13 September 2021

Newsletter Articles

Our Mission @ SJM

St James’ Primary School community excel in education through living and learning in Christ.

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Prayer

Lord, I prayer you give me the strength to listen and hear you and that I always have an open heart, Amen. St Vincent de Paul Society good works

Principal’s Message

Wow, what a term! What started as a normal term changed very quickly, didn’t it? As we head into our 6th week of lockdown, I would like to congratulate the entire SJM community for their fortitude and determination to ensure that learning, although very different, continues for our students. There is no right way that’s for sure. As I have always said, the most important thing is the mental health and wellbeing of you and your family. I strongly believe this.

Home learning has challenged all of us, including me. I have been home at least 3 days a week completing all my work, whilst caring for the educational needs of three children. It’s a tough gig! I take my hat off to all of you for doing this each day.

Our home learning page – continues to be your first port of call for all of your home learning needs…..plus more. A big thank you to Mrs Shannon Hall for managing this website so superbly.

A big thank you to the teachers for all their hard work and dedication to their students. It is easy to sit back and expect teachers to deliver a normal classroom each day, but we, too, are challenged by the COVID lockdown, with all of the pressure that most people experience….. we experience them too. To all my staff, I take my hat off to you for providing amazing support for your students and their families. I do hope you take time across the next two weeks to relax and recuperate after a stressful and busy term.

St James’ is a proud Catholic School, committed to educating the whole child. We want our students to learn, laugh and have fun each day. Even through lockdown we have ensured our students are doing this, both those at home and those at school. We have encouraged our students in more than academics, but also through mental health initiatives, outdoor fitness, and fun.

We want to continue to nurture character strengths like bravery, creativity, curiosity, gratitude, hope, humour, kindness, love, love of learning, perseverance and self-regulation. Students are aware of these character strengths through being taught these at school, and I believe these strengths will continue to keep them in good stead in life if we keep supporting and nurturing our students…our children. Obviously, we all have our highs and lows, our good days and bad, but nurturing and developing these strengths should guide us through any low points.

Congratulations to all our staff for providing tremendous online opportunities. The Catholic Schools Office states ‘a minimum of two contact sessions per week with all students is strongly recommended. This contact may be made by the class teacher, a grade/stage teacher and/or a specialist teacher e.g. Aboriginal Education teacher, EALD teacher.’

It is great to see we go above and beyond that. Our ZOOM sessions include:

• Sessions with the classroom teachers
• Mindful Minutes each day with Miss Hand
• CREST Crew – Yarning Circles with Mrs Thompson
• CILS Groups
• Deadly Science with Mrs Thompson
• Taronga Zoo excursions with Mrs Wilson
• Stage Q & As for families
• Author visits
• Online concerts
• Weekly trivia
• Weekly disco

So, as you can see, there are many opportunities for your children across the week. We are doing our best to provide options for your family to take part in across the week.

It has been great to catch up with many of you online, via phone or email. It is pleasing to know that the overwhelming majority of our parents confirm that we are supporting the needs of their family. Thank you for your feedback. We might not get it right all the time, but we do our best and we are human. Please remember that the teachers or exec are always available to chat with you.

Can I also thank you so very much for your support of our staff, from flowers, chocolates, donuts, scones and just the beautiful feedback we receive regularly. Thank you so much for this. We appreciate you!

Cakes by Tamara

I found out on the weekend that the SJM staff were nominated, and subsequently won, the weekly sponsored cookies from Cakes by Tamara. Many deserving essential services were nominated with us.

We are grateful to be receiving these beautiful bikkies. Thanks.

Care Packages

In the midst of this lockdown in was lovely that our school could deliver some much-needed love to our Muswellbrook community in the form of care packages. Thank you to Mrs Ballard and Mrs Jacobs who organised these packages for our community. The children beautifully decorated paper bags that were filled with goodies…. from puzzle pages, craft items, lollies, bikkies, chocolates, tea, coffee, and soap, just to name a few items.

These were delivered with love to the residents of Calvary Retirement community and to members of our wider community by members of the Parish and the staff at Hammond Care. It was great to be apart of such a worthwhile exercise and we hope to continue this next term.

