Dear Parents and Carers,

Throughout the Gospel, Jesus teaches us that what draws us all together is a sense of human life that is relational. When we are in the right relationships with one another we flourish as human beings. Flourishing as a human being means - human beings who are respectful, faithful and considerate of others.

Our classrooms reflect happy places of learning and friendship. At Mary Immaculate we consistently strive to ensure that good structures, procedures and routines are in place in order for students to learn and grow together.

Our school rules and expectations act as a trellis of support for the children to grow. Just as a trellis supports the vine to grow and flower, so too do consistent expectations that are encouraged through positive reinforcement, proactive and preventative management and processes and systems that work to provide strong, stable structures to the students.

As we continue throughout the year, we will be aligning the work we do at Mary Immaculate to our Vision and Mission statements. These documents provide the basis for our daily interactions and are exemplified through the lived school values of celebration, compassion, doing your best, faith, justice, leadership, and stewardship.

Wishing you every blessing for a week ahead filled with opportunities to bring to life our school values.

Tina Murray

Principal

PARENT SUPPORT REQUIRED

Despite our best effort to reinforce respectful behaviour we continue to be disappointed with student behaviour in the toilets. We seek parental support to review the expectations related to the use of the toilets, so that students and staff are not confronted by the conditions illustrated in the pictures below.

TEACHER PROFESSIONAL PLANNING TIME

Teachers work under the structure of an Enterprise Agreement that includes a number of entitlements. One of these is the engagement in Professional Planning Time where they are released from class to carry out other professional responsibilities. Each full-time teacher is entitled to the equivalent of 2 hours PPT each week, or a pro-rata thereof for part time teachers. At Mary Immaculate this entitlement is delivered fortnightly through aspects of the Key Learning Areas of Creative Arts (Mrs Markovic), PE (Ms Hay) and Health. Health lessons are currently delivered by Mrs Biviano and Mrs Mammone. These sessions also incorporate exposure to rich literature and an opportunity to borrow from the school Library. The Library is open at lunchtimes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Students who wish to change books can do on these days.  The graphic below indicates the borrowing schedule for each grade.

Odd weeks = Weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 of the term.

Even weeks = Weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 of the term.

Please be advised that there may be a need to change allocated days due to internal clashes. When this occurs these changes will be communicated by the class teachers via Compass.

SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD'S SAFE ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING

Social networking is an extension of offline friendships, and we should treat people the same way as we do in real life. Chatting to friends using instant messaging apps, chat or social networking is a great way to stay in touch and make new friends. However, your child should always keep in mind that there are some risks meeting people online, especially if they don’t know them in real life.

Parents are encouraged to discuss the following aspects with your child to help them safely enjoy social networking.

• Limit your friend list. Do you know your online friends in the real world? If not, consider changing your settings to limit interaction with them or remove them.
• Protect personal information. Restrict information that people can use to access your finances, and to identify where you live, work, or go out.
• Check on your images. Does everything about your life really need to be online?
  How might this affect you and your reputation in the future?
• Stay respectful. Are your posts respectful to friends and others?
  This is real life; being online is no excuse for bad behaviour.

It is important to note that there are age restrictions that apply to your child joining a social network. Many popular social networks are restricted to users only above 13 years of age. 

Children can manage cyberbullying with parental support by taking the following action:

• Blocking the person cyberbullying and changing privacy settings. Retaliating or responding to the bully only gives them the attention and power they want.
• Reporting the bullying. Most websites have online help centers and reporting facilities, and online abuse is in violation of the Terms Of Use of most social networking sites.
• Collecting the evidence. Keeping mobile phone messages and printing emails or screenshots of instant message conversations.
• Talking to someone they trust like parents or a teacher.
• Visiting the e-Safety Commissioner Support Service to chat with an experienced counsellor or to access other counselling services. https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/counselling-support-services
• Attached to this newsletter are some fact sheets for parents related to popular social media apps. Additional information can also be found at http://www.carlyryanfoundation.com/resources/fact-sheets

WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING OUR

KINDERGARTEN PARENTS TO THIS SPECIAL EVENT