2021 Term 3 Week 6 Newsletter
Prayer Focus
From the Principal
Dear Families,
The second week into my principalship here at St Francis Xavier and I'm thrown a “COVID curveball”! Surprisingly, in this time of high stress brought about by rapid change to accommodate Blended Learning for our students, I am left feeling inspired and in awe. Even in the midst of the snap lockdown, triggered last weekend, the staff have risen to the challenge of ensuring our students are seamlessly transitioned into Blended Learning as well as giving due consideration to their overall wellbeing at all times. Equally impressive is the manner in which parents have risen to the challenges of juggling learning at home and coping with the usual rigors of family life, not to mention working from home themselves. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the entire school community for its flexibility, resilience and willingness to meet any unforeseen challenges with the mindset of a learner.
Finally, I would like to reiterate a very important message from Dr Sally Towns, Director of Catholic Schools Lismore, in relation to Level 4 COVID restrictions in schools.
‘The NSW Premier has announced that lockdown and restrictions in Regional NSW will be extended until 12.01am Saturday, 28 August 2021. This means schools will continue to deliver education to students through Blended Learning for another week. Attendance at school continues to be limited to vulnerable students and those students where all parents/caregivers must attend their place of work and cannot work from home leaving their children unsupervised. Please understand that should students attend school who do not meet this criteria, the school and the student are then in breach of the NSW Health Stay at Home Order. NSW Police are visiting schools to assess breaches to the NSW Health Stay at Home Order.’
Yours in Faith,
Warren Niethe
All Things Learning & Teaching
Blended Learning
Great job everyone! Week 1 complete and you are all to be congratulated on the positive way engagement with learning has taken place. Keep up the good work.
Week 7 Learning Plans will be posted to Google Classroom on Sunday at 4pm and emailed out to all families on Monday morning. Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you are having any difficulties. Stay safe and well.
Happy Learning!
National Science Week
Our exciting plans with pop up clubs at lunchtime didn’t quite turn out the way we planned. However lots of students have created their own at home. Food: Different by Design and sustainable development of fruit and vegetables certainly aligns with the learning activities the students have been focusing on in ‘Care of Our Common Home’ this week.
Book Week
We were looking forward to celebrating Book Week here at St Francis Xavier next week. There has been quite a lot of preparation taking place in the background and Mrs Coster and Miss Walsh had all the staff ready to be a part of the annual book parade. Looks like it will be #BookWeek2021atHome. Please refer to the Week 7 Learning Plans for more details.
Faith & Mission
World Humanitarian Day
World Humanitarian Day is a time to pay tribute to aid workers who risk their lives in humanitarian service, and to rally support for people affected by crises around the world.
Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)
Motivation during Blended Learning at Home
Motivating students to do ‘schoolwork’ at home can be challenging for families. Each child is unique, responding differently to the changes taking place and sometimes the keen learners we see at school need more support to reach the same levels of motivation at home. During this transition it’s important to remember that the best way to support our children to meet performance and behaviour expectations is through positive support. This won’t look the same in all households but here are some popular systems you can put in place to reinforce positives in your home:
- Online reward programs - There are many online reward systems you can access to calculate all the positive things your child does. ‘Class Dojo’ is a popular one in many schools.
- Stamp/Star/Smile Charts - Kids enjoy a tangible chart to stamp or receive stickers or smiles each time they achieve something that makes you smile. You can print one below or make your own.
- Positivity Jars - Another great way to record positives is by adding an object into a jar each time you notice target behaviours. Some ideas include cotton balls, craft pom poms or other fun objects. Children love to watch the jar fill up with all the awesome things they do!
Science in Term 3
Kindergarten
In Science this Term, Kindergarten students have been learning all about how the weather affects our daily lives.
The students are learning about the daily and seasonal changes, how the weather influences what to wear and the things we do and finally how the daily and seasonal changes affect the environment and living things.
The students have used hands-on activities to investigate the reason for day and night by using a globe and a torch, became local weather reporters and reported on the current and upcoming weather and tested and discussed the temperature using fans, hairdryers and body fans.
The next part of the unit will involve students planning, designing and creating a shelter to protect an item from different types of weather.
Stage 1
Stage 1 have been learning about energy this Term.
BIG IDEA: Energy comes in different forms that can be detected
GUIDING QUESTIONS: What are the forms of energy? How do our senses detect sources of energy?
How do we create sound? How do we alter volume and pitch?
We began by identifying light, sound and heat energy and how they are sensed and produced. We detected the energy used for different objects, eg bells, hair dryers, bikes, and to pop corn. Did you know you can inflate a balloon without blowing into it?
In the second half of the Term we are focusing on sound and how we can alter volume and pitch.
We discovered that sound is made by vibrations. The faster the vibrations the higher the pitch. We made sounds with bottles, balloons and dice, cups and string.
The students will now use this knowledge of sound to create a musical instrument to accompany a song that we will perform for Kindergarten.
Stage 2
Stage 2 has been investigating the relationship between energy and forces and how they affect the behaviour of the objects around us.
GUIDING QUESTION: How can objects affect other objects with or without touching them?
We have had a lot of fun exploring the non contact force that is magnetism. The students used magnets to move toy cars without touching them.
The students also had a chance to try to make an object hover using a balloon. This proved to be quite a challenge, but a lot of fun!
For the remainder of the Term, Stage 2 students will be focusing on designing and constructing a light vehicle of their own that is powered by a contact or non-contact force.
Stage 3
In Science this term, Stage 3 has looked at how electrical energy can control movement in products and systems. We have explored how energy is transformed and enjoyed some energy transformation experiments using basketballs, tennis balls and other classroom materials.
The students seemed to really enjoy constructing their own Rube Goldberg machine which is a chain reaction-type machine that is intentionally designed to perform a simple task. In our case, to land an orange pingpong ball into a small plastic cup! Year 6 had the chance to upload these videos on to Seesaw so if you can, check them out!
Next we will look at Google Forms to explore the way that digital systems can be used to transmit and manipulate data, and how that digital system is part of a wider digital network.
Counsellor's Corner
As your school counsellor, I am joining you and your children in working and learning from home. We are all in this together and we have been through Blended Learning at Home before. My main priority is student wellbeing. There is a lot of information on Blended Learning at Home and how to support your children during this time. I encourage you to do what’s right for you and your family, be kind to yourselves, take breaks and stay balanced.
I acknowledge the difficulties and struggles that come with the current situation. The Wellbeing Team at St Francis Xavier Primary School is here to support you with any questions you may have, provide resources and information, and refer you to relevant support organisations. Please reach out to your Classroom Teacher or Assistant Principal or Principal as your first point of contact to get support. They will be able to assist you in getting additional support from the school counsellor, if needed. The school counselling service is continuing to connect with students and families via email, phone or Zoom during Blended Learning at Home.
I hope you all stay safe and well. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.
Kind regards,
Denise Andrade
Anxiety in your Child Seminar
St Francis Xavier Primary School and the Parent Assembly have purchased a whole school licence for this "Anxiety in your Child" seminar with Dr Justin Coulson. All staff and parents have FREE access to this event. Click on the link below for further information and to register for the event.
Free Webinars for Families
A collection of helpful parenting webinars on a range of topics with links for more information and registration. Please open the pdf below for registration.
Helping Our Kids to be Great Learners
A free webinar funded by the Parent Assembly for all Catholic school parents in the Diocese of Lismore, presented by psychologist Andrew Fuller.
