normanton state school newsletter€¦ · against bullying and violence, providing an ... rallied...
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PRINCIPAL’S NEWS
Effective hand hygiene is vital As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to evolve, and the cold and flu season comes upon us, it is important to remember that effective hand and sneeze/cough hygiene is the best defence against viruses and can help prevent the spread of illness. Lead by example and encourage your children to:
wash their hands regularly with soap and
water, before and after eating, and after
going to the toilet
use alcohol-based hand sanitiser if soap
is not available
cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue
or the inside of their elbow
dispose of tissues in the bin immediately
if they’re unwell, stay at home and avoid
contact with others such as touching,
kissing or hugging.
Check out the 20 second routine: youtube.com/watch?v=NpmB80pWUsk&feature=youtu.be
Connecting school
communities for 10 years Friday 20 March 2020 marks the 10th
anniversary of the National Day of Action
against Bullying and Violence (NDA). Australia’s key bullying prevention event for
schools is celebrating 10 years of action,
connecting communities to find workable solutions
to bullying and violence.
Operating since 2011, Bullying. No Way! delivers
the NDA annually for Australian schools. The
NDA encourages all students to stand together
against bullying and violence, providing an
opportunity for schools across Australia to
showcase bullying prevention and response
initiatives.
Throughout the year, the Bullying. No Way!
website supports schools with free, quality and
evidence-informed resources on bullying
prevention in schools and early childhood settings.
For the NDA 2020, school communities are being
rallied to unite their ideas and actions to address
bullying. The theme for the NDA 2020 is Take
Action Together. This theme aims to elevate
student voice, empowering young Australians to
join the national conversation.
The 10th anniversary of the NDA offers the
opportunity to recognise the dedication of
Australian school communities and involves young
people on the journey to generate a powerful
roadmap to bullying prevention.
Normanton State School Newsletter
“Normanton State School is a Great School”
Phone 47697222 Fax 47451322
[email protected] No.7 11/3/2020
Whether you’re a parent, teacher, student or
member of the broader community, everyone has a
role to play. Let’s Take Action Together.
Student tips try these: • Ignore them. Try not to show any reaction.
• Tell them to stop and walk away.
• Pretend you don’t care.
• Go somewhere safe.
• Get support from your friends.
try these: • Avoid responding to the bullying.
• Report and block anyone who is bullying online.
• Protect yourself online using privacy settings and
keep records.
• Leave negative conversations. Don’t join in.
• Support others being bullied.it doesn’t stop:
• Talk to an adult (parent/carer/teacher) who can help
stop the bullying.
• Keep asking for support until the bullying stops.
Parent tipsr child talks to you about:
1. Listen calmly and get the whole story.
2. Reassure your child that they are not to blame.
3. Ask your child what they want you to do about
it and how you can help.
4. Visit www.bullyingnoway.gov.au to find
strategies.
5. Check in regularly with your child
Need help now? Kids Helpline www.kidshelpline.com.au
1800 551 800 headspace www.headspace.org.au
1800 650 890 Online bullying www.esafety.gov.au
Good habits start young Parents and carers play an important role in helping
children to develop digital intelligence — the
social, emotional and practical skills needed to
successfully navigate the digital world.
Even for preschool children, it is never too early to
instil good habits, and as your child gets older it is
useful to keep reminding them of these basic
digital intelligence principles: respect, empathy,
critical thinking, responsible behaviour and
resilience. These are also principles you can
emphasise with your child when things go wrong.
How to build digital intelligence Promote respectful communication
Encourage your child to use the same positive
manners and behaviour they would use offline,
understanding that others may have different
cultures, backgrounds or points of view. If it is
not OK to say or do something face to face, it
is not OK online.
Remind them to avoid responding to negative
messages and to tell you or another trusted
adult if they receive them. Tell them it is OK
to report others who are not being nice.
Emphasise the positives. For example, ‘I know
what a kind and respectful person you are, and
it makes me so proud to see you acting the
same way when you're online. You are such a
great friend — I can see how much everyone
looks up to you at school.’
Encourage empathy
Help your child to imagine being in someone
else’s shoes, so they can relate to diverse
opinions and understand what might make
people behave in different ways.
