Dear Parents

Welcome back to Term 4!

We are really looking forward to another great term – children and staff are all rested and ready for the next nine weeks of learning and teaching.

We have some special events coming up, please put all the important dates for your family into your calendar. The Term 4 calendar is attached for your convenience.

We had an amazing turn-out today for our Grandparents’ Picnic. It was wonderful to see so many grandparents visiting our classrooms, appreciating the musical entertainment and most importantly enjoying the company of their delightful grandchildren.

Meeting new and different people is a part of life and it is our role as parents and teachers to support children through change rather than protect them from it. I ask all parents to trust that the class your child is going into next year is one in which they will thrive. It is important to note that parental requests can only be met in exceptional circumstances and emails or letters requesting a particular teacher or placement with a best friend does not constitute an exceptional circumstance. Early notification of class lists will not be provided. Parents can feel confident that their children will always be in good hands and receive an excellent education at John XXIII.

Kind regards

Antoinette De Pinto

Head of Primary

Footsteps

As you will see by the movie clip below, our ‘Footsteps’ dance program was very much enjoyed by our students and also all of who were lucky enough to be there for the ‘Footsteps Finale’.

Art Exhibition

The College Visual Art Exhibition runs from Tuesday 16 (Opening Night) to Saturday 20 October in the Thomas More Exhibition Centre. The Exhibition features artwork from both the Secondary and Primary students.

Our Year 3-6 students participate in a Visual Art lesson each week and have prepared a piece of artwork for the Exhibition. A small selection from the Early Years will also be displayed. It is a great opportunity for parents and the community to view artwork across all years and for students to showcase their artwork.

We hope all families will come and celebrate the students’ design and creativity with both 2D and 3D work from a range of forms being exhibited.

I look forward to seeing many of you throughout the week.

Fiona Blaauw

Primary Visual Art Specialist Teacher

Sports News

Junior Primary Athletics Carnival

This Carnival for Kindy-Year 2 students will be held on Thursday 25 October from 9.00 am to 12.30 pm. An email containing all information including the program of events will be sent out early next week. Parents are welcome to take their children home at the end of the Carnival. Supervision will be provided for those children remaining at school.

Tennis Coaching

Our PP-Year 2 students will have three weeks of coaching with Nick Kirkbride (tennis coach) and myself. These sessions were a huge hit with the students last year.

Swimming Lessons

After the tennis lessons have been completed, the PP-Year 3 will be participating in swimming lessons at Claremont Pools. These will run from Monday 19 November and conclude on Tuesday 27 November. More information will be sent home shortly.

IPSHA Touch Rugby Carnival

This Carnival for Year 6 participants will be held on Thursday 8 on the College grounds. There will be at least 9 IPSHA schools involved in this carnival.

All in all, it promises to be an exciting and busy term to wrap up the year. I am looking forward to the wonderful support that you always give.

John Alderman

Primary Sports Coordinator

Super Swimmers

Five of our Primary students attended the Swimming WA Junior Short Course State Championships during the holidays and produced some amazing personal best times and awarded medals for their efforts. Congratulations to all our super swimmers.

Sylvia Czajko (5G)

Girls 8-10 Freestyle Relay - Gold Medal

Mixed 8-10 Freestyle Relay - Gold Medal

Girls 8-10 Medley Relay - Silver Medal

50 Freestyle - Silver Medal

100 Freestyle - Bronze Medal

5 Personal Best Times

Braden Fyneman (6B)

7 Personal Best Times

Competed in 9 Individual Events and a Relay

Matthew Mignacca (4B)

1 Personal Best Time

Competed in 1 Individual Event and a Relay

Bianca Petsos (5G)

Girls 8-10 Freestyle Relay - Gold Medal

Mixed 8-10 Freestyle Relay - Gold Medal

Girls 8-10 Medley Relay - Silver Medal

50 Freestyle - Bronze Medal

100 Freestyle - Silver Medal

200 Freestyle - Gold Medal & State Record

50 Backstroke - Bronze Medal

100 Backstroke - Bronze Medal

200 Backstroke - Gold Medal

100 Individual Medley - Silver Medal

200 Individual Medley - Bronze Medal

Personal Bests Times in all 8 Individual events swum

Archie Ryan (5G)

3 Personal Best Times

Competed in 3 Individual Events and a Relay

Counsellor Corner

I hope everyone enjoyed a welcomed break from the school routine over the holidays and your children have settled back well into term 4. The end of the holidays, after the play dates and sleepovers, is a good time to check in on what’s going on in the children’s digital world. Parenting Ideas recently had this blog which I thought might be of interest.

