Dear Parents and Staff

During the time your family is at Mel Maria Catholic Primary School you are always encouraged to engage in the activities that take place on numerous occasions throughout the year. This term there have been many events that parents have supported through participation. We greatly value this involvement as this strengthens the partnership between home and school.

Next week we celebrate “Open Night” which is always a huge event at our school. Many families and extended families come along to see the work that our students are doing. We also have a large number of ‘New’ parents that come to this night as they are:

· Either interested in the work our students are doing

· Considering enrolling their child at Mel Maria Catholic Primary School

· Have heard good things about the school.

For us, they are all valid reasons, and we are most happy to share the work that our teachers are doing with their students, as well as the standard of work produced. Our teachers and education assistants work very hard to prepare for this night and I sincerely thank them all for the tireless efforts and making the Mel Maria Catholic Primary School Open Night such a success. We thank them for their commitment and dedication in supporting our children to be flourishing life-long learners.

At Mel Maria Catholic Primary School our goal is to develop a community which fosters life-long learning and an attitude which promotes achievement of full potential in an environment embedded in our Gospel values.

Our Open Night enables parents, children and the school to come together to support, share and celebrate each child’s learning. At Mel Maria Catholic Primary School our Vision for Learning is based on our beliefs that:

• We have an unconditional belief that every child can succeed.

• Children are competent and bring a wealth of experiences and knowledge to the learning task.

• Children are involved in making choices which supports their unique way of learning.

• Children are engaged in meaningful and purposeful tasks which include action and reflection.

The aims of the Open Night are:

• To allow children to take responsibility and be accountable for their learning.

• To help children build reflection and goal setting for their own learning.

• To help children develop a love of learning and begin to see themselves as life-long learners.

• To encourage a wider range of child/parent communication.

• To support and further enhance parent communication and participation in school.

• For children to develop pride in their learning.

During Open Night, children will proudly share their progress and achievements with their parents. It is a time to reflect and to celebrate the effort that all the children have applied to their work during the year.

I am excited to share the exciting news about our ‘POD Areas’. The new furniture arrived this week and promotes modern learning environments, flexibility, creativity, and teamwork. The ‘POD Area’ Furniture and Collaboration Spaces are thoughtfully designed to support various teaching and learning styles. By creating areas where students can easily collaborate, engage in group work, and participate in interactive discussions, we are not only improving the functionality of our classrooms but also enriching the educational experience.

I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Mel Maria Catholic Primary School P&F Association for their generous support of $100,000, which made this project possible. Your commitment to improving our school environment is deeply appreciated and instrumental in achieving our goals.

A special thank you to Stephanie Figueira for coordinating this project, and class teachers for their cooperation and insightful ideas during this process.

*Please note - furniture has been placed into the year levels for 2025.

It is with great pleasure that we congratulate both Millie Beaver and Georgia Matthews who have made it through to the grand final of the Speak Up competition.

From the 34 students that made it through to the preliminary finals, 14 were chosen to go through to the grand final. This will take place on Friday evening, 13 September at Lawley Park Village Community Centre - 55 Alexander Drive, Menora.

We wish both girls every success.

THREE STATE TITLES for ROBOTICS TEAMS

Congratulations to all our robotic teams who made it through to the State finals on the 24/25th August. The competition took place at Newman College. We had four teams competing two in the onstage dance and two in line rescue. It was our first year in this category and our final teams performed so well.

Mel Maria received three State Titles. Second and third in onstage and third in rescue. Mel Maria has a continued level of commitment and achievement in this competition.

We are super proud of the children and the passion and energy they gave to Robocup. We are also grateful to our team captain Declan Goh who is their mentor whilst in the pits during the competition.

Congratulations to our awesome teams. Your achievements are a culmination of your hard work, dedication and passion. You did Mel Maria proud and shone your light.

STATE FINALS HERE WE COME

Congratulations! We are excited to have both of our TOM (Tournament of Mind) teams invited to compete at the WA State Finals next Saturday 14th September!

