St Benedict's Catholic School Shaw eNewsletter

The next two weeks…

This week we have seen a number of poor behavioural choices that are quite unacceptable. We are at the bottom end of the final term of what has been quite a challenging year for many children and we are certainly seeing along with the heat, that children are very tired and easily agitated. I spoke with all the children at morning assembly in the middle of this week to remind them that they are responsible for all their choices; all their words and all their actions. Being tired is not an excuse for poor behaviour. I encouraged our students to recognise the Zone they are in and to access a tool to help them get back to the Green Zone (the learning zone). These tools that our children are familiar with include a variety of strategies that help children to calm and to reset if needed. Please discuss these with your children so they can recognise their body signs and make appropriate choices about how their mood/emotions/feelings may impact their behaviour. We typically see these behaviours escalate during swimming weeks if children are not getting enough sleep or down time. Wherever possible please be aware that our students need rest and good routines during this time. In my experience it doesn’t matter if a swimming program is run one a week over the term or as an intensive program over two weeks.

Hats

Please check that all school hats are labelled with student names. As the year has progressed many names have become smudges or have been sweated off, making it very difficult to return hats to their owners. This will be particularly important during swimming weeks with all clothing and personal items.

Cheers

Penny Collins

Principal

Welcome to the end of Week 4!

We’ve passed the halfway point of the term, and things are certainly starting to hot up! We started off today being led in assembly by Prep Platypus on the theme of NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC week is traditionally celebrated in the June/July holidays. Due to Covid-19, the date has been moved to next week.

The theme for NAIDOC Week this year is; “Always was. Always will be”. The week allows us to celebrate the history, culture, spirituality and invaluable contributions that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have made, and continue to make to our communities, families and history of our nation. Next week, all classes will undergo learning experiences to connect and build on their knowledge around this year's theme.

As you are no doubt aware, students will be attending our annual Swimming Carnival on Friday November 20. A schedule of races will be sent out towards the end of next week to enable families to arrange appropriate times to attend the event. Also, the P&F will be doing a sausage sizzle for students at the event. It will be necessary for pre-order forms to be filled out for students to get a sausage, with some being available for parents to purchase on the day.

Pax

Nick

This Term in Science, Year 5 has been exploring the topic of Electricity. We have focused on the different types of electricity, renewable and non-renewable energy sources and even experimented with some electrical circuits. We now know that there is so much more behind simply switching on our lights.