St Ita’s Catholic Primary School acknowledges and pays respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation and the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Why is team building important?

The skills learned from team building are important for both personal and group development in children. During team building activities, children have the chance to communicate with each other and work towards a common goal. By practicing being an effective team member and team leader, children develop confidence in their own abilities. Learning how to work with others and communication are important by-products of team building.

Working as a team

Team building with children means you are developing their ability to work together toward a common goal. This makes the work or job easier because the children are working together. When a team works together to solve a challenge, everyone in the group wins and all children have a positive experience. Conduct team building activities with children that emphasize cooperation and collaboration, not competition. The skills learned from being part of a team are necessary for positive action in everyday life in school, work, and the community.

Conducting team building activities with children can help children work on developing the following skills:

Problem solving
Communication
Cooperation
Listening
Self-esteem
Idea exchange
Working with others and different groups
Leadership
Creative thinking

At St Ita’s we support the development of team building skills within the classroom in a variety of ways listed below;

Problem solving

We encourage all our children to think independently by asking open ended questions throughout the day. Example: Joseph wants to play with the blocks and Sierra is already playing with them. Ask Joseph, “What can you play with until it is your turn to play with the blocks? What else do we have in the classroom that you can use to build something?”

Communication

Good communication is necessary for successful teams. We teach children to send clear messages through the day and in all classroom activities. We get their full attention on what is being said, encourage them to ask questions if they don’t understand, and have them repeat back to you what is being said.

Cooperation

Teaching children to take turns is an excellent way to develop cooperation.

Self-esteem

Giving children choices helps them feel like they have some control over what is happening. This can be as simple as asking them which color marker they want to use or what color cup they would like for their milk at snack time.

Idea exchange

Group projects are good for children to come up with an idea and work as a team on a project.

Leadership

We make sure we give children the opportunity to take leadership roles in the classroom. Create leadership situations in the form of classroom jobs. Make sure everyone has a chance to have a leadership role such as an admin officer, lunch order helper, line leader or clean up helper.

Andrew Osler

St Ita's Principal

IMPORTANT DATES

Monday 12th June - King's Birthday Public Holiday

Monday 19th June - Parent Teacher Interviews

Thursday 22nd June - Final Day Term 2 (finish time - 3.20pm)

Friday 23rd June - School Closure Day (no students onsite)

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Parent Teacher interviews have been opened on PAM. PAM is our Parent Access Module where our student medical data and school reports can be located, and parent teacher interviews can be booked from.

Parent teacher interviews will be on Monday 19th June. School finishes this day at midday, with our school interviews starting at 12.20pm in the school the hall.

Parent will need to collect their children at midday on Monday 19th.

This arrangement of concluding school at midday allows our teachers to complete their Parent Teacher Interview obligations in line with the DOSCEL Teacher Agreement which restricts teachers to working a 38 hour week. The Interviews will conclude at 5.45pm.

To access PAM please go to https://pam.stidrouin.catholic.edu.au/

ANGLICARE ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE ONSITE ON THURSDAY

Every family needs a little help from time to time. Are finances stressing you out? Is parenting feeling a little too hard some days? Your children’s emotions difficult to manage? Is their behaviour disrupting the whole household and impacting their time at school? Anglicare Victoria Family Services are now located on site every Thursday to provide support in these areas, or even if you just need to have a chat.

Completely confidential, non judgemental, we are here to support you and your family. Contact Heath on 0499 007 031 or ask for Heath at the office any time on Thursday.

Through Anglicare Victoria we are also able to provide free parenting groups to develop and strengthen parenting skills and create positive change within your family.

In Term 3 Anglicare Victoria Parentzone will be running 4 groups – in person at school and also online.

The 4 topics that will be covered are School Refusal, Raising Resilient Kids, Parenting Anxious Kids and Dealing with Feelings.

Stay tuned for further information and how you can register your interest!

The dates will be

School Refusal – At school Tues 18th July or Online Tues 25th July

Raising Resilient kids – At school Tues 1st August or Online Tues 8th August

Parenting Anxious kids – At school Tues 15th August or Online Tues 22nd August

Dealing with feelings – At school Tues 29th August or Online Tues 5th August

THANKS FOR SUPPORTING OUR MINI VINNIES PLAIN CLOTHES DAY

Thanks to everyone for their generous support of our St Vincent De Paul Winter Appeal. Your donations of various non-perishable foods will go a long way to supporting those in our community who struggle through winter. We really appreciate your generosity and support.

POKEMON AND AFL TRADING CARDS

We’ve recently noted that a number of students are bringing Pokemon and AFL cards to school. Parents, could you please make sure that your child leaves their trading cards at home as they cause many issues on the yard and in the classroom. Our school takes no responsibility for traded, lost or misplaced cards.

NCCD INFORMATION SHEET

NCCD_Information_Sheet_parents.pdf

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DROPPING STUDENTS AT SCHOOL BEFORE 8.30AM

Parents are reminded that students must not be dropped off at school, and left unsupervised prior to the school gate opening at 8.30am. If you need to drop your children off prior to 8.30am, we recommend that you contact Camp Australia and access before school care.