For example, you might say something like: ‘I
noticed that Sam seemed a bit sad when she
came over yesterday. Have you noticed
anything? What do you think is wrong? Would
that make you sad? What can we do to help?’
Teach them to question
Encourage your child to think critically about
what they see online. Teach them to ask
questions so they can identify content or
messages that may be misleading or
exploitative.
Talk to them about ‘fake news’, or false
information that is designed to look like a
trustworthy news report, and how quickly it
can spread on social media. Teach them to fact
check news sources and do their own
independent searches on issues, so they can
see the variety of opinions on a particular issue
and make up their own mind.
Remind them to be careful when making new
friends online as people may not be who they
say they are. We are increasingly seeing
‘Finstas’ (fake Instagram accounts) and other
impersonation accounts. So it is important to
question whether what they are seeing online
from their friends is real or not. If it seems out
of character, it could be from a fake account.
Alert your child to the dangers of meeting
someone in person that they have been talking
to online. Advise them to never arrange to
meet an online friend unless a trusted adult is
with them and it is during the day in a public
space.
Encourage safe and responsible behaviour
Work on achieving a healthy balance in
your child’s online and offline activities and
set boundaries for digital device use in your
home. Find out how in time online.
Remind your child of the importance of
safeguarding personal information that can
be used to identify or locate them.
Explain why they should be suspicious of
unsolicited messages and emails, and avoid
clicking on pop-up ads on websites. Some
pop-ups that seem safe can lead to
inappropriate sites or ask for personal or
financial information.
Help them configure the strongest privacy
settings on all the social media apps and
sites they use. It is best that only their circle
of friends can view their information, tag
them in a photo or share posts. And get
them to check their settings regularly as
updates can sometimes change them back
to the default.
Ensure your child uses strong passwords on
devices and accounts, and explain the
importance of not sharing passwords, even
with friends.
Help them build resilience
Keep your cool if your child experiences a
negative experience online. Remember, the
choices they make as they navigate difficult
situations can help them learn. Our 2017
‘State of Play’ research shows round six in
ten young people were able to identify
some positive impacts from a negative
online experience.
Remind your child that they can screen who
they accept as online ‘friends’.
Make sure they know how to block and
report users or pages on the sites they use.
If they have a negative online experience,
find out how they are feeling about it, offer
support and encourage them to keep things
in perspective at the same time.
For example, you might say: ‘What that
person has done is not OK. They must be
feeling pretty bad about themselves to treat
you like this. How are you feeling? Let's
block them to stop their messages coming
through.’
Build your child’s confidence and
encourage positive ways of thinking —
looking on the bright side, thinking
rationally, understanding that difficult times
are a part of life but there is help and
support available.
I am worried my child might be
bullying others If your child is treating others badly, is
dismissive of their feelings or targeting or
intentionally excluding a particular child or
group, they could be seen as someone who
bullies. If they also socialise online there is
a chance they may be bullying that person
or group online too.
Finding out your child is bullying others
can be very painful but you can help them
to change, with your guidance and positive
engagement.
Here are some strategies to try Talk to your child, in a way they can relate
to, about how it feels to be left out or
teased. Use examples. Build empathy —
what it might feel like to be the other
person.
Encourage your child to be honest about their
behaviour, take responsibility for it and
apologise to those they have bullied. Talk
about accepting differences and how to
deal with people that annoy them. Give
examples from your own life such as
working with a difficult colleague.
Explain there will be consequences for them
if they treat others badly — for example, if
they are rude they need to apologise and
lose access to something they enjoy.
Remember to also praise any change for the
good so they start afresh.
Identify activities that make your child feel
good about themselves such as
membership of a sports club or an art class,
where they can be successful and have fun.
Praise your child’s strengths and any
behaviour changes they try to make.
Practice treating others well at home and let
them know when they are being kind.
Spend one-on-one time with your child such
as watching a movie, playing sport together
or cooking with them.
Talk to your child’s school about their
academic achievement, learning style and
abilities and whether they need additional
support.
Work with the school on ways to develop
your child’s social skills.
