Dear Parents and Community Members,

Monday 11 November is Remembrance Day. It is a day set aside to remember and pray for people who have fought for peace and freedom. As we honour their courage and cherish their memory we pray for justice for all people and harmony among nations. Thank you to the Spirit Spies who will be presenting our Remembrance Day service on Monday.

Thank you to everyone for making our first Parish/School Family Fun Day such a success! It was a wonderful day of fun, food, activities and entertainment, bringing school and parish communities together.

The School Advisory Council (SAC) and P&F will be presenting their annual reports on Monday 11 November at 5.00pm at the Annual School Community Meeting.

Nomination forms were sent home this week for people to nominate for the SAC or P&F Treasurer roles. I appreciate the willingness of parents to give service to the school and community.

Being involved in the SAC or P&F is a wonderful way to be involved in school life, supporting the education of your children. Please consider taking on this valuable service for the school to continue the work of previous groups. Your children will value your input, and what a great way to model service to the community to your children. Nominations close on Friday 8 November.

Our wonderful P&F are holding a Christmas Raffle to conclude the year. Keep an eye out for tickets, there are some great prizes! Planning is underway for the P&F End of Year Fun Day to be held on Tuesday 3 December. More details will be in the next newsletter.

On Wednesday 27 November, we will be having our annual Christmas Concert on the oval.
The concert will commence at 5.30pm. It is always a special night.

Special thanks to our P&F for treating our staff to a special morning tea to celebrate World Teachers Day last Wednesday. Students wore hats to say ‘Hat’s Off to Teachers’, which was the theme of the day. We are so blessed to have such wonderful educators at OLC!

A parent meeting for Kindy 2025 families was held on Monday this week. An orientation play session in preparation for Kindergarten next year will be held on Monday 18 November for students to come and familiarise themselves with the school environment. The first session will be from 9.30-10.30am, and the second session will be from 11.00-12.00pm. This will be a chance to meet and chat with teachers and other parents.

We welcome our Kindy 2025 parents and students on Monday 25 November from 9.30-10.30am or 11.00-12.00pm for an orientation session in the Kindy room and playground. The purpose of the session will be to answer any questions parents may have regarding starting Pre Kindy next year. An information booklet will be available for parents, and Pre Kindy shirts will be on display for parents to purchase. Parents will be advised via email in the next week which session their child has been allocated to.

We look forward to welcoming families, old and new, as they begin their educational journey with their child.

We still have a few vacancies in some year levels. If you know any families who would like to explore enrolment at OLC, please ask them as a matter of priority to get in touch with the school office for a tour of the school.

Alternatively, if your family is planning on moving at the end of the year, please let the school office know as soon as possible so we can plan for next year.

When it comes to bushfire emergencies, Our Lady of the Cape Primary School is considered one of the most high-risk schools in the state. Therefore, to ensure the safety of all, it is essential that we are prepared and hold a bushfire drill each year. This enables us to test our processes, put in place the necessary plans, and also for your children to practise what to do in the event of an emergency. If there was an emergency situation, we need students to be clear about what to do, so they can remain calm and safely evacuate the school, without the experience being unfamiliar and upsetting for them.

You will receive an email next week informing you that the bushfire drill will be happening in the coming weeks. We understand that this may be inconvenient, however it is really important that we do this each year. Please make sure you have a pre-organised emergency pick-up person ready for the coming drill, should you be unable to collect your child/ren yourself on the day of the drill. The reason we do this, is that in the event of a real bushfire emergency, there may be a chance that neither parent/guardian would be available or close enough to the school to collect their child.

On the day of evacuation, children may not walk or ride their bikes home, they must be collected by an adult, as notified to the school. To ensure an authentic response, parents will only be notified by SMS at the exact time of the drill. Typically, a drill will occur towards the end of a school day. When the SMS has been sent, parents need to collect their children promptly from the classrooms. Please inform the office immediately by phone 9781 3200 if children are being collected by someone else.

The safety of our students is the highest priority, and we appreciate the cooperation of parents for this annual drill.

This has been a very busy term so far, with activities and events including Interschool Sports Carnival, World Teachers Day, Grandparents Day, Cultural Incursions and Remembrance Day. Special thanks to all our wonderful staff for their extra effort to organise these activities as part of a well-rounded education for our students. Lots more to come in the coming weeks, too, including all the end of year activities.