STUDENT ABSENCES

All student absences should be communicated to the office by 10am daily. In addition to Class Dojo, student absences can be communicated via the Parent Access Module (PAM) which come directly to the Administration Office. In addition to daily absences, PAM can be used to record family holidays, and occurances which are likely to be multiple day absences.

PARENTS WORKING ONSITE AT ST ITAS

A reminder to all parents who are entering the school as classroom helpers or parent support during speech and or OT sessions;

You must enter via the Admin Office and sign in via the IPad, where you will be required to enter your Working with Children (WWC) details.
Please ensure you have your WWC card with you at all times as it is a requirement of DOSCEL that you carry this card with you whilst you are onsite.

ST ITAS COVID UPDATE

We have had several staff, and many students away with COVID or COVID like symptoms without testing positive.

Last Friday we sent home COVID-19 rapid test kits with the oldest child in each family. I'd like to thank all families for supporting us through this current outbreak. We really appreciate parents alerting us to any positive tests that your children have as it helps us keep everyone in our school community safe and well.

If your child does test positive to Covid they are required to spend 5 days at home before returning to school.
If your child is displaying flu like symptoms but not testing positive to Covid please keep them at home until all symptoms have cleared.
The Department of Health recommends that all Victorians report their positive RAT result to the Department of Health online, or by calling 1800 675 398.

We urge all in our school community to stay well and most importantly stay safe.

DISABLED CAR PARK

We have a number of parents parking in the disabled spaces out the front of the school. Please do not use these car parks unless you have a disabled sticker on display.

SCHOOL FEE STATEMENTS

School Fee statements have been forwarded to all families via Email, if you have not received your statement please make contact with us so that we can check your details and ensure we have your correct Email details.

Term 1 Fees & Term 2 fees are now overdue, please make arrangements to bring your account up to date as soon as possible.

Direct Debit and Credit Card payments can be set up at any time, please contact School Admin to assist with putting these options in place.

Contact: admin@stidrouin.catholic.edu.au or (03) 5623 7222

GIRLS FOOTY

Ivy and Willow Chugg have recently started playing footy with the Warragul Junior Football team who play on the weekend. These little pocket rockets love anything that involves the word sport and competition. Both girls played last week and loved getting out on the oval for a kick. Ivy barracks for Collingwood who are flying at the moment, her favourite footballer is Jack Ginnivan. Willow her little sister also barracks for Collingwood and her favourite player is... Jack Ginnivan

Its great to see our girls getting involved in our great game.

If anyone in our community has a success story they would love to share, please let us know admin@stidrouin.catholic.edu.au.

Teacher: Mrs Catherine McKenna

Email: cmckenna@stidrouin.catholic.edu.au

BOOK WEEK

Book Week Dress Up will be held in Term 3, on Friday 25th August. There will be a parade for students in the Hall in the morning.

Story Box Library

Just a reminder to parents and new families that we have a subscription to Story Box Library. There is a link to the website below, or you can download the app. I encourage you to try it out.

Audiobooks

If your child isn’t into reading, or if they haven’t found the genre that they love yet, get them listening to audio books. Also known as ear-reading, it’s a great way for our students to explore and develop a love of story. I use the app BorrowBox which is free through the Local Community Library-Myli.

Scholastic Book Club

Book Club Issue 4 - CLICK HERE

CAMP AUSTRALIA

Camp Australia Co-Ordinator: Carmelina De Cesari

Contact Number: 1300 105 343

Website: www.campaustralia.com.au

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PARISH NEWS

Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Anybody

Jesus (Matt 9:36-10:8) laments the shortage of workers in the harvest, asking his chosen followers to pray (as we often do in church) for workers in the harvest but then he actually commissions them to be the those workers in the harvest. They are given the authority to do as Jesus has done to spread the missionary activity of Jesus. As Jesus followers in the 21^st century, this is our call as well.

Fr Frank Moloney reminds us, “The mission of Jesus continues. We are called to repeat what Jesus did, to bring peace and healing to all who are sick, and all who are troubles. The Kingdom of God is at hand. However, in our fragility we must recognise … that we are no better than the next person. What we are given and learn from our Christian lives and experience is a gift. It is not a gift, however, to be jealously guarded within the exclusive club of the Christian Church. It has been given to us without charge. We must give without charge”. (Moloney, F. This is the Gospel of the Lord, St Paul Publications, 1995) But who is going to work in the harvest? St Vincent de Paul Society have a tale about this dilemma:

Once upon a time, there were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Anybody…. When there was an important job to be done, Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. When Nobody did it, Everybody got angry because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Somebody would do it, but Nobody realised that Nobody would do it. So it ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done in the first place! (‘Spiritual Reflections’- SVDP 2003).

And therein lies the message for us. We are each called to courageously step up as Christians doing whatever we can, wherever we can.

Deacon Mark Kelly