Wellbeing Day

Today (22nd May), we celebrated a wellbeing themed day across the whole school! The day was full of activities and opportunities to check in with our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around us.

We had a day where we could walk to school, have a warm breakfast available, share a special mindful morning prayer, sausage in bread at eating time, extra play time at break as well as lots of mindfulness breathing breaks throughout the day!

All of these activities were aimed to support the launch of our exciting new partnership with the wellbeing platform designed for families called School TV. Students have brought home with them a flyer with a QR code that links to our School TV website.

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support

Each fortnight, we have a school wide focus around our school values of Be Safe, Be Friendly and Be a Learner. We call this a Mini Blitz!

Our current focus is on the toilets.

Mini Blitz:

We know how to use the toilets safely.
We know how to use the toilets privately.
We consider our classmates and cleaners
by keeping the toilets neat and tidy.

Recently we have introduced a Toilet Routine across the whole school. Just like our other whole school routines, this one is designed to keep things calm, safe and consistent for all students. Students now follow a specific routine when going to the toilet during learning time. This includes how we ask, how we exit the classroom, expectations when using the toilets and how we re-enter the classroom.

Pebble Tally

Each week, we count up our pebbles across the whole school. Pebbles are earned by students who are following the school expectations! These pebbles are tallied up and added to our thermometer below. Here's our updated tally. Our next goal of 3000 pebbles and a Crazy Sock Day isn't far away!

Weekly Winning Class

Our winning class for last week is 3/4CS who amassed 64 pebbles. They win the holding rights to our trophy which is full of a few little treats to share!

Walk to School

This morning, St Monica's joined with schools all around Australia in celebrating the importance of being active and healthy by walking to school.

Thank you to all of the families that joined in!

Attendance

You can view your child's attendance on the SimonEverywhere App. Attendance percentage appears just below the students profile when you click on the home icon.

Each edition of the newsletter we share the attendance percentage from the previous two weeks. Below is a break down of our first fortnight back at school. The aim is 95% attendance. While it's wonderful to be aiming for 95-100% we know that this is not always possible with illness, fatigue and family days all factors across the duration of a term.

Each newsletter will include a visual graph (below) as well as the breakdown of numbers. We will track our attendance through these graphs each edition of the newsletter. Congratulations to Year 5 who have maintained great consistency so far this term!

Breakdown of last fortnight:

Year Level	School Attendance Percentage
Foundation	84.83%
Year 1	90.56%
Year 2	89.76%
Year 3	88.88%
Year 4	88.24%
Year 5	93.16%
Year 6	91.90%
School Average	89.62%

Term 1 Attendance Summary

Cyber Safety Resources & Social Media Age Restrictions

As mentioned in previous newsletters, we have partnered with a well renowned cyber safety organisation Safe on Social (Ctrl+Shft). This organisation released a parent and carer guide on the 16+ age restriction on social media accounts. Please click the link below for this highly helpful guide:

Another helpful resource (including a QR code for further support) from the eSafety Commissioner:

As part of our partnership with Safe on Social (Ctrl+Shift), we have a library of resources, cheat sheets and supports regarding any aspect of Cyber Safety/Online Gaming/Social Media. If you are finding any of these a challenge with your child, please feel free to reach out and we can provide some specific information and support in this space.

For more information email: dboulton@smkangarooflat.catholic.edu.au

Fresh Fruit Friday

Thanks to The Mckern Foundation for donating fresh fruit to our school weekly.

This is a great initiative but please make sure children are still bringing a piece of fruit in their lunchbox for fruit break as fruit is not available all week.

Season’s for Growth

A grief and loss program

Change and loss are issues that affect all of us at some stage in our lives. At St Monica’s we recognise that when changes occur in families through death, separation, divorce or related circumstances, children and young people may benefit from learning how to manage these changes effectively. We are therefore offering a very successful education program called Seasons for Growth. This program is facilitated in small groups and is based on research that highlights the importance of social support and the need to practise new skills to cope effectively with change and loss. The program focuses on issues such as self-esteem, managing feelings, problem-solving, decision-making, effective communication and support networks. Seasons for Growth runs for eight weeks and each weekly session is 40-50 minutes during school hours. The program concludes with a 'Celebration' session. Later in the year each group will have the opportunity to meet for a re-connector session to build on their earlier learning and to follow up how each child is going.

Seasons for Growth is facilitated by Bronwyn Fieldew ( Family Liaison Officer) who has received special training in the use of this program.

For more information please contact Bronwyn at the school and/or express your interest in this program by filling out the email form below which will be sent to Bronwyn Fieldew. St Monica’s is pleased to be able to offer this important program and we are confident that it will be a valuable learning experience for those who request to be involved.

Please send an email below letting us know if your child would like your child/children to participate in this program. Please include the following information:

Student name, class and whether they have experienced separation or loss.

Helpful Parent resources:

rch.org.au
earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au
parentingideas.com.au
australia.gov.au
kidsafe.com.au
betterhealth.vic.gov.au
kidsmatter.edu.au
youtube.com - Centre on the Developing Child at Harvard University