Family Gift Packs

We have been organising a little gift pack for our families… all 210 of you! It’s not much, but it has been put together with love for you. We would like to thank Bengalla Mining Company who has come on board and given us a bounce ball for each family too. This is part of the pack.

We invite you to come to school and drive in to collect these. We will have a drive through collection bay for you. There will be no need to get out of your car. Some of our staff will deliver these to your car. These will be available between 9:30am – 2pm on Thursday 16th September.

NAPLAN Results Year 3 & 5 – Now Available

Year 3 and Year 5 2022 NAPLAN will also be made available this week. We will have these available when you collect the family packs on Thursday 16th September.

We will do a school NAPLAN analysis in the coming weeks and will report important information and trends with you soon. Stay tuned.

School Uniform Update

When students return to school in Term 4 it is expected that they will be in full summer uniform.

Girls Summer Option - We hope to have the girls summer uniform, consisting of a shirt and skort, to be available in the first two weeks of Term 4. Please stay tuned for any updates.

Survey Results for Modifying the School Tracksuit – We had 91 people respond to the survey and 83% of respondents agree with a move to a more predominately blue tracksuit.

We will order the new tracksuit as soon as possible as it will take 4 – 5 months to be ready for school use. We do still have a lot of current stock, and this will be available until sold out.

Please know that this tracksuit will be phased in over two years. That means either the maroon or blue tracksuit can be worn for the next two years.

If you have any questions, please contact Virginia or myself.

SJM Challenges

It has been great to see lots of families participating in our ISO Lockdown Challenges. From CrossFit to memes and drawing. It’s nice to just take our mind off life for that fraction of a second. It is great to see the smiles on people’s faces too.

As you may know, each holiday I try to come up with a series of challenges to keep our school community engaged. This holiday is no different.

These holidays I will be preparing a series of family trivia challenges on KAHOOT. There will be 6 challenges, with the links being posted on the school’s Facebook page.

In each challenge the family in:

• 1st place will receive 3 points
• 2nd place will receive 2 points
• 3rd place will receive 1 point

At the end of the 6 challenges the family with the most points will win. They will receive a prize courtesy of Nat and the team at CrossFit MBK.

I do hope you will take part as a family and join in the fun!!

As we head to the holidays, I wish you a relaxing break. I do hope you take the time to refresh and relax and reset for another term, whatever that may be.

Please know that I will keep you informed of any changes in relation to a return to school for students of SJM. At this stage we will have a staggered returned to school from 25th October. However, if we come out of lockdown before then we will be back earlier. Fingers crossed!

Religion

Last week the Catholic Church celebrated the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Wednesday 8 September). Mary plays an important role in our faith. She is a wonderful role model. Mary has the biggest job on earth which was to simply lead all humans to Jesus. The first time we ever heard about Mary in the Bible is the Annunciation story (Luke 1: 26-38). It is clear from this story that Mary is significant in God’s plan.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth. He had a message for a young woman promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of King David. Her name was Mary. The angel came to her and said, “Peace be with you! The Lord is with you and has greatly blessed you!”

Mary was deeply troubled by the angel’s message, and she wondered what his words meant. The angel said to her “Don’t be afraid, Mary; God has been gracious to you. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. The Lord God will make him a king, as his ancestor David was, and he will be the king of the descendants of Jacob for ever; his kingdom will never end!”

Mary said to the angel, “I am a virgin. How, then, can this be?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God’s power will rest upon you. For this reason the holy child will be called the Son of God. Remember your relative Elizabeth. It is said that she cannot have children, but she herself is now six months pregnant, even though she is very old. For there is nothing that God cannot do.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary: “may it happen to me as you have said.” And the angel left her.

Imagine receiving the tap on the shoulder from the angel Gabriel.

Who is Mary for you?

What qualities do you recognize in her?

Litany of Mary of Nazareth

Mary, wellspring of peace .......... Be our guide.

Model of strength .......... Be our guide.

Model of gentleness .......... Be our guide.

Model of trust .......... Be our guide.

Model of courage .......... Be our guide.

Model of patience.......... Be our guide.

Oppressed woman ………. Lead us to life.

Comforter of the afflicted ………. Lead us to life.

Cause of our joy ………. Lead us to life.

Political refugee………. Lead us to life.