Both of our TOM teams competed at the regional Tournament last weekend at ECU Joondalup. There were 176 teams competing across the metropolitan area and regional WA. Our teams were selected to be in the top three.

WHAT IS TOM?

Tournament of Minds (TOM) is a problem-solving program for multi-aged teams of students who work together to solve a demanding, open-ended Long-Term Challenge. The team must also participate in an unseen Spontaneous Challenge® on Tournament Day. The program has Primary and Secondary divisions.

Tournament of Minds’ aim is to enhance the potential of our youth by developing diverse skills, enterprise, time management, and the discipline to work collaboratively within a challenging and competitive environment.

PN TEAM AND THE CHALLENGE

Each team has six weeks to formulate a solution to their one chosen challenge and ten minutes to present their solution to an audience and panel of judges on Tournament Day. Our PN team ‘Dream League’ presented in the Social Sciences area.

SJP TEAM AND THE CHALLENGE

Our SJP team ‘’Getting down to Beezness’ presented in the Language literature area.

Michael Grose – Parenting Ideas

Muscles need to be exercised daily if they’re to remain strong, flexible and do their jobs. Resilience is no different. If it's not exercised regularly arrogance will waste away. Resilience is developed through regular daily use. Here are some simple ways you can encourage a child or young person of any age to flex their resilience muscles every day.

Wait until mealtime

Discourage them from random snacking when they are hungry. Encourage them to wait until mealtime. By tolerating minor discomfort such as hunger, thirst or even some worries, kids get the practise needed to help them manage bigger future hurdles that may come their way. You can build a child's tolerance of discomfort by encouraging to delay immediate gratification even just for a few moments.

Do more than expected

Great sports people routinely train more than others and push through mental and physical boundaries. Encourage your child to push through boundaries and do more than expected in small ways. Perhaps they don't just clean their bedroom but tidy the living room as well. They may aim to shoot ten goals in a row at basketball practise but keep going until they reach fifteen. Going past the finish line is wonderful resilience practise. What else can you do that would encourage your child to do more than expected on a regular basis?

Save pocket money

Did you know that when you encourage your child to say some of their pocket money rather than spend it immediately you are teaching them to delay gratification, an acknowledged resilience attribute? Asking a child to set aside some pocket money for saving, some for charity and some for spending will help develop a balanced sense of pocket money. It helps if a child can develop their own savings goal and parental suggestions can assist. The delay of an immediate reward to achieve a greater or later award needs to be practised if it's to become a part of a child's pattern of behaviour.

Make the bed

Resilience comes from doing things we don't feel like doing and making a bed is one thing few people enjoy. The daily habit of making a bed (to the best of a child’s ability) is a brilliant discipline to develop, which has the bonus of setting kids up well for a productive day at school. What other simple habits that fit into the “don't-like-to-do” basket that benefits either your child or others in the family?

Help when you don’t feel like it

It's easy to help at home when they've had a good day at school, or the weather is fine. It's much more difficult to step up and help set the table, pull out the rubbish or hear a sibling read when they've had a bad day at school, or the weather is stinking hot. The seemingly small act of sticking to commitments help develop discipline and conscientiousness that contributes to a sense of resilience.

Smile When you don’t feel happy

Feelings may be difficult to manage, but behaviour is a choice. Encourage kids to choose happy, or at least act happy by smiling rather than putting on a grumpy face. The brilliant thing about this strategy is that smiling changes their mood so that they begin to experience pleasant memories. It’s the small, everyday behaviours we encourage in kids that had the greatest impact on their behaviour,

well-being and resilience.

Kind regards

Paul Hille

Principal

#MakingADifferenceEveryday

This weekend the Catholic Church in Australia will mark Safeguarding Sunday on 8 September. This has previously been known as Child Protection Sunday, but the Bishops Conference approved the change of name late last year to better reflect the Church’s policies and protocols to protect and support children and adults at risk.

The Perth Archdiocese has been celebrating National Child Protection Week this week and will acknowledge Sunday 8 September as Safeguarding Sunday to align with other Catholic Dioceses in Australia.

The following prayer will be shared in all parishes this weekend.

