Dear St John the Apostle Community,

Today our Executive Team met to finalise our focus areas for work in 2019. We have some exciting plans ahead that will continue to develop our school capacity to provide a supportive, challenging and innovative learning environment for our students and families.

You would already be aware of the plans for our Outdoor Learning Environment. A few other plans for next year include the following.

Daily Effective Literacy 

We have reflected on the literacy teaching and learning practices trialled and used in the school for the last 5 years and examined their impact. Earlier this year we implemented the Sounds Write phonics program K-2, supported by Sounds Waves Spelling 3-6. We have already seen great growth in the spelling knowledge and skill of our students across the school. We will maintain these programs.

To continue this improvement we are implementing an agreed practice across the school for the teaching of literacy called The Daily 5. The Daily 5 is a structured approach to literacy teaching & learning that takes the most effective elements of the last five years and combines them into a powerful literacy block each day. The Daily 5 is a literacy framework that instils behaviours of independence, creates a classroom of highly engaged readers, writers, and learners, and provides teachers with the time and structure to meet diverse student needs. It includes a number of episodes of explicit teaching each day based on four major areas: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Vocabulary Expansion. 

Engaging Inquiry Curriculum

As previously mentioned we have spent a great deal of time developing compelling, significant and intriguing units of work that provide the opportunity for students to engage in inquiry that develops deep understandings about the world as well as skills for independent learning. These units will combine content and skills from all curriculum areas.

We also have a strong teaching team across the school next year and look forward to seeing just how much our students grow and learn with this new curriculum plan. 

Berry Street: Wellbeing for learning

In schools we now understand that children learn best in environments where they feel safe and happy. Wellbeing is crucial to academic success. While many of our students come to school with already positive wellbeing, supported by loving relationships outside of school, there are also students who have experienced trauma or other circumstances that make it difficult for them to learn effectively throughout the day.

We are joining a number of Catholic Primary Schools to begin the two-year journey to implement the relevant aspects of the Berry Street Education Model. The Berry Street education initiative is based on proven positive education, trauma-informed and wellbeing practices that enable students’ academic and personal growth. The model is unique because it educates schools and their leaders to reinforce and sustain cognitive and behavioural change, thereby re-engaging young people in learning and progressing their academic achievement.

UR FaB

Next year we will also work with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) to implement the UR FaB Program. The program will be led by health professionals from the CAMHS Childhood Early Intervention Program who specialise in early emotional and social development, together with the school counsellor and class teachers.

The program aims to support children who are struggling to manage their strong emotions and behaviours. Previous research has shown that helping families and schools work together in the early years can have positive results for children both in their classroom and the wider world. The program specifically focuses on developing children’s understanding about their emotions and behaviours and how to manage them, as well as to improve social skills and friendship skills.

These last weeks the Newsletter will include other announcements about exciting programs we are implementing or part of as well as staffing, fees and communication for 2019. Keep an eye out!

Have a lovely weekend.

Matthew Garton (Principal)

Awards are presented at the school assembly each Monday at 2:10 pm.

Happy Birthday to Jessica M, Emma M, Samuel K, Sienna V, Charlie M and A Dang who all celebrated a birthday during the last week.

Dear Parents/Carers,

Please return your Library Books!

It’s hard to believe we are just a few weeks away from the end of the school year. In an effort to get all school library materials back and accounted for before the holidays, all library books need to be back to the school library no later than Friday 7 December 2018.

From now until the end of the school year, we will be running library overdue notices weekly and they will be given to the students. Please check at home for any library books and return them to school.  

If you are having trouble locating a book or think you have already returned a book, please contact us. 

In the event that a book has been lost, we would ask for a contribution of $8.00 to go towards the replacement cost. Lost books can be paid for on Qkr!.

Library Opening Hours

As borrowing has finished for the year, the Library will not be open on Monday afternoons for the rest of the Term 4.

Happy reading!

Mrs Georgina Jaram (Teacher/Librarian)

Mrs Vanessa Hallaj (Library Assistant)

Reminder fee statements were sent out to all families this week. Thank you to all families who are up to date with their school fee accounts. If you are up to date, please disregard this reminder statement.  Receipting is done on a weekly basis so all receipts may not have been processed at the time of reminders being sent out.  If you are not up to date and you are experiencing difficulties, please contact Debbie Milne (Finance Officer) via email finance.sjaps@cg.catholic.edu.au or phone the school on 6258 3592.

Please note that the canteen will be CLOSED FRIDAY 21st DECEMBER.

Orders for the sausage sizzle lunch are available on QKR now.

A reminder that Raffle Books are due to be returned. The raffle is a significant contributor to the overall Fete revenue and your support in selling the tickets is muchly appreciated. If you would like any additional raffle books, please contact the Front Office.

Thank you for your support.

Craig Neiberding, Leilah Ayton and Natalie Nicholson

Help kids develop impulse control

by Michael Hawton

How many of you have been in a situation where, after being on a diet for a few days, a colleague comes to work selling chocolates for a fundraiser? Do you give in and buy a chocolate? It’s for a good cause after all. Or do you resist?

