Learning 

Faith/Learning & Teaching/Wellbeing

Woiwurrung Word of the Week

St Johns has purchased the Woiwurrung Language Resource for the Early Years.

Woiwurrung language was traditionally spoken and is being reclaimed today by the Wurundjeri people, who inhabited the land along the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers.

The Woiwurrung Language Cards have been produced by the Wurun Child and Family Place and Yarra Ranges Council with permission from key Wurundjeri Elders.

Acknowledging and celebrating Aboriginal culture and its connection to spirituality and language, family and kinship, land, country and community is important in protecting and developing inclusion and equity. Language in particular is recognised as a precious part of cultural strength and pride.

Each newsletter we will share with you a new Woiwurrung word of the week, we hope that this will provide you with a chance to read, speak, and talk about it with your family.

 

 

Learning & Teaching

Yay, we are back together again!! This week we loved welcoming our children back onto the grounds of St. John’s. Children have spent time connecting with friends, eagerly investigating their learning spaces, and have continued their targeted Reading, Writing and Mathematics learning through face-to-face experiences. 

 

Last Friday, we gathered as a staff to sketch out our Term 3 learning experiences. Drawing from our Horizon, we spent time engaging in dialogue and discussion to label where our focus will be for next term. Families can expect communication about this through the form of a year level curriculum overview, which will be shared with families through Seesaw by the end of Term 2.

 

In other Learning and Teaching news, educators have been busy collating data to formulate your child’s school report. To accompany the report, we invite you to join us in a Data Chat taking place during Week 1 of Term 3. By holding this chat, our intention is to provide a snapshot picture of your child’s data in Reading, Writing and Maths, which demonstrates how they are progressing through the curriculum.

Finally, have a restful and relaxing break with your families. Stay safe and well.

We look forward to seeing you in Term 3!

 

Lauren, Jarryd and Gemma

ldavis@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au jbradford@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au

 

 

Wellbeing

Children need adequate sleep for healthy growth, learning and development. Recommendations for primary school aged children are between 9 and 11 hours of sleep per night. Poor quality or insufficient sleep can impact attention, memory, creativity and learning at school. Bedtime can often be a challenging time for families and children. Natasha, our school psychologist, has shared some suggestions and tips for helping to make bedtime a little easier and to maximise the hours and quality of sleep each night.

 

  • Get regular: One of the best ways to train your body to sleep well is to try to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on weekends and days off.
  • Bed is for sleeping: Try to support your child in not using their bed for things other than sleeping, so that their body comes to associate bed with sleep. If children use their bed as a place to watch TV, eat, read and other things, the body will not learn this connection.
  • No naps: It is best to avoid taking naps during the day, to help ensure that your child is tired at bedtime.
  • Bathtime: Having a hot bath 1-2 hours before bedtime can be useful, as it raises body temperature, causing you to feel sleepy as the body temperature drops again. Research shows that sleepiness is associated with a drop in body temperature.
  • Sleep rituals: Help your child to develop their own rituals of things to remind their body that it is time to sleep - some people find it useful to do relaxing stretches or breathing exercises for 15 minutes before bed each night, reflect on the day or listen to some peaceful music.

Ashlee Owen

aowen@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au 

 

Faith News

Sacrament of Confirmation

We are delighted to let you know that we have a new date for our Year 6 children to celebrate Confirmation: Thursday 22nd July, 6 pm at Our Lady's Church, Maidstone. A letter will be sent home with the children tomorrow with further details. We're looking forward to celebrating with you.

 

Quang Minh Buddhist Temple Visit

As part of our focus on 'Our Place, Our Community' we had planned to visit Quang Minh Temple this week, however COVID restrictions interrupted our plans. We have rescheduled this visit to: Tuesday 24th August, 4pm

 

Wishing you all a relaxing and happy break.

Aoife

 

 

Social Justice News

Dear Families,

 

This term we’re collecting things to donate to Ways of the West. We are collecting items such as beanies, scarves, gloves, socks and tins of soup. Any warm food and clothing that you’re happy to donate will be appreciated. We have changed the final date for donations due to lockdown so there is still lots of time to support this worthy cause!

 

You can send your child’s donations to their hub and the Social Justice Leaders will collect them. Our collection begins from Friday 21st May - we will collect items up until Friday the 25th of June and then we will send all of the donations to Mark at Way of the West. He comes to visit us each year and is always really happy that we can help people in our local community.

 

Thank you for your support.

Kelly, Paulino, Jordan and Adler

Social Justice Leaders