27th  March 2020

Dear Sacred Heart students

Thanks for all your work this week. Please watch the video link below: a message from Mr de Villiers our Wellbeing Co-ordinator.  Can you sit and watch it with your parents. I hope you are enjoying the change of learning. You are all doing a great job. I look forward to seeing you when you return to school. 

Thank you,  Mrs. Caldwell

Dear Parents and Carers

Thank you to every one of you who are doing all they can to keep our community safe. We are starting to see that real Australian courage and mateship that always shines through, especially in wartimes.

You are all doing an amazing job out there: supervising your child’s learning, working very hard and having to do things very differently. Everyone has adapted well to the online environment. We have been so impressed with the kids and the parent’s management of it all. Don't forget that as teachers and parents we sometimes have good days and bad days. Sometimes our lessons don't go as well as we wanted to. But we all pick ourselves up and start again.

Next week is Week 10 of a long term and so I have had my “usual” talk with the teachers about wellbeing. If your children are tired and cranky at home it is very normal for this time of the year. We usually slow down our teaching at this point in time and introduce Easter craft and some more fun activities and breaks.

As we move towards lockdown in the near future the behaviour of your children may deteriorate for obvious reasons. I have included some basic behaviour management tips teachers use for students in classrooms that might work at home:

• Put a positive focus on the behaviour you want to encourage. eg. thank you for making your bed, I was so impressed by your engagement with your work today, this is a difficult time for everyone and you are making it so easy for our family,
• Sticker charts, PAWS awards and goal charts are a great way of getting children to work together. Get the kids to make the goal chart together. It can be very simple and have an agreed goal/reward that you work together eg. play a game together tonight,
• Don't focus on too many rules at once and frame them in a positive way - just the one that's really bugging you eg. we speak politely to each other. Mr De has reframed our PAWS rules for home /lockdown. The children know most of them well. To use the rules well we acknowledge and reward the positive and we have consequences for the non negotiables. Children should be aware of consequences in advance so it doesn't look like we are making the rules up as we go. Consequences should be age related. Don't threaten a punishment that you are not prepared to carry through. PAWS rules for home Please print/or show on the screen and share them at home. Asking the children what will that rule looks like at home is a good idea.
• Our students are used to having a voice and being part of the process of setting learning goals and success criteria expectations. Maybe families could meet when all is calm and negotiate a few simple rules and rewards they’ll give themselves if they manage to remain reasonably calm.

At our communication meeting this morning the teachers had a feedback session on the work habits and contributions for each grade. They felt that the winner of the PAWS puppies for this week should be Year 2. Congratulations to both classes! The  PAWS puppies: Brave and Hope will be sitting in your rooms for this week. Congratulations on the efforts you are making in your learning and helping to keep your families and yourselves safe. Mr De our Wellbeing Co ordinator has two videos he would like you to watch with your family:

• Video 1 a Help your family in lockdown: Mr De’s message
• Video 2 a great scientific look at handwashing Seeing Germs

 If you’re in need of a spiritual lift.

• Livestreamed midday Mass from SHMosman

In the coming months: Parents please don’t be hard on yourself if every day is not a great day. This part of our journey is just surviving the time we are locked down and then it will be about picking ourselves up for what might be a new reality. Life for a little while will be a little slower and simpler and that may be a good thing. If you need to have a cry, have a good one and then call a friend. Get the kids to ask their grandparents and friends what games they played when they were little. They may have some great pre tech games ideas.

Regards

Julie Caldwell