Student
Wellbeing

Awards

School Wide Positive Behaviour Support

After our recent focus on being safe and respectful when using the toilets, we are pleased to announce that we have experienced great improvement over the past couple of weeks.

This fortnight, our focus shifts to keeping up healthy hygiene in the colder weather. Unfortunately, at present we have a number of colds and flu within our community.

Mini Blitz: Be Safe (and Healthy)

Now the weather is cold and the sun has gone away,
Remember to sanitise our hands regularly throughout the day
and coughing into our elbow will also help keep the germs away!

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 into house team and class totals. We announce these results at assembly.

Backhaus House Celebration Lunch

Last Thursday 5th of June, the students of Bakhaus (Yellow) House celebrated winning the Term One pebble challenge! They spent time together sharing plenty of smiles, music, pizza and hot chips!

Resilient Youth Survey - Screen Time

As mentioned previously, our Year 3-6s completed a survey that explored each students resilience and general wellbeing.

Over the coming editions of the newsletter, we will continue to share some “snapshots” of our data.

This week we wanted to highlight the screen time that our students are being exposed to.

The graph below shows each year levels average screen time usage. The bold line indicates the average. (Girls-green & Boys-purple)

Our Year 3 girls average 2.5 hours daily and boys 3.2 hours daily.

Our Year 4 girls average 2.1 hours daily and boys 2.8 hours daily.

Our Year 5 girls average 2.5 hours daily and boys 3 hours daily.

Our Year 6 girls average 2.9 hours daily and boys 3.1 hours daily.

If you are finding that your child is experiencing difficulties regulating their screen time, please read over some of the wonderful advice from the Raising Children Network Australia website in the link below.

https://raisingchildren.net.au/school-age/media-technology/screen-time-healthy-screen-use/healthy-screen-time-6-11-years

School age screen time: Tips for balance

Key points

Screen time and digital technology use can be part of a healthy lifestyle when balanced with other activities.
Activities that are important for children’s development include physical play, creative play, reading, socialising and sleep.
Family rules can help you balance screen time and other activities for children.

Attendance

Each edition of the newsletter we will share the attendance percentage from the previous two weeks. Below is a break down of the previous fortnight. The aim is 95% attendance.

Unfortunately, we had no year levels that reached this goal over the past two weeks. Once again, there have been a number of colds and bugs going around recently. We did have an increase in attendance across most year levels which is positive! Hopefully we can stay healthy and boost these numbers for the remainder of term.

Year Level	School Attendance Percentage
Foundation	89.97%
Year 1	89.53%
Year 2	91.92%
Year 3	91.97%
Year 4	90.89%
Year 5	91.52%
Year 6	83.46%
School Average	89.89%

Fresh Fruit Friday

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

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 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.

2023_Seasons for Growth CCYP Factsheet_SCREEN.pdf