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Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers,
These sessions will continue for the next few weeks with a range of activities planned so that they become very familiar with the school:
- Wednesday 22nd November - Parent information session 6pm in the school hall
- Tuesday 28th November: 1:30pm - 3pm
Drop off and pick up at hall door. - Tuesday 5th December: 9:30am - 11am.
Drop off and pick up at front gate. - Tuesday 12th December - 9:30am - 1:00pm.
Drop off and pick up at front gate. Bring snack, drink and a hat.
NO LONGER WANTED SCHOOL UNIFORMS
If anyone has any school uniform sizes 4 or 6 that they no longer require, the Foundation team would really appreciate having them for the times the children may require a change of clothes.
The Parents and Friends also hold a second hand uniform stall once a month for people looking for uniform pieces. They would always appreciate any excess or unwanted uniform that is in good condition so that it can be reused. The next second hand uniform stall will be happening this Thursday 23rd November starting at 3pm.
FIRST COMMUNION
This weekend 27 of our children will receive the Sacrament of First Communion. Please continue to pray for them as they make this special step along their journey of faith.
Congratulations to the following children:
Harry Blomquist, Niah Borg, Dermot Clarke, Archer Conway, Linesa Dehiwatte, Savannah Frendo, Lucas Groves, Hailey Lourensz, Emerson Hayes, Poppy Howe, Solomon Konyi, Rylee Martin, Jaxon Nachorny, Violet Quinlan, Hayden Rawson, Bethany Ritchie, Sophia Robinson, Angus Ross, Erjon Jhudiel San Diego, Levi Stanistreet, Hallie Strickland, Isabella Suter, Xander Szkwarek, Logan Tatti, Blake Warne, Joel Wilson and Olivia Wisewould.
SCHOOL TV - SPECIAL REPORT
Today's generation of children and adolescents face a unique and concerning environment regarding gambling. They are growing up in a digital age characterised by constant connectivity, where the gambling industry has evolved significantly during their formative years. With smartphones and social media platforms at their fingertips, the line between gambling and entertainment has blurred, particularly within the realms of video games and social media.
https://stmtraralgon.catholic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-gambling-young-people-au
HALTS -
Written by Dr Justin Coulson
It doesn’t matter if you have just one child or six, there is one thing that you’re guaranteed to have to handle: big emotions in your child.
It doesn’t matter how good of a parent you are, you can even be a parenting expert, and your children will STILL have big emotions. It’s just a fact of life when you’re parenting a 1-year-old or a 12 year old. Teens have their big emotions, and if we’re honest, so do parents! Everyone feels sad, cranky, scared, or stressed from time to time.
Big emotions are simply unavoidable in family life. And so we all need effective strategies for dealing with them.
First, however, we need to know what triggers them. If we can focus on prevention, we can spend less time on the cure.
Where do big emotions come from
Big emotions arise for many reasons. I like the acronym HALTS to help me consider why my child might be emotionally triggered:
H is for Hungry. A is for Angry. L is for Lonely. T is for Tired. And S is for Stressed.
Sometimes our child is one of these. Sometimes our child is all of them. Perhaps they’ve eaten, but their meal was lacking in nutritional value. Maybe they’re angry about something that we think is silly but it matters to them. Perhaps they’re in a room full of people but they feel disconnected and lonely. It could be that last night’s TV show went late, their mind was buzzing, and they haven’t slept. Or maybe school, family life, our explosive moods, or a friendship drama is creating stress in their life.
Spending time reducing the likelihood of these triggers means we experience fewer big emotions at home. But try as you might, you can’t (and shouldn’t) eliminate all stress for your kids. After all, stress creates opportunities for growth.
Regulating big emotions
When those big emotions strike, we must remember that high emotions = low intelligence. Our kids act a bit crazy when emotions are high. And because emotions are contagious, we often catch our children’s crazy, cranky, and chaos and become less intelligent as well. Two or three emotional and unintelligent people in a power struggle never works out well.
Since big emotions happen, here are some simple ways that we can respond to our children when they’re feeling sad, cranky, scared, or stressed.
1. Be Intentional
If you think back to the HALTS acronym, there are a handful of simple and intentional things we can do to reduce the likelihood of emotional blow-ups.
