NEWSLETTER 30 - 20th September 2022

Lambing season is well underway, and my formerly rather mundane drives are now longer but more appealing as I can’t help but stop and watch the various flocks of lambs cavorting and gambolling for the highest locations on the merest incline or mound – they reflect the outward looking, eager, ‘living for the moment’ attitude that our own children endear us with in so many of their experiences of their new and emerging world. Being with our energetic Year 3 class during their excursion to ‘The Hive’ and also being with our enthusiastic Year 5 class recently on their two-day camp certainly reinforced for me the delight that we, as adults, can gain by being part of the ‘energy of experience’ that children gain as a collective when participating in learning in new environments. They allow us to realign our perspectives and perceptions. For millennia, philosophers have understood that we don’t see life as it is; we see a version distorted by our hopes, fears, and other attachments. The Buddha said, “Our life is the creation of our mind.” The Roman Stoic, Marcus Aurelius, said, “Life itself is but what you deem it.” The quest for wisdom in many traditions begins with this insight - early Buddhists and the Stoics, for example, developed practices for reducing attachments, thinking more clearly, and finding release from some of the emotional torments of normal mental life. 



Cognitive behavioural therapy is a modern embodiment of this ancient wisdom and is an extensively studied non-pharmaceutical treatment of promoting mental strength. The therapy is relatively quick and easy to learn and can keep working long after treatment is stopped, because it teaches thinking skills that people can continue to use. The goal is to minimise distorted thinking and see the world more accurately. You start by learning the names of the dozen or so most common cognitive distortions. Each time you notice yourself falling prey to one of them, you name it, describe the facts of the situation, consider alternative interpretations, and then choose an interpretation of events more in line with those facts. Your emotions follow your new interpretation. In time, this process becomes automatic and can provide all of us involved in relationships with some guidance. 

A partial list of common cognitive distortions (from Robert L. Leahy, Stephen J. F. Holland, and Lata K. McGinn’s Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders, 2012) includes:

1. Mind reading -You assume that you know what people think without having sufficient evidence of their thoughts. “He thinks I’m a loser”;
2. Fortune-telling -You predict the future negatively: things will get worse, or there is danger ahead. “I’ll fail that exam,”;
3. Catastrophizing - You believe that what has happened or will happen will be so awful and unbearable that you won’t be able to stand it. “It would be terrible if I failed”;
4. Labelling -You assign global negative traits to yourself and others. “I’m undesirable,” or “He’s a rotten person.”
5. Discounting positives -You claim that the positive things you or others do are trivial. “Those successes were easy, so they don’t matter;”
6. Negative filtering -You focus almost exclusively on the negatives and seldom notice the positives. “Look at all of the people who don’t like me”;
7. Overgeneralising -You perceive a global pattern of negatives on the basis of a single incident. “This generally happens to me. I seem to fail at a lot of things”;
8. Blaming -You focus on the other person as the source of your negative feelings, and you refuse to take responsibility for changing yourself. “She’s to blame for the way I feel now”;
9. What if? - You keep asking a series of questions about “what if” something happens, and you fail to be satisfied with any of the answers. “Yeah, but what if I get anxious?” or “What if I can’t catch my breath?”;
10. Emotional reasoning -You let your feelings guide your interpretation of reality;
11. Inability to disconfirm -You reject any evidence or arguments that might contradict your negative thoughts. “That’s not the real issue. There are deeper problems. There are other factors.”

There are numerous sound, peer-reviewed studies that have as their central theme the importance of developing an inner toughness, as distinct from an inner and outward coldness; I believe we work hard at St Patrick’s to promote inner toughness, emphasising being self-reflective and remaining attuned to the positive and good in ourselves and others, and I thank all in our school community who take a moment’s discernment prior to forming impressions based on incomplete perceptions and subsequently being able to engage in the ‘joy of anticipation’ that we see in our children (and young lambs.).

Regards                              

Rod Linhart (Principal)

September

October 

Term 1 - Thursday 3rd February - Thursday 14th April

Term 2 - Monday 2nd May - *Friday 8th July

Term 3 - Monday 25th July - Friday 30th September

Term 4 - Monday 17th October - Thursday 15th December

*Student Free Day Friday 8th July 2022

Mrs Leonard and Mr Linhart attended a finance meeting yesterday. Mrs Meech is attending a Literacy PL Tuesday and Wednesday of this week – we welcome Mr Atkins and Mrs Badcock to Year 3; Mrs Jak will be on leave for the final two weeks of this term – we welcome Mrs Carol-Jones to Prep; Mr Angliss will be on leave until week 2 of term 4.