Austrian psychologist Walter Mischel conducted an experiment in 1965 involving four-year-olds and marshmallows. Mischel invited individual children into a room where a marshmallow was on the table. The man who brought the child into the room explained that he had to step out for a couple of minutes and if the child wanted to, he or she could eat the marshmallow. However, if the child could wait until the man returned before eating the marshmallow, they would be given an extra marshmallow – so two instead of one. Sure enough, some children couldn't wait and ate the marshmallow before the man returned, while others were able to resist the temptation in order to earn the reward.

Mischel followed the subjects of his experiment into adult life. He discovered that those who had displayed the ability to delay gratification as young children grew to be more socially competent, self-assertive and dependable. And they performed better at school.

Other studies have shown similar results: individuals who had self-control when young later do better on a whole range of variables.

Mischel initially believed that the ability to delay gratification was a result of a certain personality type. However, in a subsequent study with Albert Bandura, Mischel placed children who had not shown the ability to delay gratification in contact with adult role models who demonstrated some delaying tactics. The adults engaged in some kind of self-distracting activity or put their heads down for a nap. The children who observed these adults later showed the ability to delay gratification themselves. That is, they had learnt the ability to resist temptation from their experience with the adult role models.

Impulse control is a skill

The implications for parents are clear. If our children display characteristics such as impulsivity, we can help them learn more beneficial ways to deal with the world. Parents can role model the appropriate behaviours and talk to their children about the strategies they used.

Two main factors seem to influence the ability of both children and adults to delay gratification. Both are more likely to delay gratification if they trust they will eventually get the better reward. That is, they will be more inclined to hold out if they believe the person or organisation that is offering the reward is likely to follow through.

Second, people will generally only display delaying behaviours if they have the skills to turn what might be tedious waiting time into a more enjoyable (or at least tolerable) time. In the original experiment, children who delayed eating the marshmallow showed a range of behaviours including turning their chairs away from the table, singing, inventing games with their hands and feet and talking to themselves to help them pass the time.

Emotional intelligence is the key to impulse control

Parents can help younger children delay gratification by distracting them. Many parents find themselves doing this instinctively. When four-year-old Holly nags for snacks just before dinner, they give her a job to do. However, be aware that children younger than about four generally haven’t yet developed the parts of the brain that allow them to delay gratification of their own accord.

Older children need to learn how to distract themselves by redirecting their emotions. This is more likely to happen if children understand that emotions don’t always need to be acted upon. Older children who are able to focus on the bigger picture will be able make choices that allow them to achieve their goals.

In the book Influencer, the authors contend that many social skills, including the ability to delay gratification, can be learnt. This is good news for most of us! They maintain that while we accept that practice improves performance in sport, music and technical areas, few people would think to practice the skills needed to delay gratification, be a better team member or to negotiate with a boss. However the authors say we should. They claim that with the right kind of practice, we can all learn to be more socially competent.

Looking for a great School Holiday Program (SHP) that is close to Florey, is eligible for the government child care subsidy and is open from 8:00am to 6:00pm, with all food provided?

Then check out the January 2019 school holiday program at Evatt Primary run by OurPlace
Program- https://ourplaceeducentreevatt.kidsxap.com.au/downloadblob/downloadfile?strpath=2511201803351636787820318633608.pdf&strblobcontainername=ckeditordocs&filename=Our%20Place%20Evatt%2C%20January%20Holidays%202019.pdf  

The program is fantastic and my girls love it especially as they average two excursions a week and lots of cool incursions too!
Costs vary according to your child care subsidy (CCS) and if it’s an excursion, incursion or normal day, (but they were cheaper than Camp Australia for the July and October 2018 SHPs).
Tee is the program coordinator who you may remember from the SJAPS Before and After School Care program when Belconnen ran it, so your child/children may already know a friendly face.
There are also a number of SJAPS children who already go to the Evatt SHP, so your child/children are likely to already know someone there if you enrol for these January 2019 holidays.

Enrolments are due in by Friday, 14 December and spaces are limited, so get your enrolment form in ASAP. Enrolment form  https://ourplaceeducentreevatt.kidsxap.com.au/downloadblob/downloadfile?strpath=2511201803414636787820545372806.pdf&strblobcontainername=ckeditordocs&filename=january%20school%20holiday%20program%20enrolment%20form%202019.pdf  

Enrolments will be processed in the order they are received.
Enrolment forms can be completed and emailed to evatt@ourplace.education  or handed in to Tee at the Our Place Space, Evatt.
Once your enrolment form is received, it will be processed as soon as possible and a placement for your child will be offered via email.
Once you have received a place you will also need to register your details and set up an account with OurPlace, but will receive an email containing registration instructions.

If there are any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Tee at evatt@ourplace.education or if you just want to get another parent’s perspective about the SHP feel free to talk to me anytime.

Belinda Duke
belinda.duke@hotmail.com.au
0402424392

Our Place Evatt
42 Heydon Cres, Evatt
Email: evatt@ourplace.education
Contact Number: 0455 465 343
ABN: 29 601 520 843