Wishing you a wonderful week.

May God bless you.

Mrs Angela Hegney

Principal

Each year at OLC we take time to be thankful for our blessings and to assist those local people in need by contributing to Christmas Hampers distributed by the St Vincent De Paul Society. This year, boxes will be outside classrooms and families are invited to contribute specified items. Please look out for the labelled boxes in the following areas in the next few weeks and give generously to support others during what can be a difficult time of the year. Thank you.

K & PP: Christmas goodies, chocolates, bonbons, puddings, decorations, small children's gifts, and stocking stuffers etc. No lollies or candy canes please!

Years 1, 2 & 3: Pasta sauces, meal kits, rice, biscuits, crackers, sauces, jams, condiments, (any non-perishable good food, which can be used beyond Christmas. (No baked beans or tinned vegetables please 🙂).

Year 4, 5 & 6: Toiletries, chocolates, tinned fruit, non-perishable fruit juices, nuts, small gifts, pampering items, gift vouchers (Kmart, coffee, etc).

Thank you for helping to make someone’s Christmas a little more special this year!

Preparations are well under way for our Year 6 students to graduate from Primary School at the end of the year. Celebrations begin with a 6.00pm liturgy and award ceremony at the church, on Thursday the 5th December. The following Day (Friday the 6th December, begins with an 11.00am morning tea back in the undercover area for Year 6 Students and their guests to attend. At midday the school will gather in the hall to say a special farewell to the Year 6 cohort. Special thanks to our Year 5 P&F Reps who are currently coordinating the Year 5 parent body to cater for the special Graduation Morning Tea for the Year 6’s and their guests on their last day. We are looking forward to a special day for our graduating students.

Remembrance Day is one of the most important days on our commemorative calendar. It is a day when we acknowledge those who died or suffered while serving in wars, conflicts, and peace operations. Remembrance Day is held on 11 November each year. This is the anniversary of the Armistice of 1918 that ended fighting in World War I. People in Australia and many other countries observe one minute's silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month because that is when the Armistice came into effect. It is a time to honour our service personnel who died or suffered in service of Australia. Our school will celebrate Remembrance Day on Monday 11/11/2024 with a service lead by Year 6 Spirit Spies ministry group at 10.30am. All are welcome to join us.

To all the staff, students, parishioners, family, and friends who helped support this year’s successful Inaugural OLC and OLOTSC Family Fun Day with:

· Prize Donations

· Stall donations

· Activity donations

· Pre-Sunday Stall Coordination

· Stall supervision on the day

· Advertising

· Creating goods for purchase

· Time

· Energy

· Talent

· Cooking

· Set up and Pack Down

· And all the rest!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
Team OLOTSC and OLC.

For the first time in 15 years, I will not be in Dunsborough for Christmas Eve to run the annual Christmas Eve Nativity play and am looking for a parent or grandparent to take the lead. I can help recruit actors, provide the costumes and the script. An adult is needed to facilitate a practice or two in the days prior to the 6.00pm mass at the church on Christmas Eve. If you are able to assist, please email me ASAP at amie.meyer@cewa.edu.au so that I can begin the process of filling roles. Thank you in anticipation.

Mrs Amie Meyer

Assistant Principal

A reminder that if your child travels to and from school on the 815 Green Town Bus, they must have a Smart Rider with $5.00 credit on it, and they must tag on AND off to avoid being charged for the ride. We have a number of children without cards, or with non-functioning cards (due to damage or no credit). In this case they must pay the exact cash to travel because change is not provided. Please also remind your child that eating and drinking on buses is not permitted. This includes chewing gum. Thank you for your consideration.

Please be advised that under no circumstances is chewing gum to be used at school. This is for health and safety reasons, and to avoid the mess that comes from carelessly discarded gum. Thank you.

Our Founder, Dana Kerford, was interviewed in 2018 on the topic of bullying for the Sydney Morning Herald. Here is the interview with journalist and author, Kasey Edwards:

Australian schools have the dubious honour of having one of the highest reported rates of bullying in the world. By some estimates, one in four students experience regular bullying.

Governments have implemented anti-bullying programs, schools write policies, and parents are vigilant, yet we appear unable to solve the bullying problem.

