“Take, eat; this is my body”

Matthew 26: 26

(from the Gospel for Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord, Sunday of Lent, Year A)

Dear parents and carers

We have had another successful week with the majority of children working and learning remotely.  This is not easy on anyone least of all families trying to juggle working from home and simultaneously monitoring children learning at home. We are acutely aware of this and we are working intentionally at trying to keep our emerging procedures for managing learning as simple, consistent and family friendly as possible. We are grateful for your support and for the positive feedback you have been giving us. We think you are just wonderful. You have adapted to this “new normal” marvelously!

Our common goal and primary focus is, and will always remain, the wellbeing and learning of our children. Well done everyone!

Our school will remain open until otherwise notified. Should we become non-operational we will notify you clearly of this measure. We are continuing to have around twenty five children at school daily. They are being supervised by teachers and are engaging in exactly the same work as their classmates at home. This is perfectly fine. We know that this is a great support to those families who can not provide supervision for their children at home.

Pastoral and liturgical support available online

Fr Richard is saying Mass daily and streaming the Mass online. You can join Fr Richard using the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL9F08CA4ayKjhG-3ke-2rQ/live

Fr Richard will also be streaming the upcoming Holy Week Masses via the YouTube channel. This is a great way to stay connected to our Parish Priest and faith tradition.  Please consider subscribing to Fr Richard’s St Paul’s Parish YouTube channel.

Bishop Brian is offering Mass online on Sunday’s at 9am. Holy Week liturgies will also be celebrated and offered online. Visit the Diocese of Wollongong response to COVID-19 website available at the following link for more information: https://www.dow.org.au/covid-19/

Wellbeing and self care

Looking after ourselves and our own well being is really important, if we are to continue being the best versions of ourselves for our children. The children need us now more than ever as we work our way through these difficult times together. We have pushed out mindfulness and well being apps to our school managed iPads. The free apps we have selected are Smiling Minds, Dreamy Kids Meditation and Stop, Think, Breath. We strongly encourage you to download these free apps.

You will notice that the teachers have incorporated mindfulness time into your child’s daily schedule. Consider using them yourself - they are kind of wonderful for everyone!

Last week, Miss du Bois referred you to the Pray as you Go app. This is a beautiful, reflective and calming prayer resource based on the daily Gospel. If you are feeling stressed or worried (and let’s face it, who isn’t at the moment!!) take some time to access this resource. 

Please use these resources (or similar) regularly. Along with exercise, a healthy diet and good sleep, looking after your spiritual and emotional health is important. Children can’t learn if they are stressed or worried or sleep deprived. We hope these tools and suggestions will help. I refer you to Mrs Browne’s item below for some further advice and guidance.

Staying informed about COVID-19

Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong have developed a website for parents and community regarding current advice for the management of COVID-19. This website will be updated regularly with the latest advice from the government and our system of schools. This website is our “source of truth”. 

All information and updates regarding our school and system’s response to COVID-19 will be published on this website. A link to this resource has been placed on our school website home page as well as on the CEDoW website. You can access the site from this link.

https://www.dow.catholic.edu.au/about-us/general-news/covid-19-information-centre

Cancelled or postponed school and related parish events

Gym lessons scheduled for Fri 27 March/ Fri 3 April (cancelled) 

School Photos (rescheduled Tues 4 August) 

Mass for the Feast of the Annunciation planned for Thursday 26 March (cancelled) 

Whole school assembly planned for Thursday 26 March (cancelled)

First Reconciliation liturgy and sacrament planned for Friday 3 April (cancelled)

P&F fund raising event at Brigadoon planned for Saturday 4 April (cancelled)

Holy Week whole school liturgy planned for Tuesday 7 April (cancelled)

ANZAC Day march planned for Saturday 25 April (cancelled)

Diocesan cross country planned for Tuesday 5 May (cancelled)

NAPLAN scheduled to commence 12 May (cancelled)

Science and Engineering day (Year 5 and Year 6) planned for Tuesday 26 May (cancelled)

St Paul’s athletics carnival planned for Friday 5 June (postponed to Term 3)

NAIDOC Day celebration planned for Friday 26 June (postponed to Term 3)

Resources

The Pray As You Go app has been pushed out to student iPads and can also be accessed on the internet. It is a free app and very easy to use. This app provides daily prayers and reflections, accompanied by some lovely music. We encourage students and parents/guardians/grandparents to use this app.

Here is the link to the St Paul’s Parish YouTube Channel where you can watch live and recorded Masses and prayers:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL9F08CA4ayKjhG-3ke-2rQ

Another resource made available online is the Spiritual Resource Kit filled with music and videos for use with students and adults. There is something for everyone to nourish and sustain us spiritually and to support learning during these challenging times.  

You simply have to click on the link below for access to the kit.

https://www.emmausproductions.com/

Catherine du Bois

Religious Education Coordinator

Strategies to help manage learning at home.

This past week and a half has been a new and challenging time for all of us. We are all learning at a rapid rate on how to learn remotely, how to manage our own work from home and how to deal with changing situations on a daily basis. It is not unusual to feel overwhelmed and uncertain about the expectations. This week the focus is on a few simple strategies that may be helpful in managing at home learning.

1. Family wellbeing must be the number one priority. We understand that this is a difficult time for many families for various reasons. If your child is finding it difficult to get through the learning tasks we understand. If you need to take some time out with your children then please do.

2. At the start of the day the teachers send the class overview. It is important that you sit with your child and go through the overview. Highlight the activities your child feels they can do independently. Then make a note of the activities your child needs help with and make a time when you are able to assist them.   If that means you need to swap your child's timetable around to fit in with your own work schedule that is ok.

3. Ensure your child has plenty of movement breaks and screen free time throughout the day. This is where things like the lego challenge or movement matrices are useful.

4. If you are finding it difficult to keep your child on task you can try using a timer. You can: 

- set the timer to indicate how long your child must spend on a task. No more than 20mins for younger children and for older children no more than 30mins without a break.

- set the timer to show how long the break will be for.

- set the timer as an incentive to say when the timer is done you can choose something you would like to do.

- use the timer to indicate how long your child has to begin a learning task before there will be a consequence. Ensure they understand what the consequence is and you must follow through if they don’t respond to the timer.

5. Most importantly try to use positive reinforcement wherever possible. For example if you read your reader to me and complete the activity sheet then we can spend some time on the lego challenge.

Please take care during this difficult time. There is one week of school left before the holidays. While the holidays are not going to be like other school holidays it is still a time to stop and take a breath.

Regards,

Katie Browne

Assistant Principal

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