Wellbeing Report 

Hi everyone, we have a fantastic Wellbeing Team with me, Sally and Libby. We can help with any parenting worries or support your family with home or family concerns. The Wellbeing Team are on before and after school duty and we can help with any questions or queries you may have. 

If parents are looking to purchase school uniform, we sell second hand school uniforms.  We accept donations from families, and we often need spare socks and boys’ and girls’ underwear to change children. When a child has a toileting accident or gets wet, having a supply of spare clothes is very handy for us. This means there’s no disruption to a parent’s day where you would get a phone call to come down to the school with a change of clothes. 

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. 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

elizabeth.martin3@education.vic.gov.au

Playtime-Arguments

The Wellbeing Team have been supporting students on dealing with arguments. This week’s shout out comes from Penny one of our school ambassadors, “If you are feeling angry that your friend won’t listen, just walk away and take a break. A teacher on duty can help you or you could find Layla or me.  We like listening and helping kids with their problems.” Great advice Penny!  

For children trying to make things work when they are playing with their friends they often have arguments. Tell your child that arguments happen to everyone and that having an argument doesn’t mean the end of a friendship or being enemies.  Point out that in all arguments both people think they are right. Sometimes an argument can be resolved when it occurs. At other times people need to avoid hurting the other person’s feelings too much at the time by going away to calm down, and then trying to resolve it later. Dealing well with arguments protects friendships and reduces bad feelings. 

Tips:

• Try to stay calm and talk through the problem using a respectful voice.
• If you or the other person are getting angry or out of control say: ”We’re getting too angry. Let’s talk about it later”, and walk away.
• Make sure you do talk about it later. When you’ve calmed down, recognise that allowing the bad feelings to continue is not a good thing. You are responsible for dealing with them.
• When you feel calm, go and talk to the other person.
• Put your point of view and tell about your feelings eg: I felt bad when you didn’t include me in the game”.
• Let them put their point of view.  Listen without interrupting until they have finished.
• Try to find a way to be friends again.

Head Lice 

This term it’s been fantastic that we have had only small number of 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 issued on COMPASS. Reminder-any child found with live lice will be excluded from school until they are treated. 

Activities at Breaktimes

Lego Masters at recess Monday, Tuesday & Thursday

Free play Lego Club at lunchtime Monday & Thursday 

Craft Club at lunchtime Tuesday & Wednesday

This term, our activities at recess and lunchtime have been extremely popular.  Children have been making friends having some fun and learning to be creative.  In craft club, students have been making bookmarks and key chains using diamond art.  This week, the children made Easter egg scratching’s and they made their own Easter bonnet. We would like to thank Jaxon Porter for thinking about our students who may not have gotten to make an Easter bonnet at home. Jaxon spent his own pocket money to make up Easter bonnet kits. These kids were thrilled to get a kit to make their own personalised Easter bonnet to wear in the parade on the last day of term. 

Lego club has been a hit, and I would like to thank families for your donations, especially the Woollies farm brick packs. Some children have been exploring free play and I’ve had roughly 20 children working together to build our very own Woori Farm.  They have had so much fun, and their ideas and creativity has been great to see. 

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!

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!

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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.

Chaplain Chat

Over the next few newsletters, I will focus on Emotional Intelligence drawing on the work of Dr Chinwe Williams and Daniel Goldman from the Parent Cue website. Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand your own emotions or the emotions of others. It is about creating and maintaining healthy relationships now and throughout life, who doesn’t want that for their kids?

The four main pillars of EI are: 

Self- Awareness, 

Self – Management, 

Empathy and Understanding and 

Relationship Management.

This week we will focus on Self – Management.

Everyone would like their kids to be able to self-manage their big emotions, the best way to support and encourage that as the adults in their lives is to model self-management behaviour.

Every day we ride on a wave of emotions, at times we can all be triggered, and our emotions begin to have the better of us. Have a think about how you self-manage your emotions, do you take a deep breath or step back from a situation? Or do you express your big emotions with your voice or with your actions? How we behave is how our children will behave.

Next time you feel your emotions spinning out of control, pause and reset by taking a deep breath. Share your feelings with someone you trust and later share with your children how you managed the situation. The more we talk to our children about how we as parents make mistakes and how we resolved the issue, the more they understand that they can control their situations and feel empowered to do so. It is important to manage your emotions so that they can be expressed in a healthy and respectful manner, we are all responsible for how we react in difficult situations, try to make time in your day to allow yourself and your children to work through the challenges life throws your way, some great ways to do this are: journaling, listening to music, talking over a meal together or by going for a walk. 

Melbourne Dream and Lead Conference:

On Tuesday the 12th of March, 22 of our grade 6 leaders attended the Melbourne Dream and Lead Conference We had a fantastic day of learning and developing our leadership skills together. There was plenty of interaction with the audience and lots of notes taken down by our students. Our parents should be so proud as our students were so well behaved throughout the day. The students` heard stories from young leaders who were making a positive difference in their communities. They were encouraged to make a change for their better in their school and community and they were told that they are never too young or old to make a difference. There was lots of audience participation, games, and dancing and plenty of time to ask and answer questions. It was a long day, but it was enjoyed by all.

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

Breakfast has been very popular at the start of the year. We are averaging around 60 students each day of operation. If your student needs breakfast, 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 'pop up' style from 8:15 – 8:45am down at the entry to the grade 1 - 2 classrooms. Students can enjoy a range of foods, including toast with vegemite, butter or jam, small UHT milk packs, fruit cups and fresh fruit. We are very thankful to our parents who help out with the preparation of food at breakfast club.

Food Pantry

The food pantry will now be open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons between 2:30 and 3:30pm. Please note the pantry will close early on Monday’s. We have had a lot of donations coming in from parents, so our pantry has become very full of a wide range of items, including fresh produce. Thanks to all those who have donated. 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.