I am so looking forward to tonight’s Mulkadee performance. I am always amazed at the quality of the performances after only working together for one week. As a diocese we are so blessed to have leaders that value the Arts in this way and create this opportunity each year for our students. I would really encourage any students who have thoughts about trying something to build their confidence to have a go. Let’s face it anyone can sing in a 600 student choir but the skills that they develop are far more than the artistic ones. The social skills of meeting so many new people, the persistence to be involved in long days (yes, it’s singing but believe me they work all day) and the challenge of stepping out of your comfort zone is so worthwhile and then there is the final performance which is always just so exhilarating. Thank you toTerri Ann Rabig and Nick Christie who have been transporting our students each day.

Community Health

Again, as we have seen in the media we can see that staff and community illnesses are on the rise with the third wave of Omicron, Influenza and the multitude of other things affecting the health of our community. We have had multiple staff away this week along with lots of children. Replacement staff for many sectors like nursing, hospitality and education are extremely difficult to come by and we are again feeling the pressure with this too as are most schools. Luckily we have a very flexible team who are very supportive of each other and we have been able to juggle people; often meaning we move specialist teachers onto class to ensure our students always have a teacher. We are also very lucky to have a group of relief teachers who mainly work with us so they know our systems and processes and our students.

Please assist in helping us to maintain a healthy community by keeping children who are sick at home and wearing masks if you are around our school and not feeling 100%. We are all trying to find that balance between getting on with things but also not contributing to making situations worse. I appreciate how much pressure each of you are also under and I think a lot more understanding of each other’s pressure points can go a long way to building and maintaining a positive community.

Behaviour Management

Did you know our school uses the Zones of Regulation to support students to understand their feelings? We know that most behaviours come from students reacting to their feelings and emotions- good and not so good behaviours. We use the Zones of Regulation to align with our Levels of Consequence. 

For example when I am in the Green Zone (happy and best learning zone) and my behaviors therefore include participating positively in my learning- ie. showing persistence, empathy for others, being accountable for my actions, caring for our community, and / or being engaged in my learning (PEACE) than my consequences will include things like positive praise from my teachers, class rewards systems, affirmation from our leadership team when shared and PEACE stickers to share the experience with parents and celebrations on school social media and in newsletters (we are building on this part).

However, if I am in the Red Zone (angry, frustrated- and all of us have these feelings; even adults so there is nothing wrong with the feeling/emotion), I need to be able to make a choice. If I access the ‘tools’ from the Zones of Regulation that all classes have and discuss regularly (eg. go get a drink of water or go for a walk (create some time and space to calm down), access a squeeze or fidget tool (to express pent up energy) etc.) and I manage to get back to the Green Zone there is no issue but if I react with hitting, swearing or punching there is a Red Level Behaviour Consequence which can include time out from certain activities, meetings with parents, and suspension and exclusion from school.

These examples are the two extremes with Yellow and Blue Zones in between with Yellow and Orange Level Behaviour Consequences as well. Please note that Blue Zone (tires, sad, bored) doesn’t have a direct correlation with a behaviour level on purpose because it can often be attributed to other needs but can still lead to a behaviour consequence depending on the behaviour choices when feeling that zone.

I hope this makes some sense to you as parents. We do have some visual magnets for parents if you want to embrace the system at home.

Next week is Catholic Education Week. We would love to see parents come along for our feast Day activities on Friday 29 July.

Please have a lovely weekend.

Cheers

Penny