ISSUE 26 2017

24th August 2017 S t S c h o l a s t i c a ’ s S c h o o l

NEWSLETTER Dear Families,

Trivia Night 2017 – This Saturday !!!

This Saturday’s trivia night is the biggest fundraising event for our school. It is the culmination of many months of work by the mums and dads of our school community, co-ordinated by the Parents and Friends Committee.

We are reaching the maximum number of tables but it’s not too late to join in.

It promises to be a top night! Mick Sexton, a former St Schol’s student, will be hosting the evening and running live auctions.

If you’re a die-hard Hawks fan or footy fanatic, you cannot miss this unique opportunity to purchase a Hawthorn football guernsey signed by the 2017 team. WOW! Get it for yourself. Surprise a loved one. It’s a distinctive fa-ther’s day present.

Or a Yarra Valley Racing track-side enclosure package valued at $600.

There are also a large number of silent auction items, including vouchers from Ashcombe Maze & Lavender Gardens, Puffing Billy Railway, Eastern Gymnastics Club, Morack Public Golf Course, Enchanted Adventure Garden and Cricket Victoria (signed cricket bat - Australia v India 2016 VB series). Plus there are some enormous hampers to win - gourmet food, gar-dening products and even one for the children – so bring your cash or card!

Come along and have a crackin’ night and grab yourself some terrific prizes. All proceeds will go straight back to our school, specifically towards robotics and coding equipment as part of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) program.

Sign up and get your payment into school no later than midday

Friday August 25th and we’ll see you there.

UP COMING EVENTS

August

Fri 25th Book week celebration

Sat 26th August Trivia night

Tues 29th Prep 2018 Transition

Visit 2.30-3.15pm

Wed 30th 1/2CC Mass

September

Fri 1st .. ..

1. Father’s day breakfast and stall

2. 2.30pm 3/4S Assembly

Mon 4th Subway lunch

Tues 5th Whole school excursion

Wed 6th Eucharist Refection day

Fri 8th 2.30pm 5/6DS Assembly

Sun 10th September 11am Sacra-

ment of First Eucharist

Wed 13th 11am Prep Mass

Fri 15th Spelling Bee

Fri 22nd Footy day & End of Term

3 - 2pm dismissal

Looking ahead

Fri 20th October School Concert

TERM DATES 2018 Term 1: 29 January (school teachers start) 30 January (students start) to 29 March (Thursday) Term 2: 16 April to 29 June Term 3: 16 July to 21 Septem-ber Term 4: 8 October to 21 De-cember

ISSUE 26 2017

Book Week Celebration Day tomorrow Friday 25th August Use your imagination and dress up as your favourite book character and when you choose your book charac-ter bring along the book it features in!!

The theme this year is “Escape to Everywhere”. We will begin the day with a parade in the Hall followed by activities. We are always impressed by the costumes the children wear so a big thank you to our St Schol’s families for their effort and support. Remember, no football clothes because we save that for footy day.

Cadbury Chocolates Drive This fundraiser is now coming to a close with a few boxes still to be returned. Please return unsold chocolates and monies to school. Thank you everyone for your support.

Father’s Day Breakfast

On Friday 1st September 2017, the school will be holding its annual Father’s Day Breakfast. This will be a great opportunity for dads to have breakfast in the company of their child/children. It will be a great start to the day and so please consider starting the day with your beautiful children. Please send your note back for cater-

ing purposes together with the $10 per family payment.

(If your child/ren’s father cannot attend the breakfast, then we encourage them to invite a significant other male such as their grandfather, uncle or a family friend etc).

An important part of the day is the Fathers’ Day Stall. The students love to purchase gifts on this day so please send your child along with some money. The notice has been sent home to all families.

If you can help on this morning, your time would be greatly appreciated.

Parent ‘Insight SRC’ School Improvement Surveys – 70 Families Each year 70 families are requested to complete a questionnaire providing direction for the School Annual Action Plan of the following year. The surveys are implemented through Catholic Education, Melbourne and sourced through an external company, ‘Insight SRC’. Results of this parent questionnaire, along with results from the student and staff questionnaire have been instrumental in providing data/feedback to identify school strengths and areas for development, providing direction for school improvement each year. All survey re-sults are confidential in that we gain the collective data but cannot view individual responses. If you should receive a survey envelope we ask that you complete the survey at your earliest conven-ience. Where possible we ask that families complete the online survey as directed in your information pack NO LATER THAN Friday 8th September. If completing a hard copy of the survey we request that you complete the survey and return it to your child’s class teacher/school office in a sealed envelope (envelope enclosed) as soon as possible. We request that parents receiving the survey assist us in achieving a 100% survey completion success rate. The entire staff and students in Years 3 - 6 will be completing the surveys over the two week period.

