4 August 2021

Newsletter Articles

IMPORTANT DATES

Wednesday 4th August - Gala Touch Football
Wednesday 4th August - 8.20 - 8.40am - Open Classroom
Wednesday 11th August - 10.30am - 11.15am - Family Lunch
Friday 13th August - RODEO Day - NO School
Monday 16th August - Gala Soccer Day
Wednesday 25th August - Book Week Dress Up
Monday - Wednesday - 30th - 1st September - Parent Teacher Interviews
Wednesday 1st September - 8.20 - 8.40am - Open Classroom
Wednesday 8th September - 10.30am - 11.15am - Family Lunch
Monday 13th - 15th of September - Year 4 Camp Winton
Friday 17th September - Last Day of School

PRAYER / SPECIAL MESSAGE

The Francis Factor(Reflecting on the Words & Wisdom of Pope Francis)

How Beautiful It Is

There is no time to be lost in gossip, there is no need to wait for everyone’s consensus; what is necessary is to go out and proclaim. To all people you bring the peace of Christ, and if they do not welcome it, you go ahead just the same. To the sick you bring healing, because God wants to heal us of every ill. How many missionaries do this! They sow life, health, comfort, to the outskirts of the world. How beautiful it is! Don't live for yourselves, but live to go forth and do good. (Pope Francis,Angelusaddress,7 July2013)

Reflection

On a practical level, what does it look like in your everyday life when you live for others and not for yourself? Where are you moving forward in regard to leaving selfishness behind? Do not let anything hold you back-bring the Gospels to others.

PRINCIPALS REPORT

Dear Parents, Grandparents, Carers and Friends,

This week we have been celebrating Catholic Education Week. Coinciding with this is the 200th year of Catholic Education in Australia. Throughout last week, we had a combined school mass on Tuesday, Parent Engagement meeting, Dads Fathering group evening and a Saints Athletics Carnival. I thank all the staff and families who were able to attend these events.

We are part of a system of schools that originated in the Parramatta area in 1820 with 31 students. The Principal, George Morley was paid one penny per student. There are now more than 1750 Catholic schools nationally, educating some 765,000 students.

Catholic schools offer high-quality education. According to The National Catholic Educational Association ninety-nine percent (99%) of Catholic secondary school students graduate and eighty-eight percent (88%) go on to university or higher education institutions.

In this the 200th year of Catholic Education in Australia, the Catholic schools in Mount Isa pride themselves on keeping the Jesus story alive and well in the area. We don’t exist to be different, but we do exist to make a difference. Thank you all for trusting us with your children's education and being a significant part of this continuing story.

Just a reminder that we are open to enrolments from Prep to Year 6. Prep numbers for 2022 are filling fast so if you know anyone who is still in the process of deciding, please get them to contact the school office for an appointment.

God Bless
Claudine Dank

The Word Ordinary Time 18

Jesus said to the people, “I tell you truly; you look for me because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you understood my miracles.. Don’t work for food that goes bad; instead, work for the food that lasts for eternal life.” They said, “Sir, give us this bread.” “I am the bread of life, “Jesus replied. “He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst.” (John 6:24-35)

Jesus is the ‘Bread of Life.’ When we go to Mass, the bread and wine become Jesus’ body and blood. He feeds us with his own body. We too are called to share Christ’s mission - to feed the hungry.

Lord God, You give us bread from Heaven - your son Jesus.

RELIGIOUS LIFE OF OUR SCHOOL

Sunday the 8th of August is the Feast Day dedicated to Saint Mary of the Cross (St Mary Mackillop). Mary MacKillop was born on 15 January 1842 in Melbourne, Victoria. Her parents were born in Scotland and came to live in Australia. She had three sisters and four brothers. Mary cared about the people who had no one to look after them such as boys and girls who just roamed the streets, children in the country who had no school to go to, people who were old and sick and people who had nowhere to live. Mary wanted more than anything to help these people. Mary Mackillop was kind to all people, even if they did not agree with her. Mary went to work as a teacher in a little country town in South Australia called Penola. There she met Father Julian Tension Woods who also wanted to do something for the poor children who could not afford to pay the money needed to go to school. Together in 1866, they began the first St Joseph’s School in an old stable. Mary MacKillop kept her faith in God and bravely challenged those who did not support her vision for a more caring world. Mary is an important Australian who spent her life helping people, especially children. She is Australia’s first Saint. Join our school community on Friday as Year 5 will lead us in a prayer for St Mary Mackillop.

