2023, Term 4, Week 2

I Will Always Be With You

Gracious God, 

As the greatest teacher of all, as learners we ask for support and guidance as we embark on another term of serving you in the love and education of our young people. May the example of your teaching through love and gentleness be the model and motivation for the staff and families of St Ambrose Primary School who stand together before you. Empower us through your Spirit to: be the example for the students in their care to see you in our world, and to value and respect the dignity of others, themselves and creation.

Fill our hearts with peace and joy, our minds with wisdom, knowledge and understanding and strengthen us in our difficult moments. Help us affirm and support each other as we share our gifts with those we meet, and may we be ever united as a community of believers, continually renewing ourselves in you.

Bless our staff, students and families, so that through the power of your Spirit, we may bear witness to your love.

Help us to remember we have the comforting assurance from you: "I will always be with you."

We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Principal Message

Welcome back to the beginning of a new and exciting school term. I trust that you all enjoyed a relaxing and enjoyable break with your children and found some downtime to escape the hectic pace of the school week, lunches and washing of uniforms.

We have had an extremely positive start to the school term with students returning with a clear intent on meeting expectations for their learning and behaviour and I am extremely impressed with how settled and positive the feel is in the school.

I have loved being in classrooms and working alongside our teachers to support our children. Seeing the joy on their faces when they share and talk about their learning is one of the great privileges of being a Principal. It is also a strong reminder that our school exists for our children and we must ensure that we are prepared to do whatever it takes for them to experience success and to know that they are loved, cared for and belong.

I have been made to feel incredibly welcome and I am grateful to the whole community for your warm welcome and support during my first two weeks. It is amazing to see so many smiles of a morning, receive so many high fives from our children as they arrive and even parents. There is a very strong sense of community here at St Ambrose and I have loved being accepted so quickly into the school family.

Buildings and Maintenance

During the holiday break, the school commenced numerous works to improve our facilities for the benefit of our school community. These works include;

• Professional cleaning of the entire school.
• Installation of a new awning that extends the length of the admin/canteen/library and Year 3 classrooms. This is a wonderful new undercover space. It will also be concreted during the coming fortnight.
• All concrete pathways and outdoor learning spaces have been professionally cleaned and will be sealed over the weekend.
• New security cameras installed.

A very big thank you to everyone involved in supporting our school with the works above.

CELEBRATIONS and ACHIEVEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge and celebrate our students who received the Sacrament of Confirmation last Wednesday night. This was a wonderful night to see our community come together and support our children in their faith journey. A very big thank you to Mrs Lock, Mrs McGill and Mrs Falcke for preparing our children and to Father Paul for his faith leadership and guidance for the St Ambrose community.

Congratulations to our Year 6 STEM team who have successfully made it to Melbourne to present their Firefly Prototype and compete against other schools across Australia. This is a wonderful achievement for the students and for our school. We wish them all the best and I know that this will be an amazing learning opportunity for them. Mrs Matthewson, Miss McMahon and Mrs Wilson will accompany the team to Melbourne during Week 5.

There is a big difference between, “I can’t do this!” and “I can’t do this, YET!”

As parents and teachers the most important message of all for our children is to encourage a “growth mindset” – let your children know that they have unlimited potential for learning and that being successful is all about working hard … use growth praise such as,

“It is great that you have learnt that. Can you show me how to do that?”
“I really like your thinking about that.”
“You have worked really hard to learn that. I’m so proud of you!”

We found that students’ mindsets—how they perceive their abilities—played a key role in their motivation and achievement, and we found that if we changed students’ mindsets, we could boost their achievement. Students who believed their intelligence could be developed through hard work (a growth mindset) outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed (a fixed mindset). Dr. Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology.

What Can I Say to Myself?

Children and adults can often learn the most when they fail the first time. Let them know that mistakes are a big part of the learning process. There is nothing like the feeling of struggling through a very difficult problem, only to finally break through and solve it!

The harder the problem, the harder you work and the deeper the level of learning.

Religion

Staff Retreat Day

At the end of the last term, the staff came together for a wonderful retreat day that involved time for personal spirituality and reflection. We also shared wonderful discussions based on Bishop Greg’s presentations on, Relationships with People, work colleagues and God.