School Fees Statements were sent home yesterday. If you did not receive yours, please contact the office to obtain one. Fees can be paid via cash, cheque, credit card or direct deposit, (see bank details on top of statement). Please contact either Jenny Rohan or myself, Donna Allen, School Bursar (on Monday or Wednesday) if you wish to discuss these fees. A variety of payment options are always available, please do not hesitate to make contact.

@StSchols1

Contact us :

Email: principal@ssbennettswood.catholic.edu.au

School Website: www.ssbennettswood.catholic.edu.au

ISSUE 26 2017

Melbourne Museum Excursion—Tuesday 5th September, 2017 Yay! We are all looking forward to the whole school excursion to the Museum. Each year level will be exploring a variety of exhibitions including Bugs alive, Dinosaur Walk, Wild and the Forest Gallery. Mark the date in your calendars. The St. Schol's whole school excursion is a great community event. If you would like to join us on the day, please let your child's teacher know.

Woolworths Earn and Learn continues !!

Earn and Learn from Woolworths is running from 26th July to 19th September 2017 and the school is ready to accept your stickers. The last time we were a part of the program, the school was very fortunate that from your generosity, we were able to purchase a large amount of sports equipment and teaching and learning resources.

Please share this information with your family members as the more stickers that we accumulate, the greater op-portunity we have to purchase a variety of goods. Sticker sheets have been sent home so please help us by col-lecting as many as you can. When the sticker sheet is full, post in the collection box at the school office and col-lect a new sheet. Extra sheets are also available on skoolbag app

Sick Children

As part of the legal requirement of recording children absent from school, a phone call to Marie at the office would be greatly appreciated if your child is going to be away for the day. The number of the school again is 9808 7279. Thank you to all families who have been phoning to give us this important information or leaving an alert on skoolbag app.

Canteen on a Friday

Tomorrow you might like to bring $1 at lunch play and purchase our new Choc Chip muesli bar. You will see us in the quadrangle at the beginning of lunch play. The new September pricelist is attached to this newsletter. By ordering lunch on Thursday for Fridays Canteen, you assist the hospitality students at Ashwood School.

Yours sincerely

Jennifer Rohan,

Principal

NETBALL NEWS

Minties Wrap

We had a tough game against the Laburnum Pipits on Monday and were lucky to come away with the win, 2 goals to 1. Our goals were scored by Jack and Becky with Nancy taking out the Grilled award for her tenacious play.

Starbursts

The wet Melbourne weather provided the team with a real challenge this week and the hydra-

tion specialist was given a well-deserved respite. Despite the horrendous conditions and the

cement having as much gripping power as the latest season of The Bachelor, the girls scored a comfortable 11 to 4 win.

Christina took a well-deserved Grilled award.

EBees vs Nunawading Vikings

We just discovered we had been wrongly graded this season and are playing a higher level competition. This hasn’t stopped us giving the other teams a run for their money. Another close game with the Vikings just beating us by 15 points. Sport Trivia Question (tell your parents this might be asked on Saturday’s Trivia Night.)

Q: Which Australian basketball player won 3 NBA Championship rings? A: Luc Longley

ISSUE 26 2017

Student Wellbeing Helping kids focus in the age of distraction

This week Michael Grose talks about the importance of finding ways to turn your kids from flitters to focusers – and how teaching your ‘children to stick with it’ can have lifelong benefits.

As a society we often debate about the ‘right’ amount of screen time, and with the introduction of personal screens as well as TV, laptops, and desktops, the focus on a single task has slowly ebbed away. Research has found that too much screen time ( recommendation of no more than 2 hours per day) could un-intentionally cause permanent damage to a child’s still-developing brain. - Im-pacting the capacity to focus, to concentrate and to give attention to tasks.

With so many distractions, including binge television on demand and addictive programs and games on mobile devices, it is challenging to find a way to relax or have the capacity to stick with a difficult task.

Tips for helping kids maintain focus and attention

1. Build your child’s focus. Start small to build your child’s capacity to master the concept of ‘sticking with it.’

2. Remember it’s all about the journey. Help your child to understand what can be gained from being focused.

3. Keep calm and focus. Use calm methods to engage children who be-come distracted - breathe, relax and high five each other when work-

ing alongside your children.

Reaching what you thought was unattainable by focusing, ‘sticking with it’, can provide a lifelong lesson.

Kind regards

Noelene Clarke

Special Needs & Wellbeing Leader

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