ENCOURAGEMENT

Recently I read an article about encouraging children effectively (without side effects). I wondered if there were actually side effects of encouragement. The article is from Parenting Brain: Healthy Brain Happy Kid and is entitled 6 Proven Ways To Encourage Kids Effectively (Without Side Effects) and accessible at Here

It is important as a parents, teacher, adult to give words of encouragement of praise to children. It builds their self esteem, encouraging having a go and confidence. In any given day our students, your children receive many words of encouragement in many areas of their schooling. Encouraging words can encourage good manners, improve concentration, enhance sporting efforts, build relationships and create opportunities. 

Of course this form of encouragement continues at home and after school activities such as  piano lessons, touch football or after school care. Essentially, encouragement comes in many forms and is everywhere.

The article further suggests that not all words of encouragement are equal and the key to encouragement is how and when children are praised.

Here are 6 tips on using words of encouragement for kids effectively.

1. Praise Sincerely And Honestly
2. Be specific and Descriptive
3. Praise their Effort and the Process (not their ability)
4. Avoid Controlling or Conditional Praise
5. Avoid Comparison Praise
6. Avoid Easy-Task Praise or Over-Praise

In Kindergarten and other grades at ST Mary’s children talk about filling each others ‘buckets’. Being a bucket filler is about being positive and encouraging to others. Let’s all be bucket fillers and people of encouragement to create a positive environment where all are valued and encouraged..

Regards

Andrew

New Clergy

Two new priests have been appointed to the parishes of Young, Boorowa and Grenfell. They are: Fr James Onoja - Parish Pastor Fr Praveen Paul - Associate Pastor Fr James and Fr Praveen have been in our diocese for four years. Fr James hails from Nigeria and has been working in Cooma. Fr Praveen is from India and has been working in Tuggeranong Parish. We warmly welcome them. They will commence their ministry on the weekend of the 28th - 29th September, 2019.

Parish Farewell for Fr Tom

At the conclusion of the 6pm Mass on Saturday 14^th September, the Parish will be hosting a farewell dinner for Fr Tom in the Hennessy Catholic College Hall. All are invited to attend and are asked to bring something to share for the meal. For more details, please contact the Parish Office or fill in the slip that was inserted into last week’s Parish Bulletin.

DAY OF MANY COLOURS (Mission Rosary)

Friday 27^th September 2019

More details to come.

Sarah Sullivan and Emma Taylor.

2020 Teacher Placements

Teacher placements for 2020 have now been announced. Making these decisions early assist the school with staffing and planning across a range of areas.

Kindergarten- Mrs Vicki Eastwood (KE) and Miss Kate Manwaring (KM)

Year 1- Mrs Vanessa McIsaac (1M) and Mrs Karin Williams (1W)

Year 2- Mrs Leonne Challen (2C) and Mrs Sarah Sullivan/Mrs Emma Taylor (2ST)

Year 3- Mrs Amy Collins (2 days)/ TBA (3 days) and TBA (5 days)

These positions are yet to be advertised

Year 4- Mrs Jodie Heggaton (4H) and Ms Jillian Murray (4M)

Year 5- Mrs Sally McFadyen (5M) and Mr Damian Collins (5C)

Year 6- Mrs Jeanette Albert (6A) and Mrs Kym Connolly (4 days)/Mrs Sally Spackman (1 day)

An invitation is extended to parents who would like to make an appointment to discuss anything that should be considered when teachers determine the placement of your child for 2020. Please note that all appointments need to be completed by 31 October.

Pupil Free Day - Monday 14 October

Please be advised that Monday 14 October will be a Pupil Free Day. We look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday 15 October for the first day of Term 4. Please remember your hats and water bottles!

Shed - Expressions of Interest

St Mary’s Primary School has a garage/shed that needs removing. If you are interested in removing this shed free of charge please express interest via email to andrew.casey@cg.catholic.edu.au  

 Expressions of Interest close at 4pm on Tuesday 24 September 2019.

St Mary’s Uniform Policy

Please be advised that the St Mary’s Primary School Uniform Policy has now been implemented. The updated policy has been distributed to all families. A reminder that the St Mary’s backpack is a compulsory item for all students from K-3 as there has been a rolling implementation for several years. The backpack is available for purchase from the office.