Students may wear their sport’s team ‘colours’ on Friday 23^rd September (Wednesday 21^st September for kinder students). As usual, we will commence the day with an AFL team song assembly.

There will be NO canteen on Friday 23rd September. The P&F will be holding a footy themed day with Hot dogs in bread and Ice Cream. This will be available to all students free of charge.

Congratulations to the following students who have received Student of the Week.

Prep: Rehan Hasan for your positive and enthusiastic participation in our spelling lessons.  Keep up the good work with your homework.

Year 1: Dawson Furley for your positive attitude and application to all areas of your learning. Well done Dawson.

Year 2: Archer Parry for an improved performance in his comprehension and reading, during his reading test this week.

Year 3: Emmy Raddich for her excellent attitude and application towards completing her work and for her contributions to class discussions.

Year 4: Harry Phegan for his positive engagement with his research on William Dampier.

Year 5: Oliver Parry for the enthusiastic, positive and mature approach shown towards all activities on school camp.

Year 6: Nikola Crump for the many positive contributions you make to our class every day and the strength you demonstrate by persevering through challenges.

Congratulations to our House Raffle winners this week: 

Dooley - Tom Anthony  Martyn - Indiana Bowkett

Byrne - Isaac Banks

On Monday the 12th of September, 24 excited Year 5 students hopped on a bus and headed off to Riverbend Camp in Smithton. Our first stop was at Burnie Park for a quick play and toilet break. Then we got back on the bus and headed to Riverbend. When we arrived, we went to our cabins and unpacked our sleeping bags and pillows.

We were then split into two groups ready for some exciting activities. One group did the flying fox and the other group got to go on the bungee run. After we all had a turn at the first activity, we met back in the dining room ready for lunch. Some of the students got to help serve lunch in the kitchen. Following eating we swapped over and completed the activity we didn't do before lunch.

After lots of laughs and fun we went back to our cabins and got ready for swimming. We had a great time at the pool, even Miss Moore and Mrs Hyland went swimming with us! The day was still not over yet. We made our way back to the camp and had some yummy dinner before rugging up and boarding the bus for Stanley. We made volcanoes on the beach and lit a fire inside them and toasted some delicious marshmallows. Before leaving, we tiptoed over to the penguin viewing platform to see the fairy penguin come up from the ocean to their nests. They were adorable!

After arriving back at camp, we had some supper and a cup of milo and settled down for the night. Everyone was tired after a big day.

We were up early the next morning ready for some more fun. Breakfast was at 8.00am; we all enjoyed some cereal and toast. We could always have seconds for any of our meals! The last activity at Riverbend was going to be the flying squirrel and this turned out to be my favourite. We had to be harnessed up and connected to a pulley. We then had to run in the opposite direction to the people doing the pulling, this made us fly up off the ground and into the air. We went up about 10 metres in the air. It was great watching Mr Linhart fly into the air.

Later in the morning we packed up the bus ready to make the long trip back to school, however, not before a last stop off at Ten Pin Bowling for some lunch and a game of bowling! We would like to thank Mr Linhart, Miss Moore, Mrs Hyland and Mr Angliss for taking us to camp. We all had a wonderful time!

As part of a transition for kindergarten students into their 2023 five day primary school experience, kindergarten students are engaging in play in the primary school playground, beginning next Thursday 22^nd September. Kinder students will have the specific assistance and support of ‘class cobbers’ from an older grade, who have developed a relationship with the kindergarten class; these ‘class cobbers’ will offer specific student support for kindergarten children, especially in the early phase of this transition. Kindergarten students will still be welcome to use their own toilets and the kindergarten gate to the primary playground will be left open. The primary playground gates will be secured and staff will provide extra vigilance.

In addition to providing families with examples of student work via Seesaw that reflects our Online Feedback and Reporting Guidelines, teachers will be providing student work in English this week and Maths books next week. These resources will hopefully allow parents the opportunity to review some of the work that is covered in class, to engage in some focused conversations with children and to provide scope for similarly focused conversations with teachers. The home-school partnership is a crucial support relationship for student progress and parents are welcome to note in their child’s diary or ring the school office to organise parent-student-teacher meetings to discuss any aspect of a child’s education at St Patrick’s. Please ensure any books that are brought home for parent review are returned the next school day. Thank you.

