Newsletter Term 2 2025 26th June

Principal Report

Dear parents and carers,

Some weeks ago I flagged a workshop with a well known expert on Child Development and Behaviour, Maggie Dent, called Mothering our Boys.  I know many of you have shown interest in this workshop, to be held in Orange on Saturday 28 June.  As the two hour workshop is sold out, I thought I might share with you some of her thoughts around the importance of creating a sense of safety and predictability for your child.  She explains this through looking at the biology of a part of the human brain: the amygdala.

The amygdala is a complex structure of cells nestled in the middle of the brain, adjacent to the hippocampus (which is associated with memory formation). It plays a key role in processing emotions and emotional reactions.

'Appeasing the amygdala

Creating effective bedtime routines and habits are good for everyone in the home. When our children need to crawl into our beds because they feel unsafe, rather than viewing this as attention-seeking behaviour or bad behaviour, we can see they are coming to us because they feel safe, if we view it through the lens of the amygdala.

They are responding to a message from their brain, exactly as we are all biologically wired to do.

Sometimes this fear response can happen when the nervous system has become overloaded maybe due to the end-of-term exhaustion, friendship dramas, changes to teachers, assessment fatigue or even a growth spurt, especially for our boys. When the nervous system becomes depleted, it perceives a threat and we know that we automatically respond to significant threat in one of four ways.

1. Fight
2. Flight
3. Freeze
4. Fawn

As parents, our main job is to help our kids identify what may be driving the underlying depletion of the nervous system. Often it is an unmet need and that can be tricky to figure out with kids of any age. When we can work with our children to identify what is causing their amygdala to activate, we can then help them to create a new, safer predictable way of managing the threat.

If your child is struggling because there has been a change in their life, chat with them about how it can take time to develop a healthy sense of safety when things are different.

Talking about change, especially transitions, from as early as you can, can help prepare your child for other big transitions like going to high school, or taking up a new extracurricular activity or moving house.

When we explain things through the lens of how our amygdala works, and that its job is to help us feel safe and be safe, it can help our children understand that it takes time for something to become more predictable.

The amygdala in the tween/teen years

As our kids go through adolescence, their body changes, their brain changes, their hormones change – and change triggers stress so it’s natural for teens to have a heightened stress response.

Preparing your teens for the impact of these changes with good information can decrease the need for the amygdala to panic.

Explore with them some of the things that can happen on the bridge to adulthood. Maybe even share some of your stories of how you struggled at times. Then, acknowledge that they may have times they’re going to experience heightened levels of stress and that is not a bad thing – it is a sign that their brain is doing its job. Then you can explore some ideas about what might help to ease that stress and make them feel better. You can help them make new habits.

Building predictability, especially during times of expected and unexpected change, helps everyone cope better.

A brain can take time to adjust to a new sense of normal, and some changes, particularly the loss of a loved one, a pet, a home or a traumatic experience, can take a very long time for us to adjust to. However, we are wired to survive and only when we feel safe, can we experience the gifts of joy and delight. So please be kind to your amygdala and remember the power of predictability in your daily life.' (Maggie Dent)

Grow Your Mind

On this notion of teaching our students how their brains function, several of our teachers will be trialling a program in Semester Two called 'Grow Your Mind'.  If we find this program enhances our students' understanding of themselves and their sense of wellbeing, we will adopt the program across the whole school in 2026.  This program relates human behaviours and feelings to parts of the brain and their functions.  The brain is introduced as 'Four Animals' (image below) and unpacks for our students how the behaviour of the each animal is very similar to how the brain reacts in certain circumstances.  The program also teaches our students to rate problems, and avoid catastrophising. 

We will share more on this early next term, and hope that by using these metaphors, our students will be further supported with the language they need to describe their feelings.

End of Term

Term Two concludes next Friday and Term Three commences for our students on Tuesday 22 July.  On Monday 21 July our teachers will complete a workshop called the 'Behavioural Toolkit' to enhance their professional knowledge around classroom management and understanding diversity.  They will also undertake annual Resuscitation Training, which is a qualification that we are mandated to update each year.

