Whole School News
Year Five Band Performance
On Thursday 30 October, the Year Five students presented a 30-minute concert to proud parents and grandparents. They performed several new pieces and some old favourites. Several students also demonstrated their courage by sharing their duets and solos with the audience. The Year Four class was a curious and attentive audience as they watched to see what instruments they would be learning and playing next year.
Congratulations to all Year Five students on your musical achievements this year.
Ms Emma Luxton | Director of Music
Possum Place
We still have tickets available for our beautiful puppet play about the western ringtail possum in the backyards of Albany! There are tickets left for both shows on Saturday 15 November at 11.00am and 2.00pm. See you there!
Please use this link to purchase:
https://www.artsculturetrust.wa.gov.au/venues/albany-entertainment-centre/whats-on/possum-place/
Windug wer Wilura
A group of Drama and Specialist Music students enjoyed the performance of Windug wer Wilura at the AEC on Wednesday night. This WA Opera performance was entirely in the Noongar language and told an ancient story of star-crossed lovers. Year Nine Drama students had the privilege of meeting with some of the cast members at school, which was insightful and inspiring.
Ms Rachel Mordy | Head of the Arts
Library News
Last Book Club order for 2025
Book Club is a great fundraiser for our library and we appreciate your support.
Issue 7
Now open online for parents to order Scholastic books. This will be closed on Friday 7 November at 11.00am. If you buy online for Issue 7 past that date, you will be charged for the postage.
Issue 8
This Christmas issue is now open as well and we will close this Thursday 13 November. The students received a paper catalogue on Wednesday. This is a very quick turnaround because we want to make sure that books will be here before the end of Term Four.
If you would like us to hold books back for you as a Christmas gift, please send us an email.
There are two options for ordering.
Use your own Scholastic account to order and pay online. (Loop)
If you would like to set up a new account, go to: http://scholastic.com.au/register
- Please enclose the correct cash with your completed order form, as we do not have cash for change kept in the library. Your completed forms can be handed in to the library.
End of Year
Week Six will be the last week that students can borrow from the library. We request that all loans be returned to the library prior to students finishing the school year at the end of Week Eight.
Thank you in advance for supporting our library and your child’s reading journey.
Yours in reading
Ms Elinor Couper | Head of Library Services
From the School Counsellor
This week I am excited to share some recent and emerging research (The Men’s Project) into young people, influencer and identity formation, kindness (Simon Sinek) and the art of listening.
As we slalom towards the major holidays and stress levels rise and our windows of tolerance narrow, take some time to reflect, to absorb, to consider… some of the gems in this space.
The golden imbricative, interconnected thread connecting these sections today? Families can use these strategies, caregivers can model these behaviours… as we intentionally work to build, to create, to provide our homes with strong, loving, forgiving, accepting, humbling and hopeful foundations.
Major findings from Jesuit Study: The Men’s Project
In the past, I have written of the corrosive effects on adolescent identity formation, catalysed by pervasive saturation in social media of influencers such as Andrew Tate, Incels and others of their ilk.
Tory Shepherd reports for The Guardian: The Men’s Project finds most young people do not hold strict ideas about masculinity; rather, they look to real-life role models rather than online.
Adolescent boys who cling to stereotypically masculine traits are far more likely to hurt others and be hurt themselves, this study has found, but it also found that overall, those boys were in the minority. This study found that those boys who most strongly endorsed ideas about the need to be what they understand as manly - to be stoic to avoid seeming gay or feminine were more likely to have bullied or violently or sexually assaulted someone to watch violent and nonconsensual pornography, and to retaliate when rejected.
Matt Tyler, the Executive Director of The Men's Project, avers, “There are lots of reasons for hope. Girls reject those restrictive ideas of masculinity… if you're a heterosexual adolescent boy, that's a pretty compelling pitch because girls are telling you they don't want the alpha male… they want you to rock up as your authentic self and connect at a deeper level. Also, the second reason for hope is that there's a large number of boys, girls, and nonbinary adolescents under pressure to adhere to these ideas, but a much smaller number who endorse them. And the study found that parents really matter…there's a lot out there about the manosphere and online influencers, but adolescents are telling us their parents and their friends matter a great deal more and that's both mums and dads…”
Link here to The Men's Project research - Jesuit Social Services
This article, entitled, I was lured into the manosphere, Here’s how to reach teens like me: highlights some of the nefarious machinations that grip our young people.
The Resilience Project
Depression and anxiety among school-aged children are serious issues and many schools and teachers are trying to find ways to boost student well-being.