The 2022 Tasmanian School Triathlon Challenge forms have gone home with all students in Years 3-6 today and is included as a downloadable form with the newsletter. The event will be held at the Mersey Bluff on Thursday 24th November. If your child/ren would like to compete in this event please return the entry forms back to the school office by no later than Friday 30th September. Students can choose to participate as an individual or in a team. The registration fee will be covered by the school. This year we will bus our students to and from the event; however, it will be parent responsibility to get pushbikes to the Mersey Bluff by the allocated cut-off time in the morning and to collect them after the event. Further detailed information will be forwarded to families closer to the event. 

Prep students enjoyed making traditional Japanese lanterns during their Japanese lesson.

On Sunday the Latrobe Demons held their end-of-season Junior Awards Dinner/Presentation. Egan Bos received the Most Improved 1st Year Player Coaches award.  Below are the U12 St Pats boys who played this year Frank Dewrance-Milligan, Egan Bos, Cameron Reeves, Charlie Jones, Daniel Eastley and Coach David Reeves. Congratulations on a great season. 

Will Hawkins and Harper Clark competed last Sunday in the Tasmanian State Swimming Championships in Hobart. They both competed extremely well with both of them breaking multiple of their Personal Bests. Well Done Will & Harper! 
 

Dempsey Cock played in The Devonport Open Squash tournament last weekend and outclassed all his opposition to win his division, winning all his 5 matches. The photo below is Dempsey with his prize, a new squash racquet. Prizes were presented by Devonport Mayor Annette Rockliff. Congratulations Dempsey!

Years 5 and 6 have been invited to celebrate Mercy Day with our sister school Our Lady of Mercy in Deloraine on Friday 23rd of September. Mercy Day celebrates and acknowledges the founders of our school, the Sisters of Mercy. The day will include many activities which will be underpinned by the charisms of the Sisters of Mercy which remain present in our school community and our everyday school lives. The children will be participating in a Mercy Liturgy, challenge activities and a values sharing.  The day will be a great day to celebrate the Sisters of Mercy and the legacy they have left in our local area.

Our uniform policy does not require students to wear hats until summer uniform (the transition of which will begin in two weeks), however, advice from the Cancer Council strongly encourages the wearing of hats and being ‘Sun Smart’ in other ways once the UV rating reaches 3. This level 3 UV rating is now appearing to occur regularly with our clear, sunny spring days and we will be encouraging staff and students to wear hats in response to this sound advice from the Cancer Council.

The school urges parents to support road safety by obeying signage or staff on duty requests. And asks you remind your child(ren) to be very aware of potential traffic related dangers around the school. Sometimes for example, pedestrians or motorists take short cuts, and if students are crossing inappropriately (with or without you), or just not aware of their surrounds by always looking either way, we could have an accident. The education and care of our students is a partnership between the staff and parents and we all need to play our part, even if only to demonstrate your support to any children watching.

Fraser Smith has misplaced his glasses they are Oakley brand with black frames. If you have seen these in the school or accidentally picked them up can you please return them to Fraser in the Year 2 classroom. Thank you. 

Xavier Parker, Year 2, will this year be raising awareness and funds to support those in our community, especially, children, who are affected by violence.  By painting his nails blue, Xavier hopes to help raise awareness, and funds, for “Polished Man”.

 WHAT IS POLISHED MAN?

In October, the “Polished Man campaign” will encourage people to actively take a stand, paint one nail blue to spark up important and powerful conversations and raise awareness and funds to end violence against women and children. The funds that are raised will support trauma prevention and recovery programs in Australia and around the world that aim to stop violence before it can occur, as well as helping survivors on their road to recovery. That’s how together, we can create a safer world for women and children.

Whilst “Polished Man” raises the profile – and awareness – of violence against children and women, Xave also wants to take this opportunity to acknowledge that men also suffer from domestic violence. For the entire month of October, Xave will have some (and possibly all) of his fingernails painted blue. This acts as a conversation starter to raise awareness of the “Polished Man” cause, as well as offering an opportunity for people to donate towards the cause.

If you have like to join Xave in this cause – then please head to ‘polishman.com’ - and follow the links to sign up (the more the merrier). If you would like to donate towards the cause then do so at - https://polishedman.com/xaveparker2014 For the month of September, students may choose to support Xavier by painting one or finger nails blue, hopefully creating conversations about challenging violence and being agents of positive change.

