PLANNING OR PURPOSE?

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”   Romans 8:28

As we near the conclusion of Term 2, we commence planning for 2023. Planning is an important process that enables the school community to work together to achieve school wide goals that contribute to your child’s schooling journey.

When planning it is crucial to have purpose at the forefront. The purpose of a catholic school is relatively simple - to educate children. At St Bede’s we provide a high quality education where students grow in mind and body as well as soul. St Bede’s Primary School seeks to fulfil the mission of the local parish and the Church by proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ and fully develop each child intellectually, spiritually, physically, morally and emotionally.

In 2022, St Bede’s Primary School has 3 main goals to guide improvement and growth across our school. We will cement a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement, whereby teachers plan for and implement effective teaching and learning as well as effective data collection and data analysis that further guides planning each learning journey. This is important because our kids matter!

We also aim to strengthen relationships between key stakeholders within the school and wider community by identifying, initiating and building on opportunities that engage parents and carers in both the progress of their children’s learning and in the educational priorities of the school. This is important because our kids matter!

In the scripture passage above Paul is referring to an enormous promise to all those who love God and are real believers of God. Those who believe in God have love for Him and each other. At St Bede’s we share this love and experience this love through others and God. Additionally, the verse is about planning and purpose. While on earth, we are called to carry out the will of God with a clear purpose. Again, at St Bede’s we set about all things with a clear purpose that result in continuous improvement by doing good.

Please continue to keep St Bede’s in your prayers, especially as we move into a new phase of planning.

Andrew

St Bede's are excited to announce that approval has been given for another Year 2 class. This is terrific news for our school as we move forward and a wonderful opportunity for our Year 2 students.

This additional class is initially approved for Semester 2, 2022 only. Any additional classes, including Kindergarten for 2023 will be considered in the normal staffing allocation process. 

To assist in positioning the school to keep 9 classes we need to increase our enrolments. Please spread the word that we have smaller classes and we are accepting enrolments in all grades for 2022 and 2023.

Thank you to Catholic Education for considering our request and supporting our great school.

Canteen

Thank you so much to the P&F for funding new equipment for the canteen. There is now a new induction cooktop, oven and air cookers. Additionally, the school has funded the installation and supply of a reverse cycle airconditioner. This will make summer days more manageable.

After School Care Ramp

Catholic Education have now installed marine carpet with grip strips on the ramp. We will monitor the ramp throughout winter and make improvements where required. Please be careful on wet and frosty days.

Sometimes children have big feelings and it can be difficult for parents to know how to respond. Big feelings are often expressed as behaviour that can be best described as challenging! As a parent you have an important role to play in developing your child’s emotional skills and helping them to learn healthy ways to express their feelings. We know that children who learn to cope with and express their feelings are more likely to have good mental health and wellbeing, be more resilient and able to cope with change and setbacks, display less behavioural problems and be more confident and have a positive sense of self. So the earlier we can build a child’s ability to identify their feelings and implement healthy coping strategies the better!

Here are some great tips from the Kids Helpline that can help your child to learn about expressing their feelings:

• Tune into cues - Sometimes feelings can be hard to identify. Tune into your child’s feelings by looking at their body language, listening to what they’re saying and observing their behaviour. Figuring out what they feel and why means you can help them identify, express and manage those feelings better.
• Behind every behaviour is a feeling - Try to understand the meaning and feeling behind your child’s behaviour. You can help your child find other ways to express that feeling once you know what is driving the behaviour.
• Name the feeling - Help your child name their feelings by giving them a label. Naming feelings is the first step in helping kids learn to identify them. It allows your child to develop an emotional vocabulary so they can talk about their feelings.
• Identify feelings in others – Provide lots of opportunities to identify feelings in others. You might ask your child to reflect on what someone else may be feeling. Cartoons or picture books are a great way discuss feelings and helps kids learn how to recognise other people’s feelings through facial expressions.
• Be a role model - Kids learn about feelings and how to express them appropriately by watching others. Show your child how you’re feeling about different situations and how you deal with those feelings.
• Encourage with praise - Praise your child when they talk about their feelings or express them in an appropriate way. Not only does it show that feelings are normal and it’s ok to talk about them, it reinforces the behaviour so they are likely to repeat it.
• Listen to your child’s feelings - Stay present and resist the urge to make your child’s bad feelings go away. Support your child to identify and express their feelings so they are heard. When feelings are minimised or dismissed, they will often be expressed in unhealthy ways.

For more information please visit the Kids Helpline website https://kidshelpline.com.au/parents/issues/helping-kids-identify-and-express-feelings

If you’d like to talk about any of these tips (or anything else), you can contact me via email Amy.Kennedy@catholiccare.cg.org.au or by phoning through the school.

Amy Kennedy

Student and Family Counsellor

At recess today we had a fire alarm sound. 2 fire brigades arrived at St Bede's to investigate the alarm and gave the all clear. This was a terrific opportunity to observe our emergency procedures in action. 

Emergency drills are completed regularly to ensure the safety of your children should we face a true emergency. It is essential that follow the process in a calm manner.

If you are visiting our school when we have an emergency evacuation drill in progress please follow the directions of school staff. Please go to the school oval, which is the emergency assembly area.

For your safety and the safety of others, if an emergency occurs when on our school site, please follow the directions the of staff until given the all clear.