Dear Parents and Guardians,

Last week I shared a reflection that prompted a number of members of our community to share how the ‘boat analogy’ had helped to encapsulate their way of making sense of pandemic circumstances. I hope that these last few days and the coming days of spring weather have also contributed to providing a “lift” for you and your loved ones.

R U OK Day 10th September

Today our school community is celebrating R U OK Day in a bid to support awareness of the importance of mental health and wellbeing. Students and staff are being encouraged to wear yellow or a splash of yellow to highlight today. At our school assembly we shared a special St Simon’s staff video message that highlighted some of the ways you can look after your own mental health and wellbeing.

Whole School Assembly - Live stream

If you would like to view our school assembly live stream event please send an email to office@ssrowville.catholic.edu.au

Uniform shop update

With the announcement of some students returning to the onsite learning in Term 4 the Uniform shop will be open for limited trading from Term 4 Week 1 subject to health advice and restrictions. Orders for uniform items can be placed via email using the uniform order form. When orders are ready for collection families will be notified to come and collect from the school office.

The school is currently in the process of ordering a new summer dress that will bring this item into line with the recent update of the school uniform colours of navy and gold. These dresses are not expected until late in Term 4 and hence anyone requiring a new dress size for Term 4 can access the existing brown and white dress for $15 rather than the usual $38. This dress colour will still be able to be worn throughout 2021/2022 while we do this final transition.

Navy caps will now be worn for all year levels except Prep who will remain in the gold. Existing 2020 Preps can purchase the navy one ready for Grade 1 in 2021. Other year levels do not need to replace current existing brown hat. If a replacement is needed this will be in the new navy colour.

National eSmart Week 6-12th September

Our school has registered to take part in National eSmart Week. eSmart is an initiative of the Alannah & Madeline Foundation and is all about building supportive and connected social environments both on and offline.

At the start of this year, who would have thought that some schools would be in remote learning, and spending more time online than ever before? Our school community has done an amazing job at adapting throughout this year.

This year’s National eSmart Week theme is Connecting Safely. The week from 6-12 September celebrates the work schools have done to connect safely.

In the meantime, we’d like to thank you for all that you have done to ensure that our school has kept Connecting Safely in 2020!

A Final Word...

Throughout this time of lockdown and the response to the pandemic, parents are looking for help or trying to make sense of how life in lockdown can be bearable and managed. Recently a resource was shared with me by one of our parents (thank you Tina Constanzo) that may be of interest to you. It is a recording of a public webinar hosted by well known psychologist Dr Justin Coulson, happyfamilies.com.au. The title of the webinar is Lightening the Lockdown Load and it captures some of the broad issues and themes of what families are having to deal with at this time. Engaging with this resource and others like it may be helpful for families at this time.

God bless

Tom Wursthorn

Principal

Reading Challenge

St Simon ' s 4 week Reading Challenge!!