PARISH INFORMATION

Mulitdraw Raffle - Tickets are now available on lion. Major raffle is $10,000 cas. This will be drawn on the 3rd September. Link is -

Vinnies Shop - Vinnie’s Shop is looking for volunteers. People who can come in and help sort clothes or help with customer service or pricing or displaying. Full training and support is given. A few hours per week or a few days a week would really help. They are happy to work with people for the times and availability.

Fete in Cloncurry - That parish and St Joseph’s School Fete in Cloncurry is Friday the 27th August. If you would like to help out there, please let Fr Mick know.

DIOCESAN BASED INFORMATION

PREP ENROLMENTS 2022

IS YOUR CHILD STARTING PREP IN 2022?

Families seeking enrolment of their child into Prep for 2022 are invited to complete an Application for Enrolment, available on our website (www.skmtsv.catholic.edu.au) or alternatively collect an application package from the School Office.

As we are anticipating that there will continue to be strong demand for placements within our Prep groups for 2022, it is important that applications are received by the school as soon as possible.

Please note that if you have a sibling of a current St Kieran’s student you will also need to complete an enrolment application for your child for Prep 2022. Students enrolled at St Joseph’s Kindergarten or St Mary Mackillop Early Learning Centre are also required to complete an application form.

St Kieran’s Catholic School works in partnership with St Joseph’s Catholic School and Good Shepherd Parish to coordinate the Prep enrolment process so that the best opportunity is afforded to all.

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN

Each fortnight we will profile a section of our Annual School Improvement Plan for 2021. This is the document that guides our plans and priorities for the year. We prepare this document based on initiatives set by the Townsville Catholic Education Office and through consultation with our school stakeholders: parents, staff and students.

LEARNING AND TEACHING

This term our school has been fortunate to be a part of a Literacy Project run through Townsville Catholic Education. So far we have been looking at best practice for teaching children spelling and engaging activities that create in children a love of words. It has been great practising these activities with our students. We look forward to continuing our learning in this journey throughout the remainder of the term.

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Is My Child Prep Ready??

Ready for school – how can you tell?

‘School readiness’ in children includes many different skills and behaviours, such as:

Social skill - Being able to get along with other children, demonstrate basic manners, assert themselves, and being able to play independently as well as with other children.

Emotional maturity - Being able to manage their emotions, cope with minimal adult contact in large groups, focus on tasks, follow directions and instructions from teachers, cope with the stress of the new school environment, and understand the rules.

Language skills - Being able to talk and listen to adults and other children, speak clearly, communicate needs, understand stories, and begin to identify some letters and sounds.

Cognitive Skills - Basic number sense, basic thinking skills, being able to wait and take turns.

Physical health and coordination - Basic health, fine motor skills (such as being able to grip a pencil and turn pages in a book) and physical coordination (being able to run, jump, climb, and play ball).

Independence - Basic skills to manage their needs without adult supervision, such as going to the toilet, dressing, unwrapping their lunch and managing their belongings.

Remember, every child develops at their own pace and has their own strengths, interests, temperament and approach to learning – so don’t worry if your child doesn’t demonstrate all of the ‘school readiness’ skills and behaviours described above. If you feel at all concerned with your little one’s development, talk to their teacher/early childhood educator or your GP – they will be able to provide assessment and advice.

LIBRARY

The Book Wish Box is already proving to be a success as we see our first happy reader borrow the book she “wished” for. Thank you to those students who are popping their book “wishes” into the box, keep them coming!

INDIGENOUS EDUCATION

This week we celebrated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day with our annual Mini Murri's Under 8s day. The children participated in a wide range of fun activities. We would like to extend a special thank you to Uncle George for bringing along the police van as well as organising the police dog to come visit our very excited kids. Thanks also to Rick and Tyrone from the mines rescue crew who are always a huge hit, giving our kids (and teachers) a lift for the day. It was wonderful to also see all of our little friends from local Kindy's and the wider community.