My child has shared appropriate images
If your child has shared an intimate image
of someone else without their permission try to get the full story
explain why it is a problem
try to stop the image being further shared
help your child to repair any harm
You can also get help and support from
one of these counselling services Kids Helpline
5 to 25 year olds. All issues. Confidential phone
counselling available all day, every day. Online
chat available 8am to 12am EST daily.
1800 55 1800
Online chat
Headspace
12 to 25 year olds. All issues. Phone counselling
available all day, every day. Online chat available
9am to 1am EST daily.
1800 650 890
Website
Tonia Smerdon, Principal
HEAD OF DEPARTMENT NEWS Students in Grades 7/8 have swapped Rotations
this week. Students that were doing Design
Technology moved to Food Technologies. Food
Tech. moved to Digital Technology. Digital
Technology rotated down to Design Tech. Students
in practical subjects are required to wear enclosed
footwear and are supplied subject specific safety
equipment (PPE). The previous Design Tech group
did some fantastic work and the next group have
big shoes to fill.
A pencil rocker, tablet/phone holder and a
peanut/coin bowl all made from acrylic.
Vaccine forms need to be returned as soon as
possible. If your child/ren has lost the forms, please
let the office know so that we can get more. The
vaccines are part of the School Immunisation
program and help ensure the health and wellbeing
of all students now and in the future. If
parents/carers decide not to immunise, there is
provision on the forms to indicate this.
Feel free to contact me at school to make an
appointment to discuss any issues.
Mark Quadrio, Head of Department
SPORTS
Students are encouraged to be training for
the cross country which is to be held on
Friday, April 24 Week 1 of Term 2. We
are training at school on Monday afternoons
from 2:30 and if students are interested,
they are to see Mr McMillan for a
permission note. Parents and carers are
encouraged to come along and support
students in the cross country event.
Presentations will be held in the undercover
area at school at 2:00pm.
Croydon 10-12yrs Touch and Swimming
Carnival
This carnival is being held in Croydon in
Week 2 of Term 2, 29th April – 1st of May.
We will be taking a team to compete and
players are encouraged to participate in the
swimming carnival. Students need to have
85% attendance and positive school
behaviour records to be eligible to attend.
See Mr McMillan if you are interested.
Ricky McMillan, HPE Teacher
STUDENT OF THE WEEK Prep – Shequoiya Briggs – for a great effort in Maths
rotation
Year 1 – Kyemma Edwards - for her good work in
reading groups
Year 2/3 – Anthea Nimble-Brumby – for practicing
her reading and fluency daily
Year 4/5 – Taehya Gallagher - for a great effort in
improving her attendance
Year 5/6 – Xavier Keeman - for actively participating
in all classroom discussions and activities
Year 7/8—Kyla Grieve - for positive contributions in
class
Year 9/10 – Tarni Edwards for working without
disturbing others
HAPPY VOUCHERS
Brooklyn Hookey - I am a Learner
Blake Gregory - I am Safe
Shakana Casey – I am Respectful
DATE CLAIMER
April 6 -17 – School Holidays
April 24 – Cross Country
June 4 – Street Parade
June 5 – Show Holiday
June 29 – July 10 - School Holidays
July 16 – Interhouse Athletics Yrs 4-10
July 17 – Interhouse Athletics
July 23-24 – Gulf Sports
Aug 28 – FETE
Sept 4 – Student Free Day
Sept 14-16 – Karumba Festival of Sport
Sept 23– Oct 7 – School Holidays
Nov 25 – Interhouse Swimming Carnival
Nov 26 – Year 10 Graduation
Nov 27 – Last day for Year 10 students
Nov 30 – Awards Night
Dec 4 – School finishes
The Barra Farm On Wednesday, 4th March the Year 4/5 class went
to the Barra Farm, we saw the life cycle of a
Barra. There was so many grass hoppers
everywhere. We fed the small Barra outside the
tank too. We saw a fake crocodile in the pond.
There was a Barra who was big and her name was
Flossy. My classmates, I, Miss Smith and Mr Jake
had fun on our first trip the Barra Farm.
Lorene A.
On Wednesday, 4th March, Year 4/5 went to the Barra Farm. We fed the Barra some slimey and gross squid. The biggest fish at the barra farm was a 125cm barra named Flossy. We got to watch a video of how Karumba and Normanton started. I thought I had an amazing day at Karumba.
Brody G.