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Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers,
Apologies for the lateness of this week's newsletter. Managing staff absences continues to be an issue into 2023 and it was not possible for the newsletter to be completed yesterday.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Over the past week we have been dealing with a number of issues pertaining to the use of social media accounts by students at the school. As a school, we are following up this situation as best we can, however we ask that all parents talk to their child/children about the safe use of social media. Your child’s use of social media on their personal devices at home is beyond the control of staff at St Michaels. It is therefore critical that you are aware of what they are accessing and how they are using social media whilst at home.
We require parents to be vigilant. Whilst we have spoken to the children about the legal ages of having social media accounts, we are aware that many of our students have accounts, and concerningly, some without their parents knowledge. As you can see, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok etc. all require the users to be 13+ years of age. The reason for this is because children younger than this do not have the skills or maturity to know what to do if they are being bullied online, or truly understand the long lasting impact of things that they post online.
For the past seven weeks our students have been learning about how to be safe in the digital world in their weekly classes with Mrs Trewin in DigiTech. Last week, all students participated in a Cyber Safety incursion at school which looked at how to be a safe digital citizen, and we will continue to reinforce these messages whilst at school.
STUDENT OF THE WEEK
From this week, there will be a change to the way in which the weekly awards will be shown in the newsletter. Student names will be printed in the weekly newsletter and these children will then receive their award at the assembly on Friday. This allows parents to attend assembly to see their child receive their award.
For this week only there will be two lists of names in the newsletter but only the week 8 awards will be presented at this Friday's assembly. Week 7 award winners received their award at last week's assembly.
SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION PREPARATION
We continue to keep the Reconciliation families in our prayers as they prepare to receive this Sacrament.
Key dates for the children and families are:
- Prayer Letter Mass: 18th /19th March.
- Presentation of pins – 25th /26th March.
- Completed journals to be returned to school - 27th March
- Celebration of Reconciliation - Wednesday 29th March, 4.30pm or 6pm
- Presentation of certificates and Pizza Night - Sunday 2nd April
PARISH NEWS:
Youth Mass - Sunday 2nd April:
Easter Art Competition:
Stations of The Cross:
Learning to take on challenges
Challenges are the pathway to growth. When our children habitually avoid challenges, their learning stalls. When they learn to understand, value, and embrace challenge, their learning accelerates. So, helping our children develop a healthy relationship with challenge becomes one of the most important ways we can help them become better learners.
How does your child respond to a challenge?
Does your child avoid a challenge, seeking their “path of least resistance” in learning?
Or do they select the challenges they know they can do? Looking like they are working hard, but secretly avoiding mistakes by not taking on anything too challenging?
Maybe your child takes on challenges because the teacher tells them to. They follow the teacher’s instructions and are led through challenging tasks.
Perhaps your child takes on challenges because they need to. They have something they want to achieve, a goal in mind. Their relationship with challenge is born out of necessity so they can reach their goal.
But imagine if your child embraced challenges. In the spirt of John F. Kennedy when he said, “we do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard!” Imagine if when they were given the choice of doing something hard, or something easy, they’d choose the more challenging task, because they understood that challenge is the pathway to growth.
Becoming a Skilful Learner
How our children respond to challenges is a key element of what I call Learnership™ – the skill of learning. Learnership is a skill developed over time. It helps our children (and us) to get more out of every learning opportunity. Most importantly, Learnership is something we can teach our children that helps them to thrive both in school and life.
As parents we can help our children on the path to becoming better learners, by helping them develop a healthier and more productive relationship with challenge.
Comfort Zone V’s Learning Zone. What’s the Difference?
The first step in helping your child develop a healthy relationship with challenge is to teach them the difference between their Comfort Zone and their Learning Zone
We’ve all heard that we need to get outside our comfort zone and challenge ourselves, but how many of our children truly understand what that means?
For many people, getting outside their comfort zone means trying something new. But something new, isn’t always something challenging. Very often “new” is simply an “easy thing we haven’t done yet”. There is little struggle involved in this type of challenge, it comes with a great deal of certainty, and confidence that we’ll succeed. These challenges feel more like a task. They keep us busy, but they don’t help us get better. These types of challenges are in our Comfort Zone.
To be truly challenged our children need to stretch themselves beyond their current abilities. These types of challenge feel like a problem. Unlike a task where the path to completion is easily recognised, the solution to this challenge is not immediately apparent. They leave us feeling uncertain, and they involve struggle. The challenge feels “hard”. When our child feels like this, it’s a good sign they are in their Learning Zone.
Being in your Learning Zone feels uncomfortable. When our children find themselves in the Learning Zone, their first reaction is often to get out of it. Suddenly anything else seems like a more attractive option. They look for distractions, seek out easy options or adopt any number of avoidance strategies.
