Wow! Two weeks to go!

I am reading a lot of student reports at present. It is always such a joy. They will be sent home next Friday.

This week is the beginning of Advent. We have decorated our Front Office and have a beautiful painting by Mrs MacDonald as a focus for our students to reflect on during this time. 

I particularly love Pope Francis' statement 'that it is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.'

Staffing 2019

Parents and students are keen to hear who the teachers are for each year level next year. This has only just been finalised. With a number of new staff beginning at St John the Apostle, this has been a more complex process. 

In addition, for personal reasons, Mrs Lyn Griffiths will not be teaching full-time or on a specific class next year. This has meant that a new position on a class has become vacant and a recruitment process is underway. We expect to appoint that person early next week. It would then be my intention to announce class teachers in next week's Newsletter and students will be told of their teacher on the same day.

School Fees

After our Director, Mr Ross Fox, fought for 18 months to save Catholic schools from funding cuts totalling hundreds of millions of dollars, Catholic education welcomed the Morrison government’s commitment to largely restore the funding to Catholic schools.

There is still uncertainty around exactly how much government funding our ACT  Catholic schools will receive however we are now in a position to advise you of the school fees for 2019. We are pleased to inform you that we have been able to maintain only a small percentage increase overall, as is usually expected every year.

Catholic Education has opted to increase the Tuition Fee per student that is standard to all ACT Catholic Primary schools to help keep pace with rising salary and school costs. Our school has also budgeted carefully to ensure that the school-determined Student Resource Levy and School Levy will not increase. The Catholic Education determined Building Fund will increase by $5 per term.

The bottom line increase for fees next year is a maximum of $3 a week for one student.

What happens with the fees I pay?

• Much of the funding we receive from ACT and Federal Governments addresses many of our costs. Hence we are a low fee-paying system.
• The Catholic Education Tuition Fee contributes to paying staffing costs and funds additional projects that help us to implement quality teaching projects in the school.
• The Student Resource Levy contributes significantly to the costs of the consumables in classrooms and the office, excursions and ICT maintenance and replacement. This means we don't need to ask families to buy stationery or continuously pay for excursions.
• The School Levy includes our cleaning, maintenance and utility costs (we saved a lot this year on electricity thanks to our investment in reverse cycle air conditioning).

What are our priorities for 2019?

I outlined last week some of our curriculum development plans for 2019 which will be supported in our school budget. We will also:

• Use some increased funds for meeting the diverse needs of students to increase support for teachers in classrooms, provide additional resources (including technological) that increase student engagement and participation in the curriculum and regularly access expertise such as a psychologist. We will also develop our own expertise in catering for gifted students.
• Implement 30 new Chrome books purchased this year for the senior end of the school.
• Allocate funds to the purchase and use of additional resources for our Digital Technologies curriculum, particularly robotics.
• Allocate significant funds towards getting started with our Outdoor Learning Environment Masterplan.
• Re-paint the corridor and break out spaces to give them an exciting fresh new look (this is only thanks to the Building Fund contributions of families). We hope to begin repainting of classrooms at the end of next year.

The budget was discussed at the Community Council on Wednesday evening. It was agreed that at the beginning of next year the Community Council would make a contribution to the development of our playground as well, giving us a great start to achieving our long-term goals.

As always, if fees create financial concern for you, I would encourage you to make an appointment with me to discuss how we can help. It is a policy in the Archdiocese that no student should be refused enrolment, excluded or disadvantaged because their family is unable to afford fees. Any discussion on fees would be strictly confidential.

If you have any questions regarding school feed for 2019 contact me or Debbie Milne, Finance Officer.

Wear Yellow for Annabelle

Next Wednesday evening is our annual Christmas Concert. Students have been practising for weeks. It will be a lot of fun, just like every year. Children need to be dropped off at 'the hub' at 5.30pm for a 6.00pm start.

We are also having a special focus for the day and evening for our school community.

Some of you will have heard of young Annabelle Potts through various news and

social media avenues. Annabelle is a very young girl in our Canberra community who has DIPG, a highly aggressive and difficult to treat brain tumour that most frequently affects children under 12. Annabelle is in preschool. For two years she and her family have been working hard to find a cure for Annabelle. There have been many highs and lows. What you may not have known is that Annabelle is the beloved granddaughter of one of our teachers, Mrs Lyn Griffiths (Year 5 Blue). Lyn has been quietly walking alongside and supporting her family throughout this time.