Seeker of sanctuary ………. Lead us to life.

First disciple ………. Lead us to life.

Woman of mercy ………. Empower us.

Woman of faith………. Empower us.

Woman of vision ………. Empower us.

Woman of wisdom and understanding ………. Empower us.

Woman of grace and truth ………. Empower us.

Woman, pregnant with hope ………. Empower us.

Woman, centered in God ………. Empower us.

Next term, our school is partnering with Catholic Mission by participating in Socktober. We invite our students to connect with young people experiencing challenges in the developing world through education and the world game of soccer.

This year, our collective fundraising efforts will support vulnerable children in Thailand through a kindergarten run by the Good Shepherd Sisters in Bangkok. The kindergarten provides a caring learning environment for the children and allows their parents, often single mothers, to work and support the family.

The Mini Vinnies students will share more information about Socktober next term. Please keep a look out to see how you can help raise vital funds for Catholic Mission.

May your lamp continue to burn brightly,

Mrs Jane Jacobs
Religious Education Coordinator

Last week was national Child Protection week. The 2021 themes is

Every child, in every community, needs a fair go.

To treat all of Australia’s children fairly, we need to make sure every family and community has what kids need to thrive and be healthy.

The 2021 theme for National Child Protection Week is all about the importance of the ‘bigger picture’ in addressing child abuse and neglect.

Children can thrive and be healthy when they have what they need to develop well. But not every family has these resources. This is why we need to support every child, family and community according to their needs.

This will create a healthier, fairer Australia for all children.

A lot of great research is helping us understand more and more about what children need to thrive. Child Protection Week 2021 will be an opportunity to translate this knowledge into action. All skillsets, all people, and all communities are assets in this important endeavour.

Let’s make sure our neighbourhoods have strong foundations for families and children – jobs, safe places, libraries, parks, playgrounds, schools, child care, affordable housing, health services, social activities, clubs, friendly neighbours, businesses and more.

Many of you are already playing your part every day – as individuals, as community members, as volunteers and as workers – to help create these great communities for children.

When we do this together we can give
‘every child, in every neighbourhood, a fair go’.

Why environment matters … toxic stress

Minor, everyday stresses are a healthy part of child development, but major stressors can have a long-term effect on children’s brain development and even on their physical health. Severe adversity that lasts over long periods of time can send the body’s stress systems into permanent high alert, flooding the body’s vital organs and the brain with stress hormones. This ‘toxic stress’ response can derail healthy development and has even been linked to adult health problems like heart disease and diabetes.

The environment in which a child lives can be the source of significant stress or support for children. For instance, living in a community with not enough jobs, with poverty, or with high rates of abuse and violence creates stress that can stop children from getting a strong foundation for life.

When we address these root causes of stress, we create healthier communities for everyone, particularly children.

Further, research tells us there is a powerful source of protection against the long-term negative effects of adversity on children. What is it? Stable, supportive relationships with caring adults. These relationships actually buffer them from toxic stress, softening and moderating the biological stress response.

Providing every family and community with the robust system of supports they need, has tremendous power to build these critical relationships between children and caring adults.

This is one of the most important investments we can make.

Taken from the link below:

During the week the teachers discussed with the students their safety network. This safety network consists of 5 trusted adults that they can talk to about anything and 5 trusted adults who will always listen.

To spread the message for our students, we created a wall of hands which encouraged students to think about who they can trust and opened the conversation about what it means to feel safe and secure. These hands created an opportunity for the students to think about the people they trust if they feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

Assistant Principal

In this time of continual change, I want to thank you for your support, engagement and understanding. The positive take up of our SJM Home Learning site, your commitment to ensuring students attend Zoom meetings, and engagement with our school Facebook page has brought a smile to our faces. As teachers we are planners. In the current climate this is challenging. Our plans are changed daily and sometimes hourly! We are continually required to rapidly adapt and keep moving forward. Please continue to positively engage with us. As a community we are mindful of the impact these changes have made to all our lives.

I am including the content from my last newsletter, as I am continuing to be asked the same questions this week. Please take the time to read my responses to your questions and concerns. I assure you … it is OK if you are not coping at the moment …. What is not OK is if you keep trying to persevere and push through whatever it is that is not working. I give you permission to say … I HAVE HAD ENOUGH. I give you permission to say …. LET’S STOP FOR TODAY. I give you permission to say …. LET’S DO THAT A LITTLE DIFFERENT TO WHAT THE TEACHER SAID. Finally, I give you permission to say …. I HAVE DONE MY BEST!

