Friends Program: This term Mrs Griffiths and I are teaching the "Friends Program" during the classroom teacher's Release from Face to Face teaching time. Throughout the program this term, we have been looking at our different emotions, or feelings. These emotions can change depending on the different situations we experience throughout the day. We have also identified how natural it is to feel a whole range of emotions throughout a timeframe, even close together. We are also exploring the concept of empathy with each other and our four legged friends. Our sessions have explored the different feelings that everyone experiences, and how to identify these feelings. We emphasise that all emotions are 'okay', however it is how we choose to express these emotions that can be either helpful or unhelpful. We also look at the different choices we can make for expressing these emotions. We have introduced "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" choices for how we deal

with these emotions. "Thumbs up" choices are the choices we make that help ourselves and help others. They enable us to overcome challenges and face our fears. "Thumbs down" choices are the ones we make that harm ourselves or other living beings. These are not helpful, therefore we need to avoid making these choices to express our emotions. We are also looking at how some of the 'thumbs up' choices require us to be brave. Learning to be brave means learning coping skills that make us feel strong inside. When we feel strong inside, we can cope with new things and we can stand up for ourselves, other people or those that have no voice, such as animals.

These are life-long skills. We encourage parents to talk to your children about these lessons and the ideas we explore. This program is an excellent introduction for the children into the area of resilience and the concept that they can choose responses that are life affirming. Your support with this would be greatly appreciated. There will be parent meetings soon that will offer parents a complete overview of this program and how you can actively support it in the home. Please look out for these meetings once they have been finalised.

Year 6 Canberra Excursion: This week our Year 6 are off to Canberra for the annual excursion to our Country's Capital. They will be accompanied by Mrs Williams, Mrs Wright, Mr Bishenden, Miss Van Kemenade and myself. I am looking forward to joining them as they explore our Capital and see first hand some of the wonderful landmarks they have studied such as our Parliament House, the War Memorial and of course, Questacon!

CWA Speeches: This week our Grade finalists in Year 3,4 & 5 are competing in the local level of the CWA Speech Competition. Congratulation to Liam Eaton, Archie Eades and Evie Robertson. We wish our competitors all the best for their presentation.

Lockdown and Evacuation Drills: Each Term we aim to practice our Lockdown and Evacuation procedures so that we are clear and quick in our responses should we ever need to use them. Yesterday was the turn of the Lockdown drill while our Evacuation drill will be practiced next week. It would be great if you can speak to your children about the importance of these drills.

Sickness: In recent weeks there has been a rapid escalation in COVID cases, RSV, colds and bronchial infections in NSW. To protect our whole school community, please do not allow your children to come to school if they are visibly unwell (runny nose, coughing, sore throat, headaches, dizziness, aches, noticeable fatigue, etc). Students displaying these symptoms will be sent to sickbay and parents will be notified to collect them. Sick children attending school greatly increases the risk of other people becoming sick - staff and students. At the moment finding casual teachers is also difficult with sickness so prevalent in the community. Please also be aware of the challenges this presents when trying to cover classes. Please allow sick children to recuperate before sending them back to school.

Have a great week and keep warm!

Robyn Petty

Assistant Principal

Parish News