YOU CAN DO IT

We have begun looking at Emotions in Years 4 to 6.

We all experience a range of emotions every day. Our feelings are necessary for us to survive and co-exist harmoniously with others. Without pleasant feelings (e.g. feeling pleased, proud, excited, curious, loving) we would not learn what makes us happy and what we want to strive for. Experiencing a lot of pleasant feelings can help children become more resilient and bounce back more quickly from a difficulty or setback.

Unpleasant feelings are also important, too. Without unpleasant feelings as warnings (e.g. fear, worry and anger) we would be less able to protect ourselves from possible danger or to stand up for ourselves. Some unpleasant feelings (e.g. embarrassment, disappointment and sadness) also motivate us to think deeply about some of the difficult and challenging situations we sometimes have to cope with (e.g. failing, loss and rejection). This type of reflection helps us to learn from our experiences and become better able to make good decisions and solve problems.

Our unpleasant emotions can sometimes ‘hijack’ us and we react to them by behaving in ways that alienate others or work against us. Learning how to express their emotions in a positive and assertive way helps children to feel more in control when things are difficult for them.

Key messages to communicate to your child about their feelings

Talking to someone else can help.

When you are feeling sad or disappointed it can help if you talk to someone you trust about how

you are feeling. They can help you check whether you are seeing things clearly and help you to solve problems.

Don’t let yourself be ‘hijacked’ by your feelings.

‘Hijacked’ means that your feelings have taken over and you are no longer in charge. If your feelings are taking over, go to a quiet place or do something that will help you calm down (e.g. throw a basketball through a hoop, play music or play with a pet). If you calm down, you have a better chance to understand your feelings. Your anger should never be expressed in a way that hurts others, damages property or hurts yourself.

Correctly naming your feeling can help you to manage it better.

Being able to name your feeling will help you to feel more in control. For example, if you know that

you are feeling angry, then you also realise that you need to calm down and speak up for yourself in a calm but strong way. If you can correctly name what you are feeling as ‘disappointment’ rather than ‘anger’, then you might realise that it is not helpful to feel so upset and it’s easier to calm down.

It helps to ask: ‘Did they really mean it?’

Sometimes we get upset and angry over something that a person has done, but it was just an accident or they were a bit thoughtless and they did not mean to hurt us or hurt our feelings. Before responding in an angry way, think about whether their actions were deliberate and intended to harm you or just an accident or mistake.

Unhelpful thinking makes you feel worse.

Unpleasant feelings can get worse because of the unhelpful things you say to yourself about them. No person and no event makes you feel a certain way. Sometimes it is understandable that you feel angry or sad because of what’s happened but that event or person hasn’t made you have that feeling. One of the best ways to be in control of your feelings is to use helpful thinking and ‘self-talk’. Sometimes we have mixed emotions about the same thing. Talking with your child about their mixed feelings will help them make sense of their different feelings (e.g. they can feel pleased about being given a part in the school play but also nervous).

You can change a bad mood into a good mood.

It’s normal to sometimes feel sad, lonely, disappointed, angry or worried. You can help yourself feel a little better if you do something physical (e.g. walking, or sport), something that creates positive feelings (e.g. playing with your pet, making or drawing something or looking at photographs taken on a holiday) or do something kind or helpful for someone else.

In order to understand others, you need to learn to work out how they are feeling.

This is called empathy. Empathy is trying to understand other people’s feelings, and letting them know that you do understand and care – this is important for making and staying friends and for supporting other people.

What can you do to help your child become more able to understand and manage feelings?

Teach your child how to manage their strong feelings.

Use the following five steps to help your child when their emotions are ‘hot’ such as when they are sad or afraid or angry. These five steps provide an opportunity to be close to your child and teach them how to manage strong feelings.

1. Take notice when your child is feeling sad or angry or upset.
2. Listen to your child and show them you understand how they are feeling.
3. Name the emotion in words your child can understand.
4. Help your child look for solutions to the problem within acceptable limits.
5. Finish with a hopeful or optimistic statement, saying that you believe they can do something to deal with the situation, or find a way to feel better about it.

An example of the five steps in action.