“Bullying” has taken on a life of its own.

Perhaps it’s time for a re-think.

According to Canadian friendship skills expert and founder of URSTRONG Dana Kerford, Australia’s approach to bullying is wrong. For starters, we need to lose the term “bullying”.

“The word ‘bullying’ is so misused and misunderstood, even among parents and teachers. The word has taken on a life of its own, and it’s confusing for children,” says Kerford who is currently on an extended stay in Australia, working with teachers, parents and students.

For behaviour to be “bullying” it must be intentional, repetitive and potentially harmful. Accidently hurting someone is not bullying. Not liking your friend’s new haircut is not bullying. Having a disagreement, or not wanting to play with someone aren’t bullying. But this level of nuance can be difficult for children to understand.

To help kids identify bullying, Kerford suggests calling it “mean-on-purpose behaviour”. Anyone can understand what that means and can easily spot it.

The other problem with the term “bullying” is that it’s stigmatising.

“I absolutely do not believe that a little kid who’s learning these skills should be labelled a ‘bully’. They just haven’t learned to manage those really big feelings and emotions that they have inside in a healthy way yet.”

Kerford says that she’s seeing a reactionary and punitive response to bullying in Australia, such as tougher consequences for bullies and “say no to bullying” days.

“Having somebody come into a school and tell the story about how they’ve been bullied in their lives, and how they rose above it is inspirational, but that doesn’t give children anything they can use,” says Kerford.

“Instead we should focus on teaching kids practical skills-based strategies for how to manage and stand up to mean-on-purpose behaviour.”

Kerford says when kids start standing up to such behaviour they are not only learning to treat themselves with respect but they also deter the kids who are being mean-on-purpose from doing it again.

“Self-governance starts to happen in schools when children can effectively resolve their own conflicts, make good choices around who they’re playing with, and stand up to mean-on-purpose behaviour. We get this culture of harmony and kindness and respect and teachers can have their lunches and recesses back”.

The early signs of this new approach are promising. In 2012, Perth College implemented URSTRONG’s skills-based approach to empower students to deal with their own friendship issues. The school has subsequently seen improvement in the resilience in the students. Staff are also reporting that they now spend less time dealing with conflicts between students as the girls deal with conflict themselves.

“The girls consistently report low bullying scores across the year groups we assess (Year 3 to Year 12),” says Deb Perich, director of the program at Perth College.

“This approach works because the girls have a toolkit to use when they are faced with a challenge, whether it be normal conflict or a “mean on purpose” incident. They have simple skills to perform in these situations and they have practised their technique,” Perich says.

Although, not all teachers are comfortable with the approach, specifically the lesson that children should always stand up to mean-on-purpose behaviour. Because bullying is often a sign of low self-esteem and other trauma, some people believe that these kids should be treated with more understanding and compassion.

“Teachers have said to me that they try to teach the kids that things are a little harder for him [the kid who was mean-on-purpose], and that they should show some understanding. And I get very nervous when I hear that,” Kerford say.

“I think empathy obviously, is a great thing. We want to empathise. But there’s a tipping point when empathy becomes enabling.”

Excusing bullying behaviour because the kid is suffering, isn’t good for the child, since they can feel justified. And what happens when they grow into an adult, when such behaviours may land them in trouble with the law?

It’s also a terrible lesson for the victims. Do we want little girls thinking it’s okay for little boys to push them down the stairs because he has a rough home life and he’s feeling sad and angry? Add ten years and we’re potentially grooming young women to accept and excuse male violence or abuse as normal and justified.

Instead, we need to teach kids — all kids — that it’s never okay to be mean-on-purpose and that they should never have to tolerate it.

Of course, bullying is complicated, but given our poor performance in addressing the issues, Kerford’s approach, based on sound relationship principles, is worth trying.

Please keep an eye out for our upcoming Christmas raffle fundraiser and information about the End of Year Fun Day for the kids!

The P&F will keep you updated via Facebook, class representatives, and in the OLC newsletter.

Thank you to all who have supported our fundraising efforts to date!

Email: admin@ladyofcape.wa.edu.au
Website: www.ladyofcape.wa.edu.au
Location: 245 Cape Naturaliste Road, Dunsborough WA, Australia
Phone: 9781 3200
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OLCDunsborough/