For example, you could:
– Bring a snack for your child to eat while you do the shopping
– Don’t demand that chores be done alone, or right before bed
– Take five minutes for cuddles and connection before moving into the bedtime routine or once they’re in bed
– Consider your timing when you make simple requests of them.
2. Remember that emotions are contagious
When our children are feeling chaotic, there’s two ways we can go. We can catch their cranky and join them in an escalating cycle of chaos. Or we can stay calm. Easier said than done, but realistically we can’t parent anybody if we can’t parent ourselves first. Do your best to hold it together.
3. Don’t try to fix things in the moment
Have you ever been angry, had someone say, “Just calm down!”, and responded “Good point, I needed that logic, I will just calm down.”? Of course not! When emotions are big, don’t try to fix things. Instead…
4. Focus on connection or space
Some kids want a hug when they’re feeling mad. Other kids want space. Most of the time, they want space first, then connection. If it’s possible, move your child to a private area. Say to them, “I can see you’re having a tough time. Do you want a hug or do you want me to give you some space?” They’ll probably tell you to go away. Give them some space, but let them know that you’ll be just around the corner ready to give them a hug when they’re ready. Then once they’re regulated again you can move onto problem solving.
5. Problem solve collaboratively
When things are calm – whether it takes ten minutes or ten hours – sit with your child and ask if you can discuss what happened, and problem-solve so that things go better next time. Then listen. Remember, too, that sometimes these conversations work best when your child is drinking a milkshake or enjoying another treat you picked up for them.
Big emotions in our children aren’t an indication that we’re lousy parents. Every single child and teen on the planet cries, stomps their feet, and pushes their parents away. We need to normalise this as part of being human!
Fortunately for us, our children also have the best laughs, give the biggest snuggles, and say the funniest things. So next time you’re in the midst of a child’s emotional meltdown, take a big breath and remind yourself that on the other side of this big moment is the sweetest thing you can experience with your child – the opportunity for growth.
DATES TO REMEMBER:
- 22nd November: Foundation 2024 Information Meeting
- 25/26 November - First Communion celebrations
- 1st December - School Closure Day
- 8th December - End of year Mass
- 13th December - Graduation Mass]
- 18th December - students last day
Jodie
This week’s gospel is, yet again, presented as a parable of the Kingdom – a glimpse into the right order of things in the realised Kingdom. This parable is a familiar one and is often used as an encouragement to make the most of the gifts and skills that the listeners possess. It is rarely, however, placed in its context as part of the full Chapter 25 lesson about the time of waiting and preparation for the coming of the Lord and the Christian life.
In this parable a very wealthy master entrusts his considerable assets to his servants to manage in his absence. The three servants were allocated money, ‘each in proportion to his ability’. The emphasis of the parable is on what each servant did with the funds they were allotted. They were charged with managing the money in the place of their master; acting in their master’s place to further develop his wealth.
Like all of Jesus’ parables, this one has a sting in the tail. Although the third servant has done nothing illegal or corrupt, he is very harshly dealt with. His crime is laziness! He was given a great opportunity to demonstrate his abilities and yet he shied away and returned to his master exactly what had been entrusted to him, unimproved. The author of Matthew’s gospel uses this parable to shock the audience out of complacency. They cannot rely solely on the promised return of the Lord, they must continue to act on Jesus’ message and work to bring about the Kingdom in their own lives. Those who fail to act, leaving everything to the work of God, are as bad as the lazy servant who failed to grasp an extraordinary opportunity.
To relate the message in the parable to our world: What talent do you have that you could use to make a difference in other people’s lives?
On Friday 8th December we will celebrate a fantastic year of learning, growing and friendship. As part of our celebration we will be presenting the St Vinnies team with a collection of Christmas goodies. Each year the Traralgon branch of St Vincent De Paul makes Christmas Hampers to give to a large number of families in our local community to make their Christmas celebrations a little brighter.
Traditionally, the children bring along donations to support this very needy cause in our community. This year the St Vinnies members have asked that we donate Christmas foods rather than decorations. There are loads of possibilities including: christmas cakes, puddings, treats, chocolates, snack food etc
Last year we set the children the target of 1,000 items and they were very excited when they reached this target and were rewarded with extra play. After many requests from the children, this year we will have the same target in place.