Your child comes home from school looking upset:

You: How was school today? (Notice that your child is upset.)

Child: Awful, Ella was sick and she won’t be back till Friday and I had no one to play with.

Everybody else had someone to hang around with at lunchtime except me.

You: You must have felt lonely then, and probably a bit sad. (Listen and name the emotion your child is feeling.)

Child: I don’t want to go back to school till Ella comes back.

You: Well I can understand why you feel that way because it isn’t nice to feel all by yourself and left out. (Show empathy.) But you can’t stay home from school just because Ella is away.

Can you think of any ways to make you feel less lonely tomorrow? (Help with problem solving but within stated limits.)

Child: I suppose I could go to the library at lunchtime.

You: Yes, that could be good. What about Tran – you two have always got on well. He’d probably be happy to catch up with you. Things always seem better in the morning, too. (Take an optimistic approach.)

Help your child learn to change a bad mood into a good mood.

When they are feeling down, help your child choose something to do that would make them feel happier such as drawing, reading, watching a funny movie, playing a game, doing something nice for someone else, asking a friend over or playing a physical game outside.

Help your child to correctly name their feelings.

Sometimes children make a mistake about how strong the feeling is; for example, they say they are really angry when they are just annoyed. Help them to use more low-key language like ‘cross’ instead of ‘furious’, and ‘down’ instead of ‘depressed’. Children also make mistakes about what they are feeling. For example, they may say they are angry when they are really scared because the sensations in their body are similar. Say ‘perhaps you’re also feeling …’ as a prompt.

Help your child to understand and experience positive feelings.

Identify times when you can help your child to notice and ‘savour’ pleasant feelings (e.g. feeling proud, excited, satisfied, relieved, joyful, and hopeful) that arise from a positive experience. Name the feeling that would be associated with the experience and ask them questions to help them to re-live the positive feelings they are experiencing.

For example:

Child: I helped Uncle Bill to feed the animals when I was staying on the farm.

You: What fun! You must have felt very excited about doing something like that and proud that he trusted you to help him.

Help your child to learn to recognise other people’s feelings.

Whenever you see an opportunity, talk to your child about how others might be feeling (e.g. during a family or school situation, in a story or movie, on the news).

Model handling your own difficult feelings well.

When you are feeling worried, sad, disappointed or unhappy let your child see and hear you managing your feelings in a constructive way that includes using helpful thinking.

ESMART (CYBER SAFETY)

PRINCIPAL AWARDS

Sponsored by Mount Isa Coffee Club

Congratulations to;

These students have worked so hard with their learning and the effort they have placed in their work. We are all super proud of them.

TUCKSHOP

All tuckshop orders are to be made online through Flexischools by 9.00am on the day required.

2020 Families - Please remember to change your child's classroom to their 2021 class prior to your first order this year.

In the app go to the profile tab - students - select student - click on the pencil and update the year level first and then class and press save.

Did you know the tuckshop could make cupcakes for your child’s birthday? $1.00 each, please enquire at the office for an order form.

FATHERING PROJECT

Each fortnight there will be some information for Father’s from the Fathering Project. There will also be future events for dads and kids at the school. The first part is about Fathering Fundamentals. Each newsletter will be a different fundamental.

Fathering Fundamentals

More engaged dads. Improved futures for kids.

Our aim is to build stronger families and communities by giving men the resources, guidance, and support they need to take on the responsibilities of engaged parenting.

Our research team has defined the Fathering Fundamentals as the core elements of fathering. They’re applicable every-father, to every day.

The fundamentals are Connecting, Communicating, Family Values, Learning, Positive Parenting and Wellbeing.

Below is information in regards to Connecting

Connecting

Everyday moments of connection have just as much value as special events and outings in spending time with your child.

Spending time doesn’t have to mean you have to do something special, all it means is you give your child your undivided interest and attention. When spending time with your children, try and reduce these distractions as much as possible so you can stay focused and engaged with your kids.

Our First St Kieran’s Dads group was last week for paper plane making and pizza for dinner. The father’s and kids had a great time. The kids loved having a competition with the dads. It even got a bit competitive with the dads. During the evening the dads thought of other ideas for the year. Stay tuned!