Dear Families,

Although it has been a shorter than usual week we still managed to pack a lot in the four days. I hope everyone had a great long weekend, I know for me it was a valued opportunity to catch up with friends and family that I haven’t seen in a long time, as well as providing additional time for a ‘battery recharge’. We started off the week with our second open morning and I would like to thank the parents who graciously gave up their time to give tours to prospective parents, I know they couldn’t have been in better hands. I gave one tour myself and couldn’t have been more proud of our students and teachers who got straight into learning, the feel of the classrooms was just outstanding.

Lawn Bowls:

Thank you to Mr Cleary and Mrs Smith who walked down to Caulfield Park with our lawn bowls team. The bowls club, the teachers, and the organisers gave great feedback on how the team conducted themselves and they should all be proud of their behaviour and effort. Thankfully the rain for the most part held off. Please read further to find some pictures and reflections from the day.

National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA)

On Friday 18 March 2022, St Joseph’s students and staff participated in the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA). The NDA is Australia’s key bullying prevention initiative, connecting schools and communities to find workable solutions to prevent bullying. Our students enjoyed an incursion provided by the organisation, ‘Values for Life’, called “Bully-Proof”. Values for Life ran three sessions, one for the Prep - 2’s, the second for students in years 3-4 and the final session was for our 5-6 students. Here are some quotes from our students about the incursion.

Elsie Whittle

Luca:

The incursion was interesting and I never knew you could speak up to a bully, I thought you could just walk away. I learnt a lot.

Freddie:

I enjoyed the incursion, I really enjoyed the skateboard thing at the start, I never knew that I could walk away from a bully if I was feeling sad.

Lucy:

I learnt that if I don’t ask someone ‘are you ok?’ if they tripped over they may still be sad.

Fabien:

I learnt that if someone does something I don’t like I can tell them ‘I don’t like that’. If they take something I can ask for it back. It was a fun incursion.

Seb:

I enjoyed the incursion because I liked when Tim made an empty can of Coke magically fill up, I learnt that there are different ways you can be bullied and that if someone is being bullied you can help them out.

Alyssia:

I learnt that you can stay calm and walk away if someone is being mean to you. I enjoyed the incursion, I liked it when he did the card trick.

Lucy:

I learnt that sometimes you can talk through your problems and feelings when you have a disagreement.

The theme for the 2022 NDA is Kindness Culture. Our students will be encouraged to demonstrate a Kindness Culture by promoting inclusiveness, respect and community belonging for all students. Showing kindness and compassion is something we, as adults and role models, can teach through our own actions and behaviours towards others. On Wednesday 23rd March, the students will participate in another incursion: “Great Mates”, which will focus on key skills and navigating friendships.

Planning for a safe and supportive school community requires a whole-school community approach. Whole-school responses to bullying prevention build positive and supportive school environments by incorporating strategies for intervention at all levels, inclusive of students, teachers, parents and carers.

Three key characteristics outlined in the national definition of bullying distinguish bullying behaviours from other forms of peer aggression behaviours that do not constitute bullying. The key characteristics of bullying include:

1. power imbalance

2. deliberate intent to cause harm, and

3. ongoing and repeated behaviour.

While the following behaviours of peer aggression do not constitute bullying, these behaviours may still be serious and require intervention at home and at school:

· arguments and disagreements (where there is no power imbalance)

· single acts of social rejection or meanness, or

· isolated incidents of aggression, intimidation or violence.

It is important for our entire school community, including our staff, parents, carers and students to have a clear understanding of the definition of bullying to be able to distinguish these behaviours from peer aggression, and correctly identify and respond to incidents of bullying.

Next Week:

Next week, the students will be attending a couple of incursions; with the 3-4 students taking part in an incursion on their Term topic, called Democracy, Community and Me. Mrs Carmen and Mrs O’Dwyer have formed a partnership with Bunnings who will be coming in on Tuesday and will work with students on improving our ‘Eco Village’ even further. On Wednesday, we will welcome back ‘Values for Life’ who will run their second incursion ‘Great Mates’ for the school. The teachers will follow up with work and reflections from NDA week and the SRCs will share their insights and next week's assembly at 09:00am.

And Finally……

On behalf of the whole school community, I would like to wish Mrs Moore a fantastic break back in the UK while she is taking some much deserved long service leave!

Kind Regards

Martin Earl

Scholastic Parent Representative Required