From the Principal
Grandparents Day
We are looking forward to welcoming grandparents to St Francis de Sales on Monday 1st August at 10am to celebrate our first Grandparents Day. Thank you to the parents who have responded to the Operoo eform to enable us to organise the day and the catering for morning tea.
Grandparents may enter the Learning Space directly from the playground or can enter via the front entrance. The wearing of a mask is strongly encouraged.
The program
10 to 11 - Activities in the Learning Space
11 to 11:30 - Morning tea for grandparents in the Community Room
11:30 to 12:30 - Prayer service and activities in the Learning Space.
Please RSVP via Operoo by Tuesday 26 July so we are able to finalise our plans for this special day.
It is important and helpful if grandparents know which colour space they will be visiting on arrival. e.g. Learning Space 1 juniors ( Red building)
Positive Behaviour for Learning
On Monday 25 July we launched our Positive Behaviour for Learning Program. Our focus expected behaviours are:
Respect
Responsibility
Kindness
We have launched our explicit teaching with a focus on respect in the classroom - listen and follow instructions. This week we have discussed ways we can be a good listener.
During the day the children and staff voted for the mascot we will have for our PBL program at St Francis de Sales. The mascot we have decided on is a rainbow Lorikeet. The Rainbow lorikeet has all the colours of our school buildings in its amazing colours. It is a bird that is native to our area and often can be seen in our school grounds. We decided a bird that soars and flies high is a good mascot as we too soar and fly high as a positive behaviour for learning school. We will get our logo designed and hope to release the PBL logo before the end of this term.
Steel Works Commence
On Wednesday 27 July the steel support beams arrived. Before we could blink twice they were being lifted into position to form the framework for our Multi-purpose Hall. The children were fascinated to see the big crane at work and the way the building is taking shape. It certainly looks BIG!! While we have had a few delays due to rain, we are still on schedule for the building to be completed for the start of the 2023 school year.
BODYWORKS - Save the Date
PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS
Parents play a vital role in the development of healthy, life-long behaviours in our children.
A Parent Information Session will be held on Monday 22 August 2022 at 7pm for the parents of all Year 5 and 6. This session will be held via ZOOM to make it easier for parents to participate. Please save this important date. Further details will be shared via Operoo. Session with students will commence this term after the Parent information session and conclude in early Term 4.
Tik Tok
Social media has many positives but this medium also has risks for our students. The landscape for parents and teachers is constantly changing. With the support of experts in the field we need to work together to keep our children safe.
Tik Tok is one that on the face of it seems harmless but is also one in the news of late with lots of warnings. This app is for children 13+ for good reason. At school we have Go guardian and other safe guards that do not allow children to search inappropriate content. Unfortunately this may not be the case at home unless you have put in safe guards. While we guard the safety of who enters our home with security doors and security cameras, this level of safe guard is not always in place online. Do you really know who your child is communicating with. We have recently been alarmed by the content of Tik Tok posts being published publicly by some of our students. Do you have checks to see what content your child is looking at or posting on social media? Recently we have had to follow up on an inappropriate post created on the weekend!! While it was not during school hours it cannot be ignored if it involves students at the school. Photos that children post publicly can and was used without permission and nearly all parents we spoke to were not aware of their child's online activity. We ask parents to support us by following the rules around social media and by being vigilant of what their child is doing. Add extra safe guards to ensure your child is safe online while at home.
eSafety runs free webinars for parents and carers of school-aged children. FREE webinars on Tik Tok will be held in August and I encourage parents to be informed and register for a session. Learn about TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube and help your children stay safe online. If you would like to learn more about how we are supporting families to be safer online, visit esafety.gov.au
Keep warm and safe. Have a great weekend.
Christine White
Principal