School Wide Positive Behaviour Support

This fortnight, our focus is on being calm and ready to learn. This includes being calm when we line up, being calm when we move in and out of buildings as well as creating a calm environment in our classrooms so we are always ready to learn.

Mini Blitz: Be a Learner

We can all help create a calm and safe school,
always being ready to learn is our rule.

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.

Walk to School Day

Well done to all those students and families who joined us this morning for National Walk to School Day! Just like our Ride2School day last term, we were once again encouraged by how many eager participants there were this morning! Thank you to everyone who braved the cold and joined in the fun.

Thank you to Woolworths in Kangaroo Flat who kindly donated the fresh fruit which was enjoyed by our hungry walkers once arriving at school.

Resilient Youth Survey

Our Year 3-6s recently completed a survey that explored each students resilience and general wellbeing. This week, we were fortunate to meet with the facilitators of Resilient Youth, who explained the results of our data and provided us with strategies to best support our students moving forward.

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

This week we wanted to highlight the importance of sleep, in particular maintaining quality sleep hygiene. The graph below shows where we are comparatively to the Australian average. Unfortunately, as you can see both our female and male students in Year 6 as well as our Year 4 males fall below the Australian average.

If you are finding it difficult to create or maintain a healthy sleep routine with your child, please read over some of the wonderful advice from the Royal Children’s Hospital in the link below. The ideas and support regarding building bedtime behaviours, responding to resistance as well as dealing with bedtime worries are highly helpful.

https://www.rch.org.au/kidsinfo/fact_sheets/Bedtime_problems/

Sleep problems - children and teens

Key points
- Sleep is a key part of healthy growth and development for children and teens.
- There are average ranges for how much sleep children need at different ages, but every child has individual sleep needs.
- Factors like caffeine and screens can lead to poorer quality sleep and delay your child falling asleep.
- Follow a consistent and predictable bedtime routine, and be clear with your child about acceptable behaviour.
- Try not to negotiate with your child at bedtime and aim to remain calm and consistent.
- Positive reinforcement is an important part of behaviour change. Praise and reward your child for their healthy bedtime habits when they wake up the next morning.
- If your child has nighttime worries, assure them you are confident in their ability to deal with them and that they are safe. If these worries are ongoing or severe, see a mental health professional for review and support.

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. There have been a number of colds and bugs going around recently. Hopefully we can stay healthy and boost these numbers for the remainder of term.

Year Level	School Attendance Percentage
Foundation	83.61%
Year 1	91.08%
Year 2	90.16%
Year 3	89.38%
Year 4	83.41%
Year 5	89.86%
Year 6	80.74%
School Average	86.09%

We continue to strengthen our partnership with the Resilience Project. Teachers were lucky enough to be joined by TRP at a recent staff meeting, where we explored how we can continue to embed the GEM principles (Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness) into our day-to-day life. Keep an eye out for some family initiatives we hope to share in this space soon!

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.

Helpful Parent resources:

rch.org.au
earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au
parentingideas.com.au
australia.gov.au
kidsafe.com.au
betterhealth.vic.gov.au
kidsmatter.edu.au
youtube.com - Centre on the Developing Child at Harvard University

YMCA Before/After School Care