We have a collection of unnamed items in our lost property box. If not claimed by the end of the Term they will be donated to the school clothing pool. 

Infants Athletics Carnival

Save the date!!!!! The annual infants athletics carnival will be held at Keith Cullen Oval on Thursday the 26th of September. 

Trent Barrett Shield

We have nominated 5 teams between Rugby League and League Tag. Good Luck to all those involved. And many thanks to those who have helped prepare and coach the teams. At time of print we were unaware of their results. 

Mackillop Athletics Trials

Good luck to the 16 St Mary’s students who have qualified to represent the Archdiocese and compete at the Mackillop Athletics Carnival next week in Sydney. 

       

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Mackillop Girls Rugby League

Good Luck to Eliza Taylor 6AP

who will compete for Mackillop

in the girls first ever

Tackle Rugby League PSSA

Championship in Sydney!!!   

CPS Basketball

To those who have not yet paid the levy for the CPS basketball carnival in October please do so now. This money is now overdue and we do not want our nominations to be placed in jeopardy.

Damian Collins

Premier’s Reading Challenge

Well done to the following students who have successfully completed the Premier’s Reading Challenge.

Indianna Brown

Annabel Bailey

Rory Brodbeck

Samuel Presser

Anastasia Thomson

Addison Day

Carter James

Olivia Thomson

Bonnie Cronin

Monica Taylor

Lucy Turner

Katie Brunton

Bayden Day

Drew Edwards

Grace McCaffery

In total there have been 77 students who have committed and completed the PRC this year.  WELL DONE!!  Certificates will be awarded to these students in Term 4.

BOOK WEEK

“Reading is my secret power” was the theme for our Book Week celebrations this year.  Our school community came together to celebrate our love of books and reading.  We acknowledged the importance of books in all aspects of our lives and gave thanks for this valuable gift.  Our school hall was filled with excited students and an enthusiastic audience of parents, grandparents and friends.  A very big thank you must go to our parents and their amazing efforts in creating such fabulous costumes.

Reading @ Recess took place in our library during the week with visits from Ryan Terry and Angus Randall from the Young Fire Brigade as well as Klara Novak and Nick Scoular from the Young Police Station.  Following a story students were educated about safety and enthusiastically engaged in question/answer sessions.

The sun was shining as we enjoyed Brekkie with Books on the school playground with a visit from dads, granddads and all of the special men in our students’ lives.  There was an excited buzz in many of our classrooms as doors were thrown open and students proudly showed off their books and artworks.

Award winning and bestselling author, Belinda Murrell conducted presentations with students from Kinder to Year 6.  Belinda spoke about her family and the many ways in which she has taken real life experiences and used these as inspiration for her stories. She also provided insight into the publishing process as well as the design of book covers for both her fantasy adventures series and historical time slip series.  There have been many requests for Belinda’s books in our library following her presentation.

Our Book Week celebrations concluded with a dramatic performance by Meerkat Productions of the award winning Australian picture book, “Room On Our Rock”.  The performers used naturalistic acting, direct audience address, audience interaction, puppetry, mime and movement, plus original songs, music and sound effects to support the story. Students were engaged throughout this insightful performance and reminded to consider both sides of a story, with a focus on sharing and having empathy for others.

The following reflections were provided by our students…Reading is my secret power because:

• I get to learn about other people’s journeys and experiences.
• It gives me the freedom to see things through other people’s eyes and appreciate our happy life.
• It teaches me lots of interesting facts that I did not know before.
• It unlocks my imagination and lets me visualise.
• I can imagine that I am the person in the book.
• It gives me knowledge beyond my imagination.
• It takes me places and it entertains.
• It helps me learn about the world around me.
• It helps me learn new words and improves my spelling.
• It puts me in a place of wonder and magic and makes me think about the characters and their personalities.
• I can read and be INSPIRED!

Read on! :)

Joanne Murphy

Teacher Librarian

Year 4

Year 4 have been busy this term enjoying lots of learning experiences such as line design and painting in Art, independent reading, combined sport games, and  investigating soil and rock samples from our local area during Science.