Struggle is temporary
It’s important to help our children recognise that the feeling of struggle and discomfort that comes with being in their Learning Zone is temporary. It passes. Many children believe if they are struggling now, then the next step in learning will involve even more struggle. They believe that the further they go, the more uncomfortable they’ll feel. So naturally, they turn away from further struggle.
The reality is that effort is the currency of growth, and struggle is the price we pay for that growth. The reward is that what we experienced as hard today, becomes easy tomorrow. It doesn’t get harder and harder and harder. It’s hard, then it’s easy. Then they move on, and the next step is also hard, until they make that easy. Being in the Learning Zone, and experiencing the struggle that comes with it, is not only a normal part of learning, but also an essential part of growth.
Parenting for more skilful learners
As parents we have an important role in helping our children become more skilful learners. This begins by helping them develop a healthy relationship with challenge. By teaching them that effort is the cost of growth, and normalising the struggle that comes from being in their Learning Zone, we help them become “comfortably uncomfortable” with challenge, and put them on a path of continuous growth.
UPCOMING SCHOOL CLOSURE DAYS
On the following dates the school will be closed to students:
- Thursday 6th April
- Monday 24th April
Term One holidays will begin at 3:20pm Wednesday 5th April.
Term Two will resume on Wednesday 26th April at 9am.
Kind regards,
Jodie
In the gospel this week we read about an encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Historically there is much distrust and hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans and this encounter at the well breaks two cultural taboos. Firstly, for a man to speak directly to an unchaperoned woman was wrong and here, in this gospel, Jesus asks the woman for a drink. Secondly, Jesus the Jew directly addresses a Samaritan. In this scene Jesus is breaking down walls between the Jews and the Samaritans and he reveals to the woman that he is the promised Messiah. After this encounter at the well, the Samaritan woman is compelled to spread the good news about this amazing man that she had met. There is much imagery around the use of water in this week's readings. In today's first reading God provided water to the people who were dying of thirst in the desert. In the gospel Jesus promises to give us the water of eternal life. This led us to a discussion about the waters of Baptism and we talked about what Baptism means in our lives.Our bodies all need water to survive - Jesus is promising us the special water that keeps us alive forever through Baptism. An interesting link can be made for our children between this week’s gospel and their celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism.
Each week students from each class are awarded Student of the Week certificates. These children are nominated for the example they have been within the school based on the School Wide Expectation focus for that week. The weekly focus will be from Wednesday until Tuesday the following week. Awards will be presented to students at assembly on Friday.
In Week 7 the School Wide Expectation focus was Safety:
I have the right to feel safe in our school environment.
The award winners for Week 7 are:
| Claire Mavhundu | Virginia Sanchez | Sophia Robinson |
| Maia Conway | Cohen Shields | Tyler Benbow |
| Josephine Sanchez | Izza Nabeel | Yaazhini Arun Kumar |
| Violet Cauchi | Isaac Huffer | Jonah Joseph |
| Indianna Devitt | London Radford | Ebony Thexton |
| Amaya Freshwater | Blair Dunne | Lyla Tripodi |
| Mack Hayes | Clarence Mavhundu |
I treat my peers, teachers and learning environment with respect.
I show appreciation for the efforts of others.
I speak kindly to others.
I show justice and fairness to all.
I listen carefully to others.
The award winners for Week 8 are:
| Vivienne Lugtu | Sophie-Mae Bailey | Nixon Krausz |
| Otis Jeffs | Zara Hodge | Estelle Archibald |
| Poppy Hill | Isabella Suter | James Buhagiar |
| Jazmine Murphy | Evie Hoggard | Evie Billam |
| Evie Wyers | Bethany Ritchie | Akoch Manhiem |
| Nash Winkler | Austin Freshwater | Eliza Herbert |
| Peyton Palmer | Charlie Mortimer |
Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge
The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge is now open and (insert school name) is excited to be participating. The PRC application offers a range of exciting features including:
- access to a library catalogue (including book images and blurbs)
- a modern user-friendly interface
- rewarding students with badges as challenge milestones are achieved
- the option for students to mark books as a favourite, give them a star rating or complete a book review
The Challenge is open to all Victorian children from birth to Year 10 in recognition of the importance of reading for literacy development. It is not a competition; but a personal challenge for children to read a set number of books by 8 September 2023.
Children from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers. Children from Year 3 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books.
All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers.
To read the Premier’s letter to parents, view the booklist and for more information about the Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge, visit: https://www.vic.gov.au/premiers-reading-challenge
Deborah Gilmour in the school library is able to help with any enquires.
To participate in the challenge please click on the link below:
St Michael's is once again participating in the Wonder Recycling Rewards Program. Our school is collecting bread and muffin bags to redeem for sports equipment. Could you please keep your bags and place them into the green bin outside of the hall. Bread bags should be as free from crumbs as they can be to keep the recycling process free from contamination (there is no need to wash them). Any questions can be forwarded to Mrs Dortmans or Miss Petesic. Thank you for your support!
