Reading Support

Calling all parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles.  Do you have time to listen and support some of our wonderful readers here at St Michael’s?  We have timeslots available for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays.  If you have time to help, it would be greatly appreciated.  Please contact Mrs Lesley Schnell through the front office.

Absence Calls / Notes / Emails

Please note, teachers do not get to sit down and check their emails first thing in the morning, so if you have emailed the teacher regarding your child’s absence, they may not receive the information until later in the day. Therefore, please do not be upset if you receive an SMS or phone call from the Office to clarify the absence.

For this reason, a phone call to the ABSENTEE LINE is a more efficient way of communicating an absence than an email. Please note also, a SIGNED NOTE also needs to be provided to the teacher on your child’s return to school. The Department of Education Services has confirmed that whilst an SMS or phone message is NOT a substitute for a signed note when reporting absences, an email meeting the following criteria can be accepted:

• the full name of the student
• the class / roll group of the student
• the reason for the absence
• the full name of the parent/guardian at the end of the message (the ‘from’ email address is not sufficient).

School Banking

Where and When?

School banking is every Wednesday morning. Grey satchels are collected from the classroom at 8.45am and is generally completed by 9.30am. If you miss the collection bag or have any queries, you can find us in the Multi-Purpose room which is behind the prayer garden and next to the Year 5 classroom. We always welcome volunteers to come and help. No finance skills required!

 

 

You could be eligible to redeem a reward right now!

There are some great new Polar Savers rewards for students to choose from this year – and right now we have about 20% of the school who can redeem rewards straight away! Some of you can even redeem two rewards!

You will receive a reward slip next Wednesday if you are eligible, so be sure to keep a look out when the grey banking satchel is returned to your classroom on Wednesday morning.

You need 10 tokens to redeem a reward, but you can put your order in when you get to 8 tokens. This means you can get in early and get the reward you really want.

Have you got a brother or sister who has left St Michaels?

Ex-students can continue to bank with us and redeem rewards. Just pop their deposit book in with a current St Michaels child and we can take care of the rest. You can still claim rewards and it is a great support with our fundraising.

 How does the fundraising work?

School banking is an educational activity and also a fundraising activity. The fundraising is based on the number of students who have made at least one deposit each year and the number of deposits made each term.

In the past it was based on the amount of money deposited but this changed in 2018. This means that 50c or $50 a week gives us the same benefit to our fundraising.

We receive contributions as follows:

Annual contribution

Based on the number of students who made at least one deposit in the prior year we receive a one-off payment of:

No. Students	Contribution
1 – 100	$100
101 – 200	$200
201 – 300	$300

Regular Savers Contribution

This is $5 for every 10 deposits made per student. This is paid each quarter and enables a maximum of $20 per student for a 40-week school year.

If every child made 30 deposits each year, we could raise $3900 for our school which goes straight back to you, our P&F.

 Are you ready to join our school banking?

Look out for your banking kit this week or give your Banking Coordinator, Renee, a call on 0439 965 378.

Daily lessons in resilience by Michael Grose

Recently, I saw a mother give a simple, yet profound resilience lesson to her school-aged child, after he missed a much-anticipated excursion due to poor behaviour at school. Replying to the child’s protests about teacher unfairness and his over-reaction to missing out on a learning opportunity his mum simply replied, “Oh well!” Then she busied herself with other tasks. The child stunned by her reaction, shrugged and headed off to complete his homework.

Adult reactions matter

It’s in our reactions to children’s and young people’s every day mistakes, mess-ups, muck-ups and hurts where the real lessons in resilience lie.

The lessons for this child were simple but profound. “Oh well” meant:

• Stuff happens;
• Take responsibility for your own actions;
• Don’t look for fault or blame;
• Keep your perspective; and
• Pick yourself off and continue with what you were doing.

How to react

The resilience lesson for this mother were equally as profound. When a minor mishap with a child or teenager occurs:

• Match your response to the incident
• Stay calm and be positive
• Don’t look for fault or blame
• Remember, stuff happens

Resilience lesson for parents – “Oh well”

Every day there are opportunities for parents to give their children lessons in resilience.

A child misses being picked for a team that he had his heart set on joining. “Oh well. Let’s see how you go next time.”

When a boy experiences rejection in the playground at school. “Oh well. You’ll find that some people don’t want to be your friend.”

When a teenage girl doesn’t get the mark she thinks she deserves in an assignment. “Oh well. Sometimes we don’t get the marks we think we deserve.”

Match your response to the challenge to promote resilience.

There are times when “Oh well” won’t cut it. When a child is bullied he needs your continued support.

When a student’s continuous efforts at improvement are constantly met with criticism then you may need to act on his behalf and meet with a teacher.

When a child always struggles to make the grade and is never picked for a team then you may need to help them make different choices.

These types of situations also present opportunities for daily lessons in resilience, but they require more parental support and teaching.

The resilience lessons learned are deeper and include concepts such as ‘things will eventually go your way,’ ‘there are times when you need to seek help’ and ‘this too shall pass.’

Promoting personal resilience focuses on helping kids cope with life’s hurts, disappointments and challenges in the present, while building strengths for the future.

Daily lessons in resilience are everywhere. You just need to be ready to make the most of these valuable lessons when they come your way.

Michael Grose

Michael Grose, founder of Parenting Ideas, is one of Australia’s leading parenting educators. He’s the author of 10 books for parents including Thriving! and the best-selling Why First Borns Rule the World and Last Borns Want to Change It, and his latest release Spoonfed Generation: How to raise independent children.