John 20: 21

(from the Gospel for the solemnity for Pentecost, Year A)

Dear parents and carers

Our school is returning to a version of normal operations. We have been working hard on reminding the children of our routines and expectations. It has been wonderful that children are continuing to receive positive affirmations on their sticker charts. These are formal recognitions acknowledging your child for making positive choices. We have had three children reach the gold card this week. We of course recognise children far more frequently informally than just the formal affirmations. Our operating norm is that children receive five (5) verbal affirmations to one (1) reminder. All our staff work hard at “catching them being good!”. The children rarely fail to please us!!

Interim Semester 1 Report issued by COMPASS on Friday 26 June by 4pm

We have had a most unusual and disrupted Semester 1. Normally we provide a Semester 1 progress report at the end of Term 2. The decision has been taken by our diocesan office that schools will issue an interim Semester 1 Report. This is not a progress report. The report will look quite different to our normal Semester Progress Report. In this Interim Semester 1 Report, your child will be graded on engagement and effort in just Religious Education, English and Mathematics. The report will be issued on Friday 26 June via COMPASS.

We will be offering 15-minute parent and teacher interviews during the last week of term (Mon 29 June to Thurs 2 July). You will receive further information regarding interviews including booking times in Week 8.

Student Attendance

As of last Monday (25 May), all children are expected to attend school five days per week. The single and only mode of learning and teaching now being offered is face to face learning at school.

We have activated an SMS notification if your child is absent. You will now be able to reply to this message to provide an explanation for your child’s absence. Please keep your message of explanation short and precise. “Sick” or “attending an appointment” is satisfactory as opposed to “away” or “not at school”.

COVID-19 medical clearances

We have had some questions regarding COVID-19 testing and clearances.

1. If your child has had a COVID-19 test, please let us know, provide the result to us as well as a COVID-19 clearance.
2. If we send your child home from school because we suspect COVID-19 (temperature, cough, sore throat or shortness of breath), we will ask you to take your child to the doctor to be tested. In this case, we will require a clearance before your child returns to school.
3. If we send your child home from school due to illness (for example, headache, runny nose, sneezing, fatigue or aches and pains), we ask that you get a medical clearance from your medical practitioner. This does not need to be a COVID-19 clearance. A standard doctor’s certificate (or equivalent) is satisfactory.
4. If your child is unwell with non-COVID-19 symptoms, has not had a COVID-19 test and you have kept your child at home, you do not need to have a medical clearance to return to school. We ask that you keep your child at home until the symptoms resolve.

Students who remain in isolation due to COVID-19

If your child has a medical reason to not attend school, please contact us and let us know. If your child is in this position please complete the form at this link:

This link is to CEDoW and forms part of our diocesan system’s reporting accountability to NSW Health.

CEDoW COVID-19 website remains our “source of truth”

The website aims to provide clear and accurate messaging for our school communities. A link to the COVID-19 Information Centre has been placed on our school website home page. It is also available 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

Please keep children presenting with respiratory illness symptoms at home

If your child is showing even mild symptoms of respiratory illness, please keep them home. If your child is presenting with respiratory illness symptoms at school, we will ring you to pick up your child from school. We are applying the same standard to all school staff.

Morning Supervision begins at 8:20am

School supervision begins at 8:20am each morning. Children are not able to be supervised prior to this time. If there are circumstances that make this impossible, you must make contact with the school and make an appointment with Mr O’Brien. We will discuss the possibility of making reasonable, short term solutions to help families on a case by case basis. It is not safe for students to be left at school before 8:20am.

If you require your child to be cared for before this time you can access care at Moss Vale OOSH. Children who attend OOSH are accompanied onto the bus from OOSH at Moss Vale Public School and arrive at St Paul’s during morning supervision. Please do not drop children at school before 8:20am.

Traffic safety in the morning

It is important that the road rules be followed for the safety of all our children. People have been observed parking in the bus zones, dropping children on the far side of Garrett Street and having the children cross the road unescorted and doing U-turns across Garrett Street. 

Aside from being illegal, it is dangerous.

Please continue to adhere to our school routines in relation to the morning drop off of children. If you need to park, please do so in the vacant block opposite school and escort your child across Garrett Street. Alternatively, park further down on Garrett Street (past the presbytery) and walk up to school.

In all cases access to the school is through the church gates, not the driveway.

Changes to afternoon travel arrangements must be made through the office by 2:30pm

If your child’s travel arrangements for afternoon dismissal change during the day, please ring the school office to let us know. We ask that you do this before 2:30pm to give us enough time to pass the message onto your child’s teacher.

DO NOT send a message to your child’s device advising your child of any such changes. We do have a duty of care to all the children in our care. We manage every child’s departure from the school and deserve to be informed directly of changes. We need to know directly from you of any variations to your child’s travel arrangements including changes to who is picking your child up from school. You cannot assume that your child will be on the device and will receive the message in time. Changes to travel arrangements is an adult to adult responsibility and properly coordinated through the school office. I thank you in advance for your cooperation and observance for this requirement.