Thank you most sincerely for the generous offer of assistance with the school’s request for a meal donation in support of the Barker family. The response certainly reflects the generous nature of our wonderful school community. Following on from a letter that was communicated to participating families, the meal preparation roster is below. Please contact Mr Linhart, Lennice or Tameka in the school office if your circumstances have changed in regard to this offer of assistance, or if you would like to offer a meal or lunchbox item. We are asking the meals to be brought to school to allow us to send the meals home each Tuesday and Thursday. Please ensure your containers are clearly labelled with your name for the effective return to you. Once again, thank you to the families who have volunteered their time and resources; the Barker family has communicated their heartfelt thanks for this gesture of support.

Please continue to follow Health advice regarding notifying us if your child contracts COVID-19. Some important considerations regarding the updated COVID-19 School Safety Plan include:

• Parents are welcome inside school buildings without masks – please sanitise upon entry and wear a mask if you are a close contact (as per Health instructions.)
• Positive cases are still required to isolate for at least 7 days.
• Close contacts are still required to follow close contact rules for 7 days including testing daily if leaving their home and wearing a mask (all persons 12 years and older) in indoor settings when outside their home.
• There is no need to sign-in at the school office unless you are collecting or dropping off your child outside the usual drop-off/pick-up times (always come to the school office and office staff will contact the class teacher please, rather than picking your child directly from the classroom.)

Colds and flu

• Students/staff with cold or flu symptoms are required to stay home and test for two consecutive days.
• If the person has twice tested negative on successive days for COVID-19 and their symptoms are mild e.g. a runny nose, there is no coughing or sneezing and, if a student they have indicated when asked that they feel well, then the person is permitted at school /workplace.
  
  

Rapid antigen tests

Schools and the TCEO will allocate rapid antigen tests to CET personnel (staff and students only) as per the following schedule:

• Provide one (1) test when requested due to the person being symptomatic.
• Provide five (5) tests when requested due to the person having household close contact status.

COVID-19 testing

• If staff or students have symptoms, they should stay home and test for COVID-19.
• If it is less than 28 days since they had COVID-19, they do not need to get tested but should

still stay at home if unwell.

• If the test is positive and the person has not had a COVID-19 infection within 28 days, the person is considered a confirmed case.
• If the initial test result is negative and symptoms continue, students and staff with ongoing symptoms are advised to take a second test the following day.
• If the second test remains negative, this is sufficient to enable a return to work or school.
• If a person has returned 2 successive negative rapid antigen tests and still feels unwell consider

taking a PCR test.

• Positive rapid antigen tests must be registered on the Tasmanian Government COVID-19 website by the confirmed case or their parent/carer.

Confirmed cases

Should a student or member of staff test positive for COVID-19 they must:

• Isolate for a minimum of 7 days, provided outside the 28-day reinfection exclusion period.
• Isolate for a further 3 days if they still have symptoms on day 7.
• If test positive using a rapid antigen test, register the result with Public Health using their online declaration form or phone the Public Health Hotline 1800 671 738.
• Notify household close contacts of the need to observe close contact requirements when leaving their homes.

Unfortunately, we have had some incidences after school regarding behaviours occurring on school grounds when students are in the care of their parents that we would deem inappropriate during school hours. We acknowledge that a quick ‘catch-up’ amongst parents after school can offer the only face-to-face opportunities for parent get-togethers, however, in the light of these incidences, parents are requested to take their child or children home promptly after school please, unless their child or children are involved in a school event, such as sporting coaching, is taking place. Thank you for your cooperation and support.

Whole school assemblies have commenced again each morning – parents are welcome; please follow the COVID Safety Plan protocols – sanitize and observe personal distancing.

Parents are welcome to contact Mr Linhart at any time to discuss issues relating to their child’s education. It is important for parents to always make contact with Mr Linhart or their child’s teacher if they require elaboration or clarification on any issue. The school phone is diverted to after hours to ensure your question should be answered.

Karlie offers discrete counselling services to students upon both parent's signed request. Request forms are available from the school office or can be downloaded from the school website.

A reminder to parents that St Patrick's is a Nut Allergy School and that we ask that parents not pack nuts or nut products in their children's lunchboxes.

‘Inquiring Minds’ Birth to 5 program - a ‘Set-Up for Success’ Catholic Education Tasmania initiative.

Our ‘Inquiring Minds’ birth to 5 program operates each Friday during school term time from 9.00am to 10.30am;This program involves a considerable focus on communicating to parents the learning intentions of important activities that are associated with early years learning. Mrs Klug will be working to engage parents in early years learning experiences that will ensure children who are enrolling in Kindergarten, will be informed in regards to developing key social, emotional, physical and cognitive skills and understandings.