The Catholic Schools Office has provided us with an outline of recommended time for learning at home. I know you have seen this before, but I include it again, as I want you to know that YOU ARE DOING MORE THAN ENOUGH. This learning time includes any Zoom meetings that you have with your teacher. This learning time includes reading a story together at bed time. This learning time includes playing with Lego and working out the area of the house you built using that Lego. This learning time includes jumping on the trampoline and counting. This learning time includes family time to talk about your day and appreciate the good things in your life. There are so many ways to learn … please value all of these activities as important for learning. Learning time is not only about the worksheets finished by the end of the day. Learning time is finding something that your child is interested in and building that into your day. I know in my heart, that the students who still love learning at the end of this lockdown will be the ones who come back to school and thrive with the learning time that they have with their teacher before the end of the year. I ask that we all work towards the same goal … OUR KIDS NEED TO LOVE LEARNING …. IN WHATEVER SHAPE OR FORM THAT TAKES FOR YOUR CHILD!

FROM MY LAST NEWSLETTER …

Don’t forget to visit the SJM Home Learning site

As you know, all of the learning for our students can be found on the SJM Home Learning site We know that many of you are coming into school to pick up the copied booklets of work, but these should be completed in conjunction with the information on the site. Lots of the worksheets in the booklets will not make sense unless you see the resources that go with it one the site. I cannot stress enough the importance of visiting this site regularly. Lots of teachers have included videos where they are explaining a new concept, or there are PowerPoints that teachers have prepared to revise concepts already covered in class before the lockdown.

What’s new on the SJM Home Learning site?

We are doing our very best to ensure you have everything that you need, and the only way can get this to everyone is to put it on that site. We have tried to make it easy by adding a WHAT’S NEW page to the site , which shows you when we add something to the site … you can just go there to see if there is anything new for your child’s class, instead of looking through the pages every day.

What if I have a question about home learning?

If you have a question about home learning, your first contact should be your child’s teacher. Don’t forget, they are receiving almost double or sometime triple the email messages that they normally get into their inbox, and they are doing their best to reply to each of them as quickly as they can.

My child has finished the booklet of work, what now?

We have had quite a few people try and drop their booklets of work back to us here at school. We ask that you please keep these booklets at home with you. The teachers have asked that you take a photo or scan any work that you would like them to have a look at (either you are proud of it and want to share it with your teacher, or your teacher may have asked you to submit that piece of work so that they can see how you are going with learning at home). The teachers email address are at the top of the class or stage page on the SJM Home Learning site. If you finish all of the work before the end of the week and you are looking for something extra, please visit the other pages on the SJM Home Learning site. We have ideas for movement, creative arts, literacy and numeracy. There are lots of options that you could try while you are at home.

My child is learning at home with me, do I have to mark them as absent in Compass?

We have been advised that you will not need to enter your child’s absence into Compass whilst we are in lockdown. We have been advised to enter all students into a LEARNING FROM HOME event Compass, which means the absence will not be counted as an absence for official records for your child. If your child does need to be at school for the day, we will then enter them here at school using our processes, ensuring we have a record of the students who are on site if we have an emergency.

What happens if we don’t get the work done?

Please don’t worry about not getting the work done. Everyone’s home learning schedule is different. Everyone’s time allocation for home learning is different. Children complete activities at different paces. If you need a day to be a family and have a breather from home learning, then please do that. If you are finding that you are having a day where the home learning is causing nothing but arguments, please stop and have a break for the day. Children learn in so many different ways. Ask them to go and jump on the trampoline and count, or recite their timetables, or spell their spelling words out loud as they jump. Ask them to write numbers or spelling words on the pavement with a wet paint brush. Get out the lego and build something. Find a scene in their favourite movie and ask them to describe what they see. Water the garden and say thank you for the beautiful things we have in our life. Don’t forget to try again tomorrow. These are all valid learning opportunities. The last thing we want is for our children to dislike learning.

