Wellbeing

SFS Twilight Market and Art show 

ONLY 1 week to go!!!!!!!!

The Twilight market/art show is on Thursday 3rd November from 5pm until 8pm. There are a variety of stalls booked in including clothing, homeware, jewellery, some delicious food trucks and so much more. Make sure you invite your family and friends. A reminder to please bring coins and paper money as school lead stalls will not have eftpos facilities. 

Gardening 4 Kids fundraiser

ALL ORDERS NEED TO BE COMPLETED BY TUESDAY 1st NOVEMBER. LAST CHANCE TO ORDER SOME GARDENING SUPPLIES AND RAISE SOME MONEY FOR THE SCHOOL AND SAVE ON SHIPPING FEES.

We have an opportunity to raise some money for our community garden. Please read the following for more information.

What’s in it for me?   You will have access to Australia’s largest online range of quality children’s gardening gloves, tools, equipment and seed growing kits.  You will be able to shop online and have your order delivered to school for collection, so you won’t pay shipping costs!

What’s in it for the school?  10% of all sales will go towards our Community Garden.

To be involved simply make an online purchase from Gardening 4 Kids – www.gardening4kids.com.au between now and Tuesday 1st of November and use the discount code SFDS10% at checkout.  This code will entitle you to zero shipping costs and the school will receive 10% of your order total.  

Your order will be available for collection at the twilight market on Thursday 3rd of November. For any queries about Gardening 4 Kids products, please email info@gardening4kids.com.au

Positive Behaviours for Learning (PBL) 

This term we are continuing to imbed Positive Behaviours for Learning (PBL) with the students and school community. PBL is a framework that we are using to teach the children about expected behaviours in different parts of the school. The children will have a weekly social skills lesson on a Monday identifying a specific social skill we would like the children to learn and practice around our school expectations of 

RESPECT

RESPONSIBILITY and 

KINDNESS

This week we have chosen to continue focusing on the expectation of RESPOSNIBILITY in the learning spaces and “transition quietly”, with a particular focus on transitioning to Specialists classes. The children have been making videos to show what this looks like.

FREINDSHIP PROBLEMS

A common problem that arises in Primary school and parents often speak to me about is problems with friendships. You may find the following article helpful that is taken from the Parenting Ideas school website. 

“Relatively small issues, like not being invited to a party, can arouse big, intense feelings in our kids. Because belonging is at stake, friendship challenges will always feel like a life-threatening experience – so be assured that most parents find themselves dealing with powerful tears and shattering disappointments after tricky friendship days.

It is easy for both parents and teachers to fall into the trap of trying to “dial down the drama” when our kids feel overwhelmed. However, minimising or dismissing strong feelings will only tend to ramp them up, because our tween’s brains seek to be heard and understood in the process of regulating. I’d also like to suggest that it denies our children the opportunity to master these big feelings. Our kids need to feel to practise the emotional regulation strategies they need to navigate life well.

I want to share three practical strategies that parents can do to support their tweens during these moments. Friendship challenges are an incredibly rich platform to help kids learn emotional regulation strategies, as well as social skills, and we want to capitalise on both as we coach them forward.

Strategy 1: Let’s not fight the intensity

The more I learn about emotions the more I am in awe of our body’s way of coming up with solutions to discomfort, anguish and pain we experience. It doesn’t make any sense to judge that process but rather appreciate it. That’s why we want tweens to know there are no bad or good emotions. There are only healthy emotions, and each one of them is an acceptable and necessary part of being human. Ideally, we want tweens to feel safe to feel, without shame or guilt.  This means accepting emotions within our home, in the same way we accept anything else about ourselves (or our experiences) that we cannot change – our age, our height, freckles or ears.

Strategy 2: Ask questions that empower

Although it’s tempting (and much quicker) to offer children prescription answers to friendship problems, it won’t help them in the long term. The problem with childhood conflict always being followed by adult intervention, is that kids can get into the habit of projecting their wishful thinking onto someone else who they perceive as being more powerful than they are.

If our children focus their energy on recruiting support rather than problem-solving, they miss vital learning opportunities. We are best to ask questions that express a sense of curiosity and empower them to take ownership.

Strategy 3: Find a positive expression

Whereas there are times that we suppress our painful emotions for our own survival, emotions are far better off moving through our kids rather than festering inside them.

One of my dearly loved local psychotherapists wisely tells me that children who have imaginations become their own play therapists. Play is a distraction that pulls kids out of their heads and into their bodies. Any type of play including immersing themselves in craft, participating in drama, dance, or sport, or building forts, slides and adventure courses are all helpful..

In closing - 

Home really is the hero in kids’ lives. It is the emotional shield from all that hurts us, bothers us, and tires us. It’s a place where love is tangible, and we are cared for in ways that make it easier for us to move back into the world with a soft heart. It’s the Utopia that we all yearn for and strive towards. When they feel disappointed, lost, afraid or disoriented it will be the predictability of home that continues to welcome them with open arms and wise words. As you implement these strategies, know you are offering your tween the home they deserve.

Michelle Mitchell presents: Handling tricky friendship days

Our school has a membership with Parenting Ideas. As part of this membership, you can attend the upcoming webinar ‘Handling tricky friendship days’ at no cost.

About

In this webinar, Michelle Mitchell offers a set of practical guiding principles to help empower children to handle tricky friendship days.

When  Wednesday 2 November 2022 8:00pm AEDT

To redeem

1. Click this link: https://www.parentingideas.com.au/parent-resources/parent-webinars/webinar-handling-tricky-friendship-days 
2. Click ‘Add to cart’
3. Click ‘View cart’
4. Enter the coupon code FRIENDS and click ‘Apply Coupon’ Your discount of $39 will be applied.
5. Click ‘Proceed to checkout’
6. Fill in your account details including our school’s name to verify your eligibility. These are the details you will use to login to your account and access your webinar and resources
7. Click ‘Place Order’

This offer is valid until 31 December 2022. If you’re unable to make the broadcast time, just register anyway and you will get access to the recording.

Michelle Mitchell

Michelle Mitchell is an award-winning speaker, and bestselling parenting author. She has been termed ‘the teenage expert’ by the media and is sought after for her compassionate and grounded advice for parenting tweens and teens. Michelle started her career as a teacher, but soon discovered a special interest in wellbeing. For further details visit www.michellemitchell.org

If you have any questions or concerns about the wellbeing of your child please do not hesitate to contact me rlenko@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au

Rachel Lenko

Student Wellbeing Leader