Principal's News
Dear Parents / Carers,
Congratulations to those children who received the Sacrament of Confirmation and Eucharist at last weekend’s Masses. Families would be proud of the children as they participated so well in the ceremony. Their teachers definitely were.
As Fr. Michael stated at the ceremonies, these children are our hope for the future showing the same promise as the many street blossoms that are presently bursting into bud around Colac.
We thank all families, Fr. Michael, Mandy and our R.E. Leader Julie Leonard for their dedication to ensuring that the Sacramental program proceeded despite the odds this year. We again wish all children and their families the very best for the celebrations that will continue this weekend and next. The numbers are larger for this coming weekend, so if at all possible we ask that some families consider moving their weekend to the following. A call to Mandy at the Parish (Ph: 52 312177) to notify of this change would be appreciated.
DIGITAL TATTOO
An excellent, information-packed presentation for parents and staff was held via Zoom last Wednesday evening.
Leigh used two powerful analogies. The first likened a child logging onto the internet to the child leaving the house where the same questions apply. They are: ‘Where are you going?’ Who are you going with?’ and ‘What time will you be home?’ The second analogy is more of a scenario as she advocated for leaving tech out in the open: When your child is three years old, would you leave them at the beach unsupervised? When they are 10, would you leave them at the beach unsupervised? When they are 17 might you leave them at the beach? Similarly, children need our support as they learn to navigate the online environment. Leigh suggested finding time to find out where your young person is hanging out online, making your young person the expert, asking for a plan when exploring the purchase of new games, linking permission to behaviour and having conversations before your children log on. ‘Digital Tattoo….Because I Love You’ provides advice on ways in which this can be done. This is attached to the newsletter today for your reference as is a summary sheet of the evening presentation titled ‘Digital Tattoo 3.0 2021’ and the promised useful weblinks page Leigh referred to on the night. Leigh reiterated that it’s not about stopping technology use, it’s about resetting, as healthy patterns matter, and we want our children making positive choices and setting up healthy patterns for life.
We have booked Leigh to work with the year 4 children in term 4 as part of their planned ‘Safety’ inquiry and look forward to also working with her again next year, hopefully in term 1 and hopefully onsite.
BOOK WEEK
One of the highlights of our calendar year is always the Book Week dress up day! This year the theme of ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds’ conjures up images of Vikings and Dragons, Dinosaurs and Where the Wild Things are, Aliens and Anne of Green Gables and more. The fabulous costumes seen for our 200 years of Catholic Education could definitely be used again as they are very much from the ‘Old World’.
Unfortunately our most recent advice last Friday makes it clear that we still cannot gather with an audience. Early thoughts are that we could have each year level parade in their costumes and display these on next week's newsletter.
This year our fantastic librarian, Ms McVilly, has again enlisted the help of the year 6 children to provide recorded readings of the shortlisted books to be used with the classes on the day and is planning a book themed activity to be enjoyed in class. Thanks Yol, we are looking forward to the day next Wednesday, August 25th.