Hi everyone, we have a fantastic Wellbeing Team with myself and Sally. If you are looking for any help with any parenting worries or support your family with home or family concerns, please know that Sally is in every Monday and Wednesday, and I am here every day. I am usually on before and after school duty and Mary and I can help with any questions or queries you may have.

Hopefully we are coming to the end of the cold and flu season. It’s still important to keep reminding children about washing their hands. Kids are often too busy to value practising and it’s important to continue to remind them to always wash their hands before eating or preparing food, after going to the toilet or playing, and after touching animals or dirty objects. Regular baths or showers will help keep your child clean and healthy. Bathing at the end of the day can also be fun part of the bedtime routine.

Dental Program Dates Term 4: 7th Oct - 18th Oct 2024.

I have booked the Australian Smile Group to run the dental program for all students in the school from the first day of Term 4. This is a mobile dental service, where they will provide dental check ups, preventive and general treatment. The students will have a dental check-up and it they are found to need further treatment e.g. a filling, then they will have the work completed on site. The Australian Smile Group operate under the Medicare funded child dental benefit schedule (CDBS), ensuring zero out-of-pocket costs for parents and carers.

The dental care consultation will be taught in a fun way so that your kids can make it a habit and not to fear dental check ups and treatment.

Thanks so much for your second-hand uniform donations. If parents are looking to purchase school uniform, we sell second hand school uniforms. All monies raised are invested back into the school welfare programs including Breakfast Club and our activities at break times. Also keep in mind, parents can email the Wellbeing Team for requests for second hand uniform. We do make up bags for children to take home and then parents can decide which items to keep. In the meantime, Sally and I are planning to have another second-hand uniform sale soon.

Thank you to those parents for the donations of spare clothing. We regularly assist children with toileting accidents, and we are desperate for socks, undies and track suit pants in all sizes. We try hard to avoid asking parents to come down to change their child so any donations will help out enormously. Also, provide your child with a change of underwear in their bag.

I’m also still accepting donations to help support our activities at break times. If you have any jigsaws, craft supplies including wool or Lego which you no longer need we will happily have them.

Also, when families are feeling financial strain and hardship we can apply to State School Relief for school uniform, underwear, socks and school shoes and runners. For our future Preps, we can apply for students from next term. State School Relief have a large range of uniform products including school shoes, black sandals and runners, shorts, dresses, bathers, socks and underwear. Keep in mind that State School Relief can also help families replace eyeglasses. Students can get one free voucher per year which is particularly handy when a child breaks or loses their glasses.

For any enquiries, please email the Wellbeing Team at-

Andre.Campbell@education.vic.gov.au

Sally.Marshall@education.vic.gov.au

Wellbeing Service Support

Uniting Child & Family Wellbeing Program, Wednesdays

On Wednesdays, we have Alissa Bayliff from the Family Wellbeing program at Uniting in the school. Alissa is happy to talk to parents about any potential concerns or behaviours with their children. Also, Alissa can support families with parenting strategies and service referrals including family services and online resources for parents. The referral process is straight forward, and Uniting can engage within a reasonable time.

Parents can email Alissa directly at alissa.bayliff@vt.uniting.org or contact the Wellbeing Team and we will take you through the steps.

Head Lice

This fortnight, we have had only 1 report of live head lice in the school. We ask parents to work with us to keep our reports low and to continue to treat and monitor your children’s hair. Please notify the office or tell your child’s teacher when you treat your child so lice alert notes can be issued on COMPASS. Reminder-any child found with live lice will be excluded from school until they are treated.

Playtime, Listening and Asking Good Questions

Teaching children the art of active listening is such a valuable skill. Part of being interesting is showing interest in what others have to say. You show interest mainly by listening and asking good questions. A good question is one which makes it more likely that the other person will give a nice long answer rather than a simple and short response. Stress that listening is important but that it’s important to do things which convince the listener that you are listening.

Think of an open question, e.g “What did you do on the weekend?” A question like this allows for an interesting answer: “We rode our bikes on Saturday and then we went to my Auntie's house and had dinner there”.

On the other hand, a closed question, such as “Did you have a nice weekend?” only allows for a brief answer: “Yes, I did”.

Ask your child how they have managed challenges this week and discuss the decisions they made-did it help them or hurt them?

Remember, kids love listening to your stories about how you tackled problems with your friends or out in the yard. We may not always think of sharing our experiences, but kids really "lock into" our lessons learned. They love seeing their parent more human as they can really gravitate and learn from your own solutions to friendship problem. As always, if you need any support around friendship issues please come in and see me.

Infectious Diseases

To help prevent and control the transmission of infectious diseases in schools, a child must be excluded from school if he or she has any of the following:

Gastro/Diarrhoea - until there has not been a loose bowel motion or any symptoms for 48 hours.
Chicken Pox - until fully recovered and blisters have dried.
Measles - at least 7 days.
German Measles - until fully recovered and at least 4 days from the onset of rash.
Whooping Cough - four weeks.
Hand, foot and mouth - until all blisters have dried.
Hepatitis - medical certificate needed.
Impetigo “School Sores” - until treatment has commenced and sores are healed.
Ringworm - until treatment has commenced. Medical certificate may be required.
Mumps - until fully recovered.
Scabies - medical certificate needed.

Importantly, children who have been vomiting should not attend school until 48 hours after the vomiting ceases.