Reports will go out early next week and you will be notified by Compass when they are available to view.  I would like to thank our teachers for their proactivity in contacting many parents by phone or interview to explain the reports/student grades before they are published.  Sometimes we see a temporary drop in student attainment at the beginning of each Stage of Learning, that is, in Year One, Year Three and Year Five, as the complexity of the curriculum jumps a notch.  Remember that you are welcome at any time to make an appointment to meet with your child's class teacher through the office staff.

I am travelling to Europe for 3 weeks to spend time with my UK family, so Rachel Cranney will be Acting Principal in Week One of Term Three.  I wish you all a restful and happy term break, however you are spending it.  A whole two weeks without having to pack school lunches has got to be something to look forward to!

Take care of yourselves and each other,

Gayle Stratton

Assistant Principal

Religious Education

First Holy Commuion: We joyfully congratulate the students who have recently received their First Holy Communion! This is a sacred and significant step in their faith journey, and we are so proud of their preparation, reverence, and devotion. Thank you to the families, teachers, and the parish community who supported them along the way. May this special encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist strengthen their love for Christ and deepen their commitment to living a life of faith. Let us continue to keep these young communicants in our prayers as they grow in grace and continue to walk with Christ.

Next term we will celebrate our grandparents and other significant adults in our lives at a liturgy on Friday 25 July at 12:30pm, followed by a family picnic.  Please bring rugs to put down on the grass for your comfort.  In the event of wet weather we will 'picnic' in the hall.

Catholics acknowledge 26 July as the Feast Day of St. Anne and St. Joachim.  These saints are honoured as the earthly grandparents of Jesus. As information about Saints Anne​ and Joachim comes from the Gospel of James and Catholic legend, ​there is little real knowledge about their lives. However, the patronage of Saint Anne includes grandparents, couples without children, women in labor, and women unable to conceive. Likewise, Saint Joachim is considered the patron of grandfathers, fathers, and grandparents. 

Grandparents have significant roles in society as people of wisdom and history.  Their experience in faith and life has enriched their judgment and their abilities to share this perspective with future generations.  This is how Pope Francis felt about grandparents:

How important grandparents are for family life, for passing on the human and religious heritage which is so essential for each and every society! How important it is to have intergenerational exchanges and dialogue, especially within the context of the family. The Aparecida Document says, “Children and the elderly build the future of peoples: children because they lead history forward, the elderly because they transmit the experience and wisdom of their lives” (No. 447). This relationship and this dialogue between generations is a treasure to be preserved and strengthened! 

(taken from https://www.nationalshrine.org/blog/the-love-and-faith-of-the-grandparents-of-jesus-st-anne-and-st-joachim/)

Christian Leadership Awards

               

Reni Morrish                Maycie Kelly               Oliver Howarth               Katerina Baker

In recognition of    "Positive View of Life"

Scarlett West         Amy Thomas             Maddelyn Braimbridge         Sadie McGrath        Frankie Bunworth        Rafhael  Ilog

In recognition of "Community & Common Good"

Tia Brown     Sanusha Maddumahewa           Marlie Wait        Willow Pickering-Reeve            Cruz Woodley

In recognition of " God's presence in the world"

Curriculum News

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SPORTS UNIFORM Term 2 (Winter)

(any changes to the uniform days will be sent out via Compass)

Kindergarten -  Friday 

Year One  -   Thursday

Year Two -   Friday

Year Three -   Thursday

Year Four - Thursday

Year Five  -  Thursday  & Friday

Year Six   -   Friday 

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Library News

Canteen News

School-Wide Positive Behaviour for Learning (SPB4L)

Health Matters

Student Wellbeing

Children with communication devices such as iPhones and Smart Watches must be handed to the school office in the morning before class and collected at the end of the day. This includes any device capable of taking photos.

Please support your child to meet this school requirement.

If you need to contact your child during school hours please call the school office.

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