If you have any concerns about your child you are most welcome to contact me at the College.

Anne Murphy

Primary Counsellor

Staying Relevant In Your Child’s Digital World

Positive Parenting

By Martine Oglethorpe

As technology continues to advance at breakneck speed and our lives become more deeply immersed in the digital world, the challenges faced by parents in this uncharted territory can often feel overwhelming.

As a parent, worrying comes naturally. We hear so much about the dangers of the digital age: the predators, the pornography, the gaming obsessions, the screen addictions and the cyber bullying.

We hear so much about the pitfalls and dangers of the connected world, we often overlook the vast possibilities digital technology can offer.  Through digital devices, we now have countless amazing ways to connect and collaborate, raise awareness, create, learn and share. For young minds, this is a tremendous opportunity, and making full use of these tools can give them a big lead in today’s competitive world.

So how can we ensure that our kids can reap the very best of what technology has to offer, while at the same time protecting them from those negative elements?

Take an interest in current tech trends. Talk to your kids, make them feel secure enough to discuss difficult topics with you, and put yourself in the best position to remain relevant to your child’s world. Be the one they come to should things go wrong. Be the one they come to share the positive experiences they have online.

Make time to talk

Kids may well have a lot of knowledge when it comes to all things digital. But they are not necessarily as wise as their parents. Generally speaking, parents have a much deeper understanding of the world, the intricacies of different interactions, relationships and the complexities of human behaviour than kids do. Our kids are interacting and connecting with others in a world that is often beyond what they are developmentally and emotionally ready for. We need to help them cope with that.

Play and interact more

Sure, we all love the babysitting power of an iPad to ensure we can finish our coffee while its hot, or get dinner cooked without any interruptions. But if we also take the time to play with our kids and their devices, and take an interest in their digital playground, we can get a whole new perspective about what they enjoy. We get the bonus of staying current with interactive technology, as well as time to bond with them and enjoy some family time together. We also put ourselves in a much better position to set relevant boundaries and help kids understand those boundaries.

Listen to others, and listen to your child

If your friend’s child is playing a certain game, has a social media account or enjoys certain websites, then there is a good chance your child does too. Just as we would play at the park or hang out at the milk bar where our friends were when we were young, so too our kids will hang out where their mates are playing. So listen to those parents in the playground. Listen in to which popular apps and games are being talked about in the media.  Listen to your child. Ask them what they like to do. Ask them about their concerns and their challenges. You may never keep up with every single app or site that your child visits, but if you have a good understanding of the ways kids are using technology and the sorts of things technology is capable of, then you are in a much better position to help them use it safely and smartly.

Be open and honest about what’s out there

While there are times we get nostalgic about the good old days when screens and social media were not such an integral part of our lives, we can’t afford to live in denial about the role technology is playing and will continue to play in the lives of our children.  So rather than ignoring it completely or trying to avoid it, we need to be ready to have conversations that we may prefer not to have. We need to face the fact that the average age a child first sees pornography is about 11, and understand that this is a very real possibility for our children. So how do we prepare them for that? What conversations would we need to have if we suspect this has happened? Because we want to make sure that the education they are getting comes from us, and not from some random online source that we have no way of checking.

So seek out knowledge. Take an interest in current tech trends. Talk to your kids, make them feel secure enough to discuss difficult topics with you, and put yourself in the best position to remain relevant to your child’s world. Be the one they come to should things go wrong. Be the one they come to share the positive experiences they have online.

Our role as parents is not to shut down the internet accounts and take away the screens, but rather to ensure we are giving them the skills, the support, the understanding and the critical thinking skills to make the very best decisions every time they go online.

Martine Oglethorpe

Martine Oglethorpe is an accredited speaker with the Office of the eSafety Commissioner and has presented to numerous parent groups, schools and teachers. She is a speaker, counsellor and educator with a passion for building resilient kids in a digital world. Contact details: info@martineoglethorpe.com.au, themodernparent.net, facebook.com/themodernparent

Dates to Remember

Monday 15 October Year 2 Art Gallery Excursion

Wednesday 17 October Annual Art Exhibition Begins (TMEC)

Saturday 20 October Annual Art Exhibition Closes at 2:00pm

Drama

Coming soon