Lyn's family has received much support from the Canberra community for which they are very thankful. They now want to raise awareness of the need to support research into DIPG and finding a cure through supporting the Isabella and Marcus Foundation. They are doing this by asking every school to participate in Wear Yellow for Annabelle day and participating in the Lemon Face Challenge. 

Next Wednesday, 12 December, we are holding our own Wear Yellow for Annabelle day. During the day children can wear yellow to school and provide a gold coin donation. It can be an item of clothing or something to pin on. In the evening, at the Christmas Concert, we are asking as many parents and visitors in our audience to Wear Yellow for Annabelle and provide a gold coin donation on entry. It would be wonderful to have a sea of yellow in our audience during the evening. All funds raised during the day and evening will go directly to the Isabella and Marcus Foundation to support research into DIPG and finding a cure.

If you'd like to learn a little about Annabelle Pots and family, the Isabella and Marcus Foundation and see our own Director of Catholic Education, Mrs Ross Fox, take the Lemon Face Challenge please visit the Love for Annabelle Facebook Page.

We hope that you will join us in wearing yellow next Wednesday evening and help our Christmas gathering make a difference for children with DIPG, like Annabelle Potts.

Active Streets Program

The Active Streets for Schools program that is expanding to include an additional 52 schools over the next four years.

Suzanne Orr MLA, representing the Minister for Transport Meegan Fitzharris and

Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development Yvette Berry, announced that our school is one of the schools that will benefit from the program.

Active Streets is an infrastructure and education program for schools. The program improves infrastructure around schools to support walking or riding to school. Improvements include new or upgraded footpaths, better crossing facilities and traffic calming measures.

To support the infrastructure, educational resources are provided to students, including a map highlighting safe routes to school.

Transport Canberra and City Services will work closely with the school community from the beginning of 2019 to deliver the program and identify potential infrastructure improvements you would like around the school.

More information is available on the Transport Canberra website.

See you all next Wednesday evening wearing yellow!

Have a lovely weekend.

Matthew Garton (Principal)

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

Happy Birthday to Leo J, Tammy N, Kaleb D, Blake W, Emry W, Abbie M, Peter S, Chut D, Toby F, Hayden S and Zachary L who all celebrated a birthday during the last week.

Congratulations to Olivia G who won the ‘Junior - Dedication to Dance’ award at her end of a year concert on Sunday, dancing for Capital Dance Studios.

All library books are due back now. 

From now until the end of the school year, we will be running Library Overdue Notices weekly. 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 email vanessa.hallaj@cg.catholic.edu.au  

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!. 

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

LOOKING FOR THAT PERFECT SECRET SANTA PRESENT OR
A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS EVERYTHING?

We have the answer…a trolley key!
The key will allow you to unlock a grocery trolley without having to leave the key in it!

That’s right…no more looking for that token or coin to get a trolley to use.
WHAT’S EVEN BETTER….no more searching the car park to find another trolley to get your token or coin out!!!

Check out our fundraising website www.sjapsfundraising.online see a video of how they work here  

For only $8 you’ll get a metal trolley key with a keyring attachment, so you always have it with you.

They work on all coin-operated shopping trolleys with either the front or side coin mechanism.

You can order them via QKR (under community council events/fundraising).

If you have trouble using QKR please email me at belinda.duke@hotmail.com.au to organise ordering and different payment method.

Fostering healthy sibling relationships

If your kids constantly fight with each other, then don't despair. All that emotional energy isn't going to waste.

According to a recent study, sibling fights teach kids important conflict resolution skills. In fact, parents who stop their children from arguing may well be depriving them of important learning opportunities.

Researcher Laurie Kramer from the University of Illinois in the US found that kids who learned how to argue with their siblings had more advanced emotional development.

Anecdotally, it seems that sibling fighting is one of the biggest impediments to parents enjoying family life. Many parents tell me that if their children stopped bickering their lives would improve dramatically.

Many parents also worry that their children who fight with each other will not get along as adults. The evidence doesn’t support this view. The test for strong families is more about the willingness for kids to pull together when the chips are down than it is about than the frequency of squabbling.

Healthy families know how to fight well. When parents take an active approach to helping their children resolve their fights, they are teaching them a valuable life skill as well as reducing the incidence of fighting over the long term. Here are five practical strategies to use:

MODEL good conflict resolution skills
Kids wear 'L' plates when it comes to solving disputes. Some kids will yell, get abusive or even get physical when they are settling disputes. Show them better ways of sorting out problems by talking things through with your partner, compromising and apologising when you’ve said something upsetting to your partner or your children.

Help kids MANAGE their emotions
“Yep, it would make me mad too if someone said that to me.” Usually someone’s feelings get hurt when siblings argue, so make sure you recognise their emotions without taking sides. This focus on feelings helps kids develop emotional literacy and promotes empathy in siblings as well.

MONITOR sibling relationships
Keep your antenna up for signs of discord within sibling relationships. Kids can sort out some disputes themselves, but you may need to be ready to intervene and assist with peace-brokering, or at least to act as a safety net, when one child continually appears to be on the wrong end of a power imbalance.

MENTOR them to sort out disputes
Kids need the chance to sort their conflicts out themselves, but sometimes they need a little coaching. They often invite their parents to take sides, which is usually counterproductive. Rather than trying to sort out who started an argument, focus on possible solutions. Provide suggestions such as taking turns, giving way, bargaining, swapping or even walking away.

Encourage them to MAKE UP
Kids often get over disputes far quicker than adults. They can be squabbling one minute and cuddling up the next, so intervening gets tricky sometimes. However there are times when you need to encourage a child to mend bridges with an aggrieved sibling. This can mean a child has to swallow their pride, admit that they may be wrong, make an apology or make some sort of restitution such as doing a special favour. This type of restoration means kids must take responsibility for their behaviours and is a sign of growing maturity.

Children without siblings can learn conflict resolution skills by spending time with other peers and friends, and by having parents who are willing to argue with them without coming on too strong or laying down the law.

Conflict and siblings tend to go together. They are natural bedfellows. While sibling squabbles can be annoying, they also offer parents great opportunities to help kids to handle conflict effectively, which is a great life skill.

Give A Young Carer A Brighter Future

Imagine how hard it is for a child to every day look after a parent living with a long-term illness or disability.

“Mum cries a lot at night, she’s in so much pain. It makes me cry too. I can’t do my schoolwork or hang out with my friends because I need to help her. It’s really hard.” – Beck, 14

Carers ACT is calling on your school community to donate to its appeal to support young carers like Beck.

Instead of doing schoolwork and hanging out with friends, many young carers spend their time instead helping a parent with personal care, medications, medical appointments, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, washing, paying bills and looking after younger siblings. They often struggle at school, have little time to themselves and are more likely than their peers to have mental health issues.

They need your support to give them a break from caring these holidays and help them through school next year.

To donate online visit carersact.org.au/donate or call 6296 9900. Or why not give someone a meaningful gift this Christmas with a donation gift card and help make a lasting difference to a young carer in need.

WODEN VALLEY YOUTH CHOIR

AUDITIONS & INDIGENOUS SCHOLARSHIPS

Woden Valley Youth Choir is an exciting and dynamic choir for young people aged 8 to 21.  We are proud to offer so many positive benefits to our members: the value of learning to sing with confidence, the value of positive self-esteem, and the value of developing performance skills, which will hold them in good stead for the rest of their lives. WVYC is a not-for-profit community choir with a strong emphasis on Kodaly Music Education. We don’t just sing – we become musicians.

Woden Valley Youth Choir has

• a lower primary choir
• an upper primary choir
• a secondary/tertiary aged choir for boys and girls with treble voices
• a secondary/tertiary aged choir for boys with changing or changed voices
• an upper primary a cappella vocal ensemble
• a secondary/tertiary a cappella vocal ensemble

Rehearsals are held on Tuesday evenings at Charles Weston School in Coombs which is easily accessible from all parts of Canberra via the Tuggeranong Parkway.

AUDITIONS

Auditions for Woden Valley Youth Choir for 2019 will be held on two dates

• Saturday 12 January 2019
• Saturday 23 February 2019  (following our Open Day on 12 February)

We would particularly like to audition young people in January who will be in high school or above, so that successful applicants can come to our camp for our two secondary/tertiary choirs on the weekend before school starts. However, all interested applicants may audition in January and we will also happily accept new secondary/tertiary applicants in February.

For more information about the choir and the audition process and to download an application form go to wvyc.org.au

ROTARY CLUB OF HALL INDIGENOUS SCHOLARSHIP

WVYC is pleased to announce that scholarship(s) to the value of $1,000 have been generously provided by the Rotary Club of Hall to enable indigenous Canberran young people to have access to the choir. Applicants should follow the application process for an audition and also contact the administrator on info.wvyc@gmail.com to be sent the guidelines for applying for a scholarship.