Student 

Wellbeing

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 using kind words and making sure we include others. We have shared this message during assembly, within each classroom and a video starring some of our school leaders! The students enjoy watching these videos and the students involved in the creation are certainly enjoying themselves as well!

Mini Blitz: 

At St Mon's we use people's names and our best manners each day. 

We use encouraging words and include others when we play.

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. We launched our new tracking tally at last week's assembly! 

This thermometer tally increases the more pebbles students collect! As our pebble tally goes up, the more fun experiences and rewards students can earn. Just 4 weeks in, students have already ticked over 1000 pebbles, achieving their first reward of a Zooper Dooper each. (We will hand these out next week)

We have also introduced a winning class for each week that earn the biggest tally of pebbles. They win the holding rights to a trophy (full of a few little treats to share!) for that week. Our first winning class in 5/6J who amassed 63 pebbles this week!

Ride2School Day

National Ride2School day is coming up. This event has been very popular amongst students and families over the past few years. Once again we will participate. Our meeting point will be Rotary Lake in Kangaroo Flat. We will provide further details closer to the event. This will be held on Friday 27th March.

*Please note the actual National Ride2School Day is on the 20th of March, however our senior students will be on camp so we will celebrate this a week later. 

Sun Safety - Hats and Sunscreen

We continue to encourage the importance of being Sun Smart with a focus on all students wearing an appropriate hat and applying sunscreen multiple times a day. 

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.

Breakdown of last fortnight:

GEM Award Winners

Congratulations to our GEM award winners who have each demonstrated Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness during the past fortnight. 

Back (L-R) Jaxon, Seb

Front (L-R) Harnoor, Adeline, Ruby & Forrest

TAC - The Safe Migration Project 

Congratulations to our new Prep families on completing the first month of school! We know this is a big transition, and we’re so proud of how our students (and parents and carers) are settling into school life. As you and your child continue to establish your daily routines, it’s a great time to revisit the safe travel tips and resources available through the TAC’s Safe Migration Project. These practical tools are designed to help families travel safely to and from school, whether you’re walking, cycling, scootering, or driving. 

Here’s what you can do: 

Read the fact sheet (available in multiple languages) for practical, easy-to-follow safe travel tips for parents and carers. 

At St Monica's, we’re committed to supporting the safety of every child in our school community.

Cyber Safety Resources & Social Media Age Restrictions

As mentioned in previous newsletters at the end of last year, we have partnered with a well renowned cyber safety organisation Safe on Social (Ctrl+Shft). Recently this organisation released a parent and carer guide on the impending 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 

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