Finally, stay positive and keep learning … I love that we are all working together to support each other during a time that may lead to easy frustrations and anxiety. You are all doing an amazing job!

Shannon Hall
Assistant Principal

Primary Coordinator

Five Tips of Parents to Support Learning at Home

I found a wonderful article from the following website below This site has so many great resources – I recommend checking it out.

I have summarised their 5 top tips:

Tip 1: You are not the Teacher

Realise that you are not replacing school. You are your child’s parent, not their teacher. They are very different relationships. You can be flexible but firm. By establishing some rules and routines, you are reframing what can be achieved together at home when you set parameters and explain very clearly how things are going to play out.

There are things you can do to make learning at home more productive and enjoyable for both you and your child, such as:

Create a chart with a timetable and goals for the week

Display a clock to keep track of how long different tasks will take

Ensure there are set break times

Make sure there is a variety of tasks – mix up those requiring intense concentration, with some that are open-ended and allow for creativity

Provide healthy snacks and water.

Tip 2: Developing independent learners

Learning in schools happens independently a lot of the time. Guide you child in discovering new things for themselves.

Here are some things you can do with your child to engage and promote enjoyment:

Cooking that involves recipe reading, measurement of quantities and time

Set up a veggie patch – read when to plant certain veggies, set up a maintenance schedule for watering and weeding

Use recycled products to make different things like a robot, a doll’s house, a marble run, collages etc.

Set up a tea party for teddies

Set up a ‘shop’ with prices for goods – interact with your child as you ‘go shopping’ using money that has been created by your child

Create postcards or blogs to send to friends and grandparents

Tip 3: Ask Interesting questions and be mindful of attention spans!

What’s an interesting question?
Students ask lots of questions, so do teachers. Questions can be simple, what are the days of the week? To complex, why is the sky blue during the day?
Simple questions are used to gather information. Complex questions are used to probe and dig deeper.

Mix up the types of lessons that your child is doing and don’t expect that they will concentrate for hours on end. Below is a chart that explains children’s attention spans. That’s the period of time for which a typical child can maintain focus on a given task.

Tip 4: Read, Read, Read: you can’t do too much of this!

Tip 5: Scaffold Learning

Although the times we are in are stressful, there may be a silver lining when you get an opportunity to spend quality one on one time with your child.

When you work one-on-one you are able to identify what your child can do without any assistance, and what can be achieved with guidance and encouragement.

The idea is not to ‘do the work’ but rather it is to scaffold the learning, providing tips, prompts, learning tools and posing questions that will enable the learner to ‘get there’ – essentially on their own.

MINDFUL MINUTES with Miss Hand

I have been loving connecting with the students for our daily Mindful Minutes sessions. During these sessions, we will complete a short meditation, checking with our feelings and emotions, stretch and move our bodies and practice some gratitude.

I look forward to seeing the students then!

Monday: 11am
Tuesday: 11am
Wednesday: 11am
Thursday: 11am
Friday: 11 am

Self-Compassion:

Self-compassion means three things:

1. Be mindful about how you are feeling. It is important to recognise your emotions. This means slowing down enough to notice how you are feeling, and not running away from those feelings.

Be open and accepting of what is going on for you. It’s ok to say to yourself “this is really difficult right now, and I am struggling”.

2. Be kind to yourself

Imagine your friend came to you and shared with you that she / he was feeling overwhelmed and not coping with his work and family demands. You are unlikely to tell your friend to stop being weak and just work harder. Yet we often talk to ourselves this way when we are not coping well. Treat yourself the same way you would treat a friend. Ask yourself “how can I better care for myself?”.

If you can’t get all your tasks done, or your house is a mess, give yourself a break. Don’t judge yourself so harshly.

3. Accept your human-ness!

The fact that you might at times feel overwhelmed or uptight or unable to cope, doesn’t make you weak: it makes you human. There is no such thing as a perfect person - we all have failings. So, you are not alone or unique if you mess up or are not coping well or are falling short in some way. It is our shared reality as humans – we are all struggling in our various ways. Sharing your feelings with others helps.

Thought of the week:

Enjoy the school holiday break. Stay safe and look after those around you.

Choose kindness, always.
Miss Eloise Hand
Primary Coordinator & Lead Teacher of Positive Education