Gracious God,

You love and care for all of your children, especially the smallest and most vulnerable.

We entrust to you the lives of children and adults at risk who have been sexually abused, and whose trust and innocence have been destroyed.

Help us to hear their cries of pain and to take responsibility for those whose lives have been broken.

Help us to recognise the hurt felt by those wounded by abuse, and the failure to be heard.

We pray that with the help of your grace communities and families will find understanding and support, so that now and in the future their wounds may be healed, and they may find lasting peace.

Let your grace and love fall gently now upon our children and adults at risk, giving them the inner strength, peace and resilience to seek out assistance when required.

We ask this prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever.

Amen

Thought for the Week

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.

(Helen Keller)

Performing Arts

As the Performing Arts Festival draws to a close, we would like to extend our congratulations to our School Choir, who received an Outstanding Award for Choral Singing. This is a remarkable achievement, as only a limited number of these awards are presented.

Duty of Care

We would like to remind parents of our ongoing commitment to the duty of care for our students. Please remember that the school grounds are supervised starting at

8:15am, and we cannot guarantee the safety of children who arrive before this time.

Additionally, we want to clarify that students are not permitted to play after school due to the lack of supervision. We appreciate your cooperation in helping us maintain a safe environment for all our students.

Open Night Performances

On Open Night our Year 4 students will be performing on their respective campuses the items they performed for the Catholic Performing Arts Festival. All four groups received an Award of Excellence, and we are so proud of them and Mr Murphy.

· Pater Noster Campus Hall: 4:30pm

· Saint Joseph Pignatelli Campus Undercover Area: 5:30pm

Our Robocup State Champions will also be showcasing their winning items on the night.

· Pater Noster Campus Hall: 4:45pm

· Saint Jospeh Pignatelli Campus Under Cover Area: 5:45pm

Colour Run with a Difference!

This year the P&F are making our annual Colour Run into a fundraising event, to support the purchase of resources for our students. Their aim is to fundraise $15 000.

Children should bring the collected funds to school in an envelope with their name, class and total written on the front. Teachers will collect the envelopes. Online donations can be made here: https://events.humanitix.com/2024-mel-maria-colour-run up until COB Thursday 19 September.

Date: 19th September 2024

Year level: Pre-Primary to Year 6

Time: 2.15pm

What to wear: Black or White Clothing

Join the P&F Facebook page to keep up to date with current events.

This term, the Pre-Primary class at SJP has been exploring different habitats as part of our inquiry learning. We've investigated the aquatic, arctic, desert, savannah, rainforest, and Australian bush environments. After learning about these diverse habitats, the students eagerly chose which one they wanted to create.

Working as a team, they gathered natural materials from outside and used their artistic skills to develop these incredible habitats. This wonderful collaborative integrated project has developed so many amazing skills.

We are excited to showcase their hard work and creativity at 'Open Night' next week and can't wait for everyone to see these amazing creations!

What a whirlwind of activity we've had in Pre-Primary this term! We've been very curious, asking lots of questions about World Environments and discovering the various animals and plants that inhabit these habitats. This exploration took us on an exciting trip to the Zoo, where we ventured into the Rainforest habitat and encountered elephants, otters, and Komodo dragons. We were fortunate to enjoy this experience alongside our friends from SJP Pre-Primary, making the outing even more special.

Book Week was a fantastic celebration, as we dressed up as our favourite book characters for the day. We truly immersed ourselves in the magical world of reading and had a wonderful time sharing our favourite stories. To our delight, we received visits from Mickey and Minnie Mouse, characters from Possum Magic, and even met some fascinating jellyfish.

We welcomed our wonderful Dad’s and Grandad’s in for Father’s Day celebrations, spending the morning together making ties and indulging in yummy doughnuts. Our Dads had fun constructing with Lego and reading special books about SuperDads!

We can't wait to share all we've learned with our families on Open Night and take part in our very first Athletics Carnival!

Beacon – The Cyber Safety app for every parent and career

Telethon Kids Institute and Dolly's Dream are proud to deliver Beacon - a cyber safety educational app designed to keep parents and carers up-to-date with trusted, tailored information, to help keep their kids safe online.

