Thrive & Flourish

                            Wellbeing Newsletter:

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome to the final newsletter for 2025.  

For those currently unwell, we hope for a speedy recovery for you. 

For those who’ve welcomed a new addition to the family, we extend our warmest congratulations on this happy occasion.

For those families who’ve experienced a recent bereavement, please know you are in the prayers and thoughts of all in our community. 

Around this time of year, every year, many children become unsettled. It’s not just their excitement for Christmas — although there’s that, too.

The holiday season is joyful, yes, but it can also be stressful for everyone, including and sometimes especially for children — but there are strategies parents can use to make the coming days easier.

The main reason is their routines get seriously upended. If you’re travelling over the holidays, children get taken not only from their usual routines but also from their familiar dwelling. Even if you’re staying home, your house is rearranged, with a tree where the chair usually is and a chair where the toy box used to be and lots of fragile things to break everywhere. Weekends are taken over by catching up with family and friends, baking, house-decorating, and parents have extra jobs to prepare for the holiday events.

Basically, this time of year, all of the things we put in place that help children feel happy and secure, and know what to expect, can ‘go out the window’. To counter this problem, it is that parents preserve at least a few routines over the holidays. Have some strategically set things that don’t change. If you snuggle in bed with your kids every morning, try to keep doing it. If you have a bedtime routine, follow it wherever you may be. And while it’s fine to let your children go to bed late on special days, try to maintain a normal sleep schedule the rest of the time. It can be appealing to let all the old rules go out the window — we want the holidays to feel special. Think about ways you can work routines into your holiday traditions too, — maybe every night before bed your children get to add a new ornament to the tree or listen to a Christmas carol together. 

In this same vein, if you have children who crave routine and like to know what’s coming, it can help to go over the general plan of the day every morning during the days before Christmas. A calendar could even help, providing a daily excuse to talk to your children about what events are happening which days. Even if you don’t know exactly how the day is going to go, provide anchors, like that you’re going to drive to Nanna’s after lunch and that you’re having dinner at a restaurant. 

As parents, make yourself a calming mantra that you repeat to yourself throughout your day, like Let go of the things that don’t matter or I’ve done well and I don’t have to be perfect. And regularly remind yourself what Christmas is really about: 

Not finding the perfect gift or making the perfect meal or trimming the perfect tree, but faith, family, love and children.

 Have a wonderful Christmas and holiday break!

Wellbeing Support

Wellbeing support can be accessed in the following ways:

• Any staff member can arrange for a referral to Student Wellbeing if they have concerns about a student’s wellbeing.
• Parents can also request support for their child/ren by contacting a member of the wellbeing team at school. 

         Email:

Tony McDonald: tmcdonald@shtatura.catholic.edu.au

Felicity Byant: fbryant@shtatura.catholic.edu.auDeb Turvey: dturvey@shtatura.catholic.edu.au

• At times, a student may be referred to an external support service. We also respect the fact that some students and parents may prefer to seek professional support independent from the school setting. In such cases, Sacred Heart values working collaboratively with external support services. We encourage parents/carers to communicate with the school if there is a significant issue affecting their child’s wellbeing.

If ever you need help sorting out personal or family issues, give CatholicCare Victoria a call.  They offer many services to all members of our community – ALL FREE.

Wishing all families a safe and happy holidays and we look forward to welcoming everyone back in 2026. 

Tony, Deb and Felicity.