Over the final weeks of Term 1 and the beginning of this term, classes have begun their Resilience Project journey. This has been met with much excitement and engagement amongst the children! Currently, we have been learning and exploring all about "Gratitude". Here's a little snapshot of the message we are sharing as a school as well as what you can do at home to join in!

Gratitude:

Working on gratitude helps us to be thankful and appreciate what we have in our lives, rather than focusing on what we don’t have or what we want. When we practise being grateful, we start to scan the world to look for positives – this only takes 21 days! Practising gratitude every day increases our levels of energy, and helps us to feel happier and more focused, determined and optimistic. It even helps us have better sleep, lowers levels of anxiety and depression and we are less likely to get sick. So many benefits – let’s all try to be grateful for the things and people in our lives every day!

Whole Family Activity:

Gratitude Scavenger Hunt

As a family create a scavenger hunt list of things that make you happy or you are grateful for, you can make your own list or use the examples below:

Something that makes you happy
Something you love to smell
Something you enjoy looking at
Something that is your favourite colour
Something you like in nature
Something that is useful for you
Each member of the family uses the list and has to find as many things as they can.
You can hunt for things inside or outside, or both. You can hunt for real things, or you can also do this using magazines or pictures from the internet.
After a set amount of time hunting, come back together, have a look at what each person collected and let them explain why they are grateful for each item.

Family Habit Builder:

Every night at dinner, have each person talk about their favourite thing about that day.

Check out TRP@HOME; a place filled with inspiration and activities for the whole family, to help improve your wellbeing and build resilience.

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 will commence in term 2 and will be facilitated by Carina Johns(5/6 Teacher) and 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:

Fresh Fruit Friday

Thanks to The Mckern Foundation for donating fresh fruit to our school weekly.

This is a wonderful 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.

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