strengths for the future.

Adult reactions matter It’s in our reactions to these and other every day mistakes, mess-ups, muck-ups and hurts where the big lessons in resilience are taught and reinforced.

The lessons for the three-year-old were simple but profound. “Oh well” meant: Stuff happens Don’t look for fault or blame Keep your perspective Pick yourself up and continue with what you were doing How to react The resilience lesson for this mother was equally as profound. When a minor mishap with a child or teenager occurs: Match your response to the incident Stay calm and be positive Don’t look for fault or blame Remember, stuff happens Resilience lesson for parents – “Oh well” Every day there are opportunities for parents to give their children lessons in resilience. Here are some examples: A child misses being picked for a team that he had his heart set on joining. “Oh well. Let’s see how you go next time.”

When a child experiences rejection in the playground at school. “Oh well. You’ll find that some people don’t want to be your friend.”

When a teenager isn’t happy with the mark they get for an assignment. “Oh well. Sometimes we don’t get the marks we think we deserve.”

Match your response to the challenge to promote resilience There are times when “Oh well” won’t cut it. Here are some examples: When a child is bullied they need your continued support.

When a student’s continuous efforts at improvement are constantly met with criticism then you may need to act on their behalf and meet with a teacher When a child always struggles to make the grade and is never picked for a team then you may need to help them make different choices These types of situations also present opportunities for daily lessons in resilience, but they require more parental support and teaching. The resilience lessons learned are deeper and include concepts such as ‘things will eventually go your way’, ‘there are times when you need to seek help’ and ‘this too shall pass.’

Promoting personal resilience focuses on helping kids cope with life’s hurts, disappointments and challenges in the present, while building strengths for the future.

Daily lessons in resilience are everywhere. You need to be ready to make the most of these valuable lessons when they come your way.

Kind regards, Mrs Lisa Mueller, School Social Worker (Mondays & Wednesdays) lisa.mueller@cewa.edu.au

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PARENTS AND FRIENDS NEWS Loose Parts Play Items Needed The K-2 playground area has recently had purpose-built storage containers installed under the tree on the hill. These containers are for loose parts play. We are in search of donated items that contribute to loose parts play such as; natural items e.g. pine cones, gumnuts, bark, shells etc scrap materials e.g. off cuts, twist ties, springs, spools etc household items e.g. bottle tops, lids, paper towel rolls etc You can read all about the benefits of Loose Parts Play here: LINK If you are able to bring any such items in for this exciting initiative please contact St Michael's Social Worker, Mrs Lisa Mueller on: lisa.mueller@cewa.edu.au

Bookclub Bookclub orders are due by Wednesday 8 June

Entertainment Books Don't forget that Entertainment Books are currently on sale and run for 12 months from the date your purchase the book unlike in previous years when it ran June 1 to May 30.

Student Disco The Parents and Friends will be organising a student disco for the last day of Term (Friday 2 July). More information will come closer to the date.

Kind regards, St Michael's School P&F Association stmichaels.pandfassociation@gmail.com

All memberships are now digital, so no physical book is required. With school holidays coming up it's the pefect time to get a book, save money over the break and support St Michael's P&F Association.

Click here for the Entertainment book flyer.

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COMMUNITY NEWS The inclusion of any community advertising does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof by St. Michael’s School.

St. Michael’s does not accept any responsibility or liability for the conduct or content of these advertisements, sites and the offerings made by the third parties.

Enrol with us at Mercedes College!

Mercedes College is currently interviewing for Year 7, 2023 & 2024, with limited places available for Year 7, 2022. If you are considering enrolling your daughter at Mercedes, please visit the Mercedes College website at www.mercedes.wa.edu.au to request a prospectus, to enrol online or book a tour of our campus. Please contact Mrs Nicole Kirk on 9323 1323 if you require further information.

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COMMUNITY NEWS The inclusion of any community advertising does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof by St. Michael’s School.

St. Michael’s does not accept any responsibility or liability for the conduct or content of these advertisements, sites and the offerings made by the third parties.

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COMMUNITY NEWS The inclusion of any community advertising does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof by St. Michael’s School.

St. Michael’s does not accept any responsibility or liability for the conduct or content of these advertisements, sites and the offerings made by the third parties.

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COMMUNITY NEWS The inclusion of any community advertising does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof by St. Michael’s School.

St. Michael’s does not accept any responsibility or liability for the conduct or content of these advertisements, sites and the offerings made by the third parties.

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COMMUNITY NEWS The inclusion of any community advertising does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof by St. Michael’s School.

St. Michael’s does not accept any responsibility or liability for the conduct or content of these advertisements, sites and the offerings made by the third parties.

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COMMUNITY NEWS The inclusion of any community advertising does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof by St. Michael’s School.

St. Michael’s does not accept any responsibility or liability for the conduct or content of these advertisements, sites and the offerings made by the third parties.

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COMMUNITY NEWS The inclusion of any community advertising does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof by St. Michael’s School.

St. Michael’s does not accept any responsibility or liability for the conduct or content of these advertisements, sites and the offerings made by the third parties.

ST MICHAEL'S SCHOOL a: 3 James Street, Bassendean WA 6054 ph: 08 6278 9888 www.stmichaelsbass.wa.edu.au e: admin@stmichaelsbass.wa.edu.au