Traffic safety in the afternoon: afternoon pick up is from Innes Road. All children being picked up by parents or carers to be driven home should be collected from Innes Road only. We will walk the children to you.

Building Project Progress

We have had another very productive week with the building project. The builders are making great progress. The new access ramp is almost finished. Take a look at the pictures below!

Building Timeline

We remain on track to have the building completed in readiness for Term 3. There has been a slight delay with the delivery times for furnishings. We now anticipate that we will move into the Year 5 and 6 classrooms in Week 1 next term.

What your child needs to bring to school

• A drink bottle (bubblers are turned off)
  
• Learning packs especially non-completed work (we still have few packs outstanding)
• Winter uniform, hat and lunch. Please note that the school beanie, scarf and gloves are a good idea during the winter months. We want the children warm and comfortable.
• Sport uniforms are on the scheduled spot days - see below.

Sport Uniform Days by Class

Your child will need to wear the sport uniform on the following days each week.

Kindergarten- Friday

Year 1- Friday

Year 2- Friday

Year 3- Wednesday & Friday

Year 4- Wednesday & Friday

Year 5- Wednesday & Friday

Year 6-Wednesday & Friday

LOLS: Lessons and Liturgy and Scripture

Keep your eye out for the weekly edition of LOLS - Lessons and Liturgy and Scripture. Each week, I will be working with Fr Richard to create a short spiritual reflection video as a way of connecting with the school community. Each video includes a scripture focus, a short ‘homily’ and a song. The video will be posted on Facebook each week.

St Paul’s Parish YouTube Channel

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

Catherine du Bois

Religious Education Coordinator

Children’s perception versus reality

Developmentally children see the world differently to adults. They are still developing and maturing so they are not always able to see another person's point of view or understand at times why they feel the way they feel. 

When your child tells you about something that has happened at school keep the following suggestions in mind:

• They are telling you their perception and perspective of what happened
• You are only hearing one side of the story
• Their feelings are real so acknowledge them
• Ask them what they did about it
• Ask them what they would like you to do
• Let them know if you are going to contact the school 
• When contacting the school be prepared that what your child thinks happened and what actually happened may be different.
• Understand that the school takes all concerns seriously and will investigate and follow up if necessary with children and families.
• Be prepared to work in partnership with the school. We are all human and we all make mistakes at times. We can work through any issue together in a respectful and compassionate manner.
• Understand that your child may be under stress. This can impact on your child’s perception of what has happened. We have all recently been through very stressful times and it is not over yet.
• Understand that children sometimes leave out some details because they are afraid they will get into trouble.

Added to the Parent Portal is a link to a website called The Kids Coach. Naomi Rocharsdon is a Kids coach and provides an explanation about the difference between a child’s perception and reality.

This is an extract taken from her website.

“One of the biggest issues I find with children is they do not know how to distinguish the difference between perception and reality. They think what they see and what they hear must be real and they often do not challenge it.

For example, when a group of children are whispering they think it must be about them – especially if one or more of the children glance over to them whilst chatting. Alternatively, if someone treads on their toe or falls into them when playing a game, they think it was intentional. They perceive that that child did it on purpose and therefore do not like them.

We know as adults that this is not the case so it is important that we teach children the difference between perception and reality.”

QUESTIONING CHILDREN’S PERCEPTION

The easiest way to teach children the difference between perception and reality is to question your child about the situation.

• What was going on beforehand – what did they see and what did they hear?
• Is the person (or people) they mentioned friends of theirs?
• Can they think of another reason why the situation occurred?
• Was the perception real? What evidence do they have to say it was?

There are so many questions you could ask your child. The idea behind questioning them is to get them to think differently about the situation and to recognise that there could have been several reasons as to why something happened.

You could also share a story of yours to help them see how you have viewed a situation and then found out you were completely wrong. Perhaps only share with them the perception (half the story) and get them to ask you questions to test the reality if they are a little older.”

https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/st-pauls-moss-vale/home

There was a buzz in the air at St Paul’s on Wednesday as we celebrated Happy Day! Students were asked to bring something to school that makes them happy. We were delighted to see an array of toys, photos, pictures, movies, collectables, etc! A special Police Officer even made an appearance! All staff and students had a fabulous day celebrating!

Southern Highlands news have an article online with a gallery of photos of students returning to school after Covid-19 restrictions eased.  St Paul's have featured in some of the photos!

Thinking of applying for Year 5 entry to an opportunity class in 2021?

Applications open on Tuesday 9th June, 2020 and applications close at 5pm, Friday 26 June 2020.

Please find attached the information relating to Year 5 opportunity class placement in 2021.

Interested parents and carers must apply online at the following website: