Are you coming this evening to our Multicultural Carnivale?

It's going to be a fun evening!

Come along and enjoy food, rides, dancing and great company!

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of the organisation, including every stall convenor and volunteer. I would like to offer a very big thank you to the fabulous team who have been leading the way since this time last year: Craig Neiberding, Leilah Ayton, Natalie Nicholson and Anthony Ganley (Assistant Principal) and their families who have supported them. We are very, very appreciative of everyone’s continuous effort and the benefits that all our students and families will receive as a result.

With tonight’s Fete we are raising money to support the implementation of our Outdoor Education Masterplan, beginning with marking out the black top and ovals as soon as we can. Please come along and feed the family without breaking the bank!

A future of love, hope and healing

In my own prayers and considered thoughts, I hold close all those for whom this week's news of Cardinal Pell’s conviction for child sexual abuse has brought to the surface anger, sadness, hurt or confusion. These pivotal moments can cause such unanticipated tremors within us. Whether we have been the victim of such experiences or not, we are all deeply moved and troubled by the long term impact of any such actions on young, formative lives, especially by leaders and those we trust.

While trust in many institutions is in decline, it can be challenging for people of faith when some key Church representatives do not reflect Jesus’ lived ideal of love, fairness, and humility. I am very thankful for our own Parish Priests Frs Gerard and Kimi who lovingly serve our community in the midst of these events.

As the ripples of this event begin to reach far and wide and rightly disturb the once calmer waters of the wider Church community to which I choose to belong, I pray that God's Spirit of love, healing and hope binds us as a people who continue to seek and act to make our world whole, loving and just.

Matthew Garton (Principal)

The Parenting Ideas article further in the newsletter, is offering a free webinar on 6 March, Switching on your child's Strengths, at no cost!  For further details and to redeem your voucher click on the link in the article and enter the code STRENGTHS.

Belinda Carlisle last night certainly was a blast from the past. It reminded me of my first concert, Phil Collins, No Jacket Required. I was 14. I have no idea how I convinced my parents to let me go. Festival Hall in Brisbane no longer exists and for good reason, even in 1985 it was fairly dodgy. I went with my best friend Clare. She and I have known each other now for over 40 years.  That night before we left, her mum gave us the lecture…don’t talk to strangers, go to the toilet in pairs, stay together. “Yes Mum” was the response. Clare’s parent's influence on me as I was growing up was, and continues to be, far reaching. I see them as often as I can and they call me their third daughter. I was so lucky to have two sets of parents. They shared the same values, had the same concerns for me and made sure I was on the straight and narrow. I was surrounded by family. I still believe it takes a village to raise a child.  Who are the people in your village?

P.S.When we were almost 40, Clare and I went to a Duran Duran concert, we got the same lecture! 

Parish News

Refugee Resettlement

The Refugee Resettlement Committee (RRC) will hold a morning tea after the 10am mass on Sunday 3 March in the parish centre. This is to say thank you to our wonderful volunteers and others who have helped us over the last year. However, all parishioners are invited to come along, to find out more about the RRC and the work it does.

New volunteers are always welcome.

Happy birthday to Dean J, Harry M, Briony F, Mercy L, Hawa M, Yusha A, Fergus S, Tessa V, Keyna O and Michaela H who all celebrated a birthday over the last week.

Congratulations to Jasmine M who recieved second place in the 12 and under division for quilting at the Canberra Show. Her Gran (Claire Brohan) has been taking her to sewing lessons every fortnight for two years now. It was a special moment and her family are so proud of her commitment and achievement.

Celebrating Student Achievements

If you would like to see your child’s achievements on this page, please email to office.sjaps@cg.catholic.edu.au no later than 3:30pm on Wednesday afternoons. If it is received after this time it will be in the following week’s newsletter. We love to share our students’ successes with the school community.

Unearthing kids’ strengths

by Professor Lea Waters (PhD)

Personality strengths – our character – play a big role in helping us build our our talents. Think about anyone who has built a talent and imagine if it could have been done without character. Imagine Einstein without curiosity, The Beatles without creativity, Mother Teresa without compassion or Neil Armstrong without bravery.

Yet for decades, scientists were blind to character strength. We focused on talent, often on physical strength and skills. In fact, when I first ask young children what they think a strength is, they almost always point to their biceps or talk about being able to lift something heavy.

Once you get familiar with the language of strengths and a framework for seeing them, you’ll see character strengths easily in your child. In fact, you may find your child calls on their character strengths more often than on talent to meet life’s challenges.

Three key elements of a strength
You’ve probably seen a child joylessly perform at a piano recital. They may hit all the right keys, but there’s no energy or enthusiasm. It’s as if they don't want to be there. On the flip side, we’ve seen the child onstage who’s clearly motivated and energised and who fearlessly flails through every mistake – of which there are many.

It turns out that three elements come together to form a strength. For purposes of strength-based parenting, we need to keep our eye on all three:

1. Performance (being good at something).
Watch for when your child shows above-age levels of achievement, rapid learning, and a repeated pattern of success.

2. Energy (feeling good doing it)
Strengths are self-reinforcing. The more we use them, the more we get from them. They fill us with vigour. You’ll notice your child has abundant energy when using a strength.

3. High use (choosing to do it)
Finally, look for what your child chooses to do in their spare time, how often they engage in a particular activity, and how they speak about that activity.

For true strengths, these three elements form a beautiful feedback loop: great performance provides the child with a shot of high energy, so the child naturally chooses to do more. In turn, high use – also known as effort or practice – improves performance levels. So, for example, if you notice that your child is energised when they play the piano, and you provide enjoyable opportunities for them to play, if they're mining a true strength they will likely practise more, which improves their performance, which then energises them … and so the loop continues.

Keeping this triad in mind will help you avoid pushing your child into an area that seems like a strength just because your child is good at it. It will also help you differentiate between whether your child is bingeing on an activity in an escapist way or expressing a true strength.

For example, when a parent asks me, 'My son is great at computer games and wants to play all the time. Is that a sign of a strength?' I reply, 'Observe his energy levels at the end. Is he drained and cranky? Or energised and full of life? Are you seeing the full triad?' Computer games can tap into a child’s strategic and problem-solving skills or stimulate creativity (in some games, you invent whole new worlds). Or they might just be about filling time.

So look for all three signs. When you see your child do something well, with energy, and repeatedly, you’ll know you’ve unearthed a strength.

You can attend our upcoming webinar, Switching on your child's Strengths, at no cost!

As your school is a Parenting Ideas Schools member, you can attend our upcoming webinar Swiching on your child's strengths with Professor Lea Waters at no cost! Use the voucher code below to register for the webinar valued at $37 per person.

About the webinar

The extraordinary results of focusing on our children’s strengths rather than always trying to correct their weaknesses is explained in this webinar.

As a strength-based scientist for more than 20 years, Professor Waters has seen how this approach enhances self-esteem and energy in children and teenagers, and how parents find it exciting and rewarding. With many specific techniques for parents, she will demonstrate how to discover your children’s strengths and talents, use positive emotions as a resource, build strong brains, deal with problem behaviour and talk about difficult situations and emotions.

When
Wednesday 6 March 2019 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM AEDT.

Price
This webinar is $37 per person to attend, and is free of charge to families at schools that have a Parenting Ideas membership.

How parents can redeem the voucher
1. Click this link: https://www.parentingideas.com.au/parent-resources/parent-webinars/webinar-switching-on-your-childs-strengths
2. Click ‘Add to cart’
3. Click ‘View cart’
4. Enter the voucher code STRENGTHS and click ‘Apply’. Your discount of $37 will be applied to the order. This voucher is valid until 6 April 2019.
5. Click ‘Proceed to checkout’
6. Fill in your account details. These are the details you will use to login to your account and access your parenting material
7. Click ‘Place Order’