Beacon is designed specifically for parents as a personalised, one-stop-shop for reliable information about the online world. It arms parents and carers with the knowledge they need to confidently help navigate their children’s digital behaviour and reduce harms we know are associated with being online and on screens.

Beacon will shine a light on the online world with:

• Articles and videos backed by the latest research
• Tailored content and alerts, unique to your family needs
• An interactive, personalised digital family agreement
• Help and services that are available to you and your family

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VucXMu5nrCs&t=1s

Beacon is here to support all families

Beacon aims to improve the digital future for Australian children by building parents’ and carers’ digital skills so they can confidently navigate their children’s use of digital technology in a positive way and minimise potential harms associated with being online.

The Beacon app integrates seamlessly into parents’ daily lives, delivering the most trusted and up-to-date information backed by behavioural science research, as well as personalised support, ideas and strategies at their fingertips to navigate the ever-changing online world.

Pre-Kindergarten 2025 – Applications are Now Due

Enrolments are now being taken for siblings and new students wishing to commence Pre-Kindergarten at Mel Maria Catholic Primary School in 2025. Families with children eligible for Kindergarten in 2025 are required to fill out a Pre-Kindergarten Enrolment Application Form. To enrol in Pre-Kindergarten a child must be three years of age before the 30 June 2025.

Mel Maria Catholic School Primary School will continue to operate full day Pre-Kindergarten groups next year with the days of attendance being Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Classes are filling up fast, with limited positions now available, so it is important that parents submit their applications as soon as possible. Application forms can be obtained from the office or please follow the link provided. https://melmaria.wa.edu.au/assets/Uploads/General/Application-for-Enrolment-Form.pdf.

Kindergarten 2025 – Applications are Now Due

In 2025, we will have a whole new Early Childhood space for students from Pre-Kindergarten to Year Two. This is going to be very exciting for the students, teachers and parents.

Enrolments are now being taken for siblings and new students wishing to commence Kindergarten at Mel Maria Catholic Primary School in 2025. Families with children eligible for Kindergarten in 2025 are required to fill out a Kindergarten Enrolment Application Form. These can be collected from the office or please follow the link provided. https://melmaria.wa.edu.au/assets/Uploads/General/Application-for-Enrolment-Form.pdf.

Kindergarten places are limited so it is important that parents within the Mel Maria Catholic Primary School community submit their applications as soon as possible.

Five Ways To Build Meaningful Connections With Children

Children need positive relationships and connections to learn, grow and thrive. Research shows these connections boost their psychological, cognitive and social development, as well as how they interact with other people and the world around them.

But with so many responsibilities to juggle, it may feel difficult for parents and carers to set aside enough time for those special moments to bond. And when finances are tight, the pressure to create them can feel even greater.

The good news is building a strong connection with children doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Simple but meaningful moments can strengthen your relationship, and help children develop life skills like self-regulation, problem-solving and confidence.

Here are five tips to keep in mind:

https://www.triplep-parenting.net.au/au/articles-and-news/post/five-ways-to-build-meaningful-connections-with-children/

School Term Dates for 2024

Term 1: Wednesday 31 January - 28 March

Term 2: Monday 15 April - Friday 28 June

Term 3: Monday 15 July - Thursday 19 September

Term 4: Tuesday 8 October - Friday 6 December

Pupil Free Days for 2024

Term 1: Monday 11 March

Term 2: Tuesday 4 June

Term 3: Friday 16 August, Friday 20 September

Term 4: Monday 7 October

Sacramental Dates for 2024

Confirmation:

SJP - Wednesday 15 May at 6:00pm

PN - Friday 9 August at 6:00pm

PN - Saturday 10 August at 3:00pm

Eucharist:

SJP - Sunday 10 November at 11:00am

PN - Saturday 8 June at 3:00pm and Sunday 9 June at 2:00pm

Reconciliation:

SJP - Wednesday 18 September at 3:30pm

PN - Wednesday 18 September at 9:45am