We send a huge “thank you” to all of our school families for your support and generosity throughout this year.
Mission Day - Friday 24th November
At St Michael’s we have worked really hard over the last two terms to raise money for the work of Catholic Mission in Timor-Leste. The children have enjoyed casual clothes day, colouring competitions, guess the lollies in the jar and the Grade 5/6 Market Day.
As you know, our energy has been focused on the Children's home. Every $20 that we raise at St Michael’s will provide the students with books and equipment to aid their learning. So far we have raised over $3,000 - that will provide a lot of resources for the children at the Don Bosco Children’s Home!
The final fundraising event for Catholic Mission will be held this coming Friday - 24th November. The children have the opportunity to come to school dressed as their favourite sportsperson ready to play their favourite sport. We ask that each child brings a gold coin to donate to Catholic Mission.
As with any Casual Clothes day we ask that the children wear appropriate footwear and they refrain from using face paint or coloured hair spray.
Colouring Competition
We had some amazing entries in our Colouring Competition, it made choosing our winners very difficult. Congratulations to the winners of our Colouring Competition.
Foundation: 1st Emma Paulet 2nd Eva Flowers
Grade 1/2: 1st An Hua 2nd Indiana Devitt
Grade 3/4: 1st Edelweiss Vickers 2nd Hallie Strickland
Grade 5/6: 1st Sidney Sposito 2nd Lincoln Geary
On Tuesday 14th November our girls' basketball team travelled to Melbourne to compete at the State Championships. The team won their first game in a hard fought battle, but unfortunately went down in the second game to a tall and tough opponent. The girls did not give up and showed a lot of spirit to play to the final whistle. This put us out of the finals, so the last game they played was for experience. All of the girls should be proud of making it that far and how they represented themselves and our school at such a high level of competition. Thank you to Mark Seeber for coaching the team and to all of the scoring volunteers. A huge thank you also to the parents, friends and family members who got the girls to the Melbourne Sport and Aquatic Centre.
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 8 the School Wide Expectation focus is Safety :
I have the right to feel safe in our school environment.
| Liam Hunter | Seth Billam | Indi Demetriou |
| Cristian DiCiero | Rhianna McInnes | James Buhagiar |
| Beau Collins | Sienna Hunter | Nate Woods |
| Tyler Celima | Harper Rode | Sidney Sposito |
| Mehreen Gill | Violet Quinlan | Eden Stewart |
| Evie Brand | Niah Borg | Hudson Smith |
| Jack Hill | Abbey Waite | |
| Maddex Fue | Hailey Lourensz |
Oh my! What a busy day for St Michael's Primary. On the 10th of November, we had our very special market stalls, which were run by our 5/6 students. All the money we raised went to books, pencils and other resources for the kids in Timor Leste who needed more school supplies for their learning. All up, we raised just over $2,700, which is so good! But setting up, well let’s just say in the 5/6 buildings, there was a lot going on. We had lots of tables to set up, and it was crazy! But we were able to manage it quite well, considering our time frame. When we finally finished all the hassle of setting up, it was time for us to begin this exciting day!
First we had our foundation students come. It was so cute watching them telling their friends, “Oh I got this from that stall, over there!” The preps enjoyed the games; but they didn't really fancy the trickier stalls like archery and nerf, so that helped make the baking and game stalls a hit! After the preps came, the 1/2s came along and they had a go at practically all of our stalls, from archery, to baking, to balloon animals, everything! It was the same with the grades 3 and 4s, as they loved all our stalls and enjoyed every bit of it!
Our stalls were all a great success and we are so proud of our school for raising just over $2,700. The tradition of the market stalls started in 2020 when someone had a wonderful idea of having a day dedicated to raising money for the Catholic Mission so they can send money to any third world countries that need our help.
Lastly, on behalf of our 5/6 team, we would love to thank all of the parents that helped make this day possible because without the parents support this day wouldn't have happened and we wouldn’t be able to raise the $2,700 so thank you!
By Clem Reid and Indi Demetriou
The shop will be open every 4th Thursday of the month. The next day it will be open will be on Thursday 23rd November from 3:00pm to 3:30pm. The stall is located in the large meeting room at the school, so those wishing to purchase items will need to enter through the main office. Donations and swaps welcome.