14 years ago, teacher Hugh van Cuylenberg founded The Resilience Project to help young people feel happier and, as the name suggests, more resilient.
At first, no one wanted to sign up, and it would be years of no’s before he finally got his break. Today, the project is being used in 1,200 schools across Australia, as well as sporting clubs and workplaces.
Hugh van Cuylenberg, founding director of The Resilience Project, has featured in this column previously, when I included his Open Letter to Parents of Neurodivergent People (link below), which serendipitously features in today’s media in tandem with the Jesuit study. Hugh Van Cuylenberg posits that while our children’s schools might not have adopted The Resilience Project, families can still practice the tenets and aspects of this easily accessible and applicable programme.
With relatable storytelling and humour, we can open up conversations about wellbeing; we can teach and model healing, self-responsible, and thriving mental health strategies, demonstrating to our families how we can become more accepting, more content, more connected, and more resilient.
How Parenting Will Test Your Resilience, with Hugh van Cuylenburg - The Dad Train
Hugh's Open Letter to Parents of Neurodivergent People - The Imperfects
The Men’s Project and the Resilience Project are a fitting preface for the next section of this article: KINDNESS…with Simon Sinek, who has graced these pages in the past.
Simon Sinek explains how the simple act of generosity, kindness and gratitude triggers the chemical oxytocin in people, which is at the heart of forming meaningful human connections. The Power of Kindness | Simon Sinek
Sinek’s work on listening is also germane to today’s piece.
The Art of Listening | Simon Sinek
And further to Sinek’s beseeches to kindness and the power of listening, here is a timely piece for us to reflect on…we don’t always need to swoop in and fix, to patch up, to ameliorate, to make good, to be enraged on their behalf…remembering our young people often crave a safe, validating, accepting, listening space.
Listen
When I ask you to listen to me
and you start giving advice
you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
and uou begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way,
you are trampling my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you feel you have to do something to solve my problems,
you have failed me, strange as it may seem.
Listen! All I ask is that you listen.
Not talk or do – just hear me.
Advice is cheap: the cost of a newspaper will provide all I need.
And I an DO for myself; I’m not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering, but no helpless.
When you do something for me that I can and need to do
for myself, you contribute to my fear and weakness.
But when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel,
no matter how irrational, then I stop trying to convince you
and can get about the business of understanding what’s
Behind this irrational feeling.
And when that is clear, the answerer ear obvious and I don’t need advice.
So, please listen and just hear me, and if you want to talk,
wait a minute for you turn: and I’ll listen to you.
Anonymous
Pace yourselves, take some time to savour.
Ms Sheryl Moncur | School Counsellor / Teacher
P&F
Dads' Lawn Bowls
The weather was a very powerful catalyst for a good turnout at Middleton Bowls Club on Sunday.
We had 35 parents, kids and even a grandparent teaching the finer skills.
Kids from Kindergarten to high school came down and had a roll.
Thanks to the Club for being so accommodating to our group.
Mr Jason Pages | P&F Coordinator
Canteen
Week Five Specials
Recess: Bacon, Corn and Cheese Muffin, served warm with butter
Lunch: Thai Beef Salad - Marinated Beef, Vermicelli Noodles, Lettuce Mix, Tomato, Red Capsicum, Cucumber, Red Onion and Thai Dressing
Weekly Specials Term Four
Tuesday
Caesar Salad – Cos Lettuce, Red Onion, Egg, Parmesan, Croutons and Dressing
Chicken Caesar Salad – Caesar Salad plus Chicken and Bacon
GF option - no croutons
Wednesday
- Aussie Burger - Burger Pattie, Lettuce, Tomato, Cheese, BBQ Sauce and Mayo
- Aussie Burger Deluxe – Aussie Burger plus Beetroot, Bacon and Fried Egg
Thursday
Pizza - Hawaiian
- Vegetarian
GF option available
Friday
- BLT Pasta Salad – Pasta, Bacon, Cherry Tomatoes, Red Onion and Lettuce with a Creamy Ranch Dressing
Uniform Shop
Term Four, Week One to Week Seven, opening hours are:
- Monday: 8.00am to 4.00pm
- Tuesday: CLOSED
- Wednesday: 8.00am to 4.00pm
- Thursday: CLOSED
Friday 7 November: CLOSED - Albany Show Day, Whole SchoolClosed
Friday 28 November is the last day the Uniform Shop will be open in Term Four.
Please make sure you have tights, long pants and any formal items that are required for awards and celebration assemblies in Week Nine of Term Four.