While these are some common diseases, please refer to the Better Health School Excursion Table* for a comprehensive list and updated information. Please contact the office if your child contracts any of these. Please refer to the Dept of Health for further information-https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/public-health/infectious-diseases/school-exclusion/school-exclusion-table

Activity Clubs

Monday Through to Thursday

Recess-wool craft & jigsaws

Monday & Thursday Lunchtime-in the library- Lego Club

Tuesday & Wednesday Lunchtime-open learning space outside the specialist rooms

Craft club including diamond art

The kids really enjoy coming along and having fun at either recess or lunch. If your child is looking to make more friends, please remind them to come at either recess or lunchtime.

Attendance & Absences

We encourage parents and carers to refer to COMPASS for information happening at school. Schools are required to work towards IMPROVING THE ATTENDANCE and PUNCTUALITY RATES of our students. When your child is going to be away parents and carers need to notify the school through COMPASS. This really helps us as we are able to communicate effectively with all relevant staff early in the school day.

Attendance Data-It’s Cool to be at School!

This past fortnight we have celebrated 8 out of 10 students who came to school on their special day. When your child comes to school and it’s their birthday, we are bringing the buzz to make their day even more special. When they arrive at school in the mornings, we are presenting them with a special birthday sticker badge. I must say the kids are really loving this!

Over the time a child attends school, having 1- or 2-days absence does not seem like much but it does add up and can impact on missed learning opportunities.

Primary Wellbeing

Andre Campbell

Chaplain Chat

Forever Relationships

Building healthy relationships is important for wellbeing and general health. The term building should be noted in that sentence, if you think about it, it takes time to build something. Building physical things takes planning and tools and relationships are the same, when people expect a relationship to stand strong and last a long time without any work or maintenance they should expect disappointment.

Over time we all develop bad habits, and we need to keep ourselves in check. I read a book when my first daughter was born called Let’s Stick Together by Harry Benson, here is a quote from his book:

“It turns out that the seeds of our success or failure in the future are present in our relationship today. By analysing short videos of the way couples discuss a difficult topic, researchers have identified four particular bad habits that tend to distinguish couples who do badly from couples who do well over the subsequent years. More bad habits today usually mean more risk to the relationship tomorrow”.

He goes on to name the bad habits and gives some tips on how to stop them from becoming “weeds that strangle the relationship”. He named the bad habits STOP signs.

S is for scoring points

T is for thinking the worst

O is for opting out

P is for putting down

S – If someone says you did something to them do you run through a list of all the things they have done to you in the past 5 years? This is called scoring points. Next time you are told you did something wrong, fix it. It sounds simple but owning up to our mistakes instead of reacting negatively to a comment could save you an argument.

T – If my husband isn’t home when he said he would be I start thinking the worst. Over the years I have improved on this, and I worry much less about it. But when I did think the worst, I already had concluded that there was something wrong before he had a chance to explain himself and when I do that, I put my negative feelings into the conversation. This one can stem from experience, in other relationships or how we were treated as a child. To stop this one, stay calm, ask more questions and give positive responses.

O – Opting out means we are disengaging from the conversation when we feel like it isn’t going anywhere or going the way we want. Some people just don’t talk to each other or avoid conflict with the ‘silent treatment’. Remember you have a choice; you don’t have to run away from conflict. Remind your partner that you love them, be kind and ask them to be kind to you. You could even take a break and come back to the conversation but walking away and not ever continuing it will make you drift apart.

P – Putting people down is bullying, we are always talking about this at school because the kids don’t like being bullied. Home is a safe place and everyone who lives there should feel safe to be themselves, being put down will make someone feel less important and closed. I know it’s the Aussie way to use sarcasm, but it is incredibly damaging for relationships. If you want you kids to grow up in a happy healthy home and you want them to have kids one day and live in a happy healthy home, stop the put downs.

Making these small changes could make your relationship with your partner better, your children better and it could even strengthen your relationships with your friends and in your workplace. Check yourself, where do you struggle? If you would like to borrow my book to find out more, you are very welcome to. I would love to help. Happy relationships are a foundation for a happy life for both the parents and the children living with them.

Breakfast Club Monday & Wednesday 8:15am-8:45am

If your child is in need of breakfast before school, please encourage them to stop by to pick up some food so there are no hungry tummies in the classrooms. Breakfast club runs on Monday and Wednesday mornings in the German/Cooking room from 8:15 – 8:45am. Students can enjoy a range of foods, including toast, cereal, canned spaghetti, small UHT milk packs, fruit cups and fresh fruit and warm Milo. We are very thankful to our lovely parents who help out with the preparation of food at breakfast club.

Milo Monday’s

The Grade 6 leaders have decided to end Milo Monday’s. Since the weather started to warm up, the students have not been seeking out a warm milo. Thanks so much for supporting Milo Monday’s and we will run it again next year.

Food Pantry

The food pantry is now on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons between 2:30 and 3:30pm. Please note the pantry will close early on Monday’s. We have a range of foods, including gluten and lactose free items and on Wednesday’s we have fresh carrots and fruit, apples/oranges/pears.

If you are in need of a pantry top up, please stop by and pick something up. We also have food hampers available that parents and carers are free to access from the entry near the pantry. These boxes have a range of food staples and weigh 11.6kg, so please prepare for that if you intend on taking one home.

Chaplaincy

Sally Marshall – Chaplain: is happy to catch up with your child if you feel they need that extra emotional support during school hours. Sally is available on Monday and Wednesday’s and can be contacted via email :

sally.marshall@education.vic.gov.au

or by phone call 5964 7258.

School Holiday Programs