Sacrament of Confirmation
Last Wednesday evening Bishop Gregory Homeming celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation with 65 students across our Parish Schools. This was a tremendous celebration with many families and friends attending. Thank you to the Year 3 teachers for their hard work in preparing our students for this Sacrament.

OCTOBER: The month of THE HOLY ROSARY 
October 13 - National Day of the Rosary

By tradition, the Catholic Church dedicates the month of October to the holy Rosary, one of the best known of all Catholic devotions. October includes the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7). The best way to celebrate the month is, of course, to pray the Rosary. Prayer is a way to help us get in touch with God and to develop a relationship with him. In prayer, we not only talk with God, but God communicates with us, as we continue to pray, our relationship with God grows.

Kindergarten Gold Assembly

Sports

Sport Electives

Sport Electives have started with a bang! On Monday Week 2 Year 3-6 students divided into their elective

groups to commence in their selected sport. We saw students learning key techniques for kayaking and paddle boarding, self-defense moves in Martial Arts, corner work and stretching in dance and LawnBowl skills. We had a number of students head down the beach and participate in surfing and FitGroms as well as skating. 

Let’s hope for continued sunshine each Monday!

Polding Athletics

A huge congratulations to Archie Ings in Year 4. Archie traveled down to Sydney last week for the Polding Athletics Carnival. Archie participated in the Junior boys High Jump. He jumped incredibly well and paced 11th overall. Well done Archie

Tennis

Ben has been busy over the holidays. Ben finished 10th out 32 of the top national players at the 12u National Hardcourt Championships in Adelaide and made it to the semis in 12u doubles. 

An awesome result for his first nationals. Next stop... Grass Court Nationals in Victoria in January, 2024.

Socktober

Book Week: Grandparents and Friends Day

Class of 2023 Farewell Dinner!

Finally, it’s here – roll out the red carpet for the ‘Class of 2023 Farewell Dinner’!

The event will begin from 5:30pm at the Pottsville Beach Sports Club on Friday, Dec 8. All the details and tickets are available HERE.

We look forward to celebrating this special occasion with you and your children. Let's make it a memorable evening full of joy and laughter!

Story Box Library

Travel from Term 1 2024

Help your Child Identify their Support Network

In the event that your child experiences an online incident (whether as a target, instigator, or bystander), it's crucial for them to know they have adults they can talk to. Ensure that they understand they can seek help and support, no matter the situation. Take this opportunity to remind them that nothing is too bad to prevent them from reaching out for assistance.

You might like to watch this short 3-minute video about what a Safety Network is. This video helps children to understand the many reasons why they may talk to someone in their safety network and remind them that “unsafe” can be in the online environment or face-to-face. You may choose to use the worksheet from the Daniel Morcombe Foundation.

Online ‘friends’

When it comes to online "friends” take the time to talk to your child about being cautious with whom they chat and message online, emphasising the importance of not meeting "online friends" in person. Read together the resource from esafety kids Things to watch out for with online friends.

Secrets

Additionally, help your child understand the difference between safe and unsafe secrets. Explain that safe secrets include things like surprise birthday parties that everyone knows about except for one person or gifts that will be opened at a special occasion. However, it's essential to teach them the safety rules regarding secrets that are not safe to keep from trusted adults, such as any kind of touch, presents or favours from others, rude photos or movies, someone asking for their photo, discussions about private areas of the body, or anything that makes them feel uncomfortable.

By actively engaging in these discussions and activities, you can help your child develop a stronger understanding of their support network, online safety, and the difference between safe and unsafe secrets.

There are books that you can read to help your child understand about secrets. Here are some examples.

• Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept read by Debra Byrne
• Do You Have a Secret? By Jennifer Moore-Malinos

Child Safeguarding Website

The Diocese of Lismore Catholic Schools Limited (DLCSL) has launched a Child Safeguarding website as part of our commitment to implementing the Child Safe Standards. It contains information on Child Safe Standards, our Commitment Statement, a contact form for concerns or inquiries, and other useful links and resources.

The website can also be accessed through the "Parent Information" tab on our school website. We encourage you to visit the website to understand our commitment to building a school where every child feels valued, heard, and protecte

Parent Education Webinar

Real Kids in an Unreal World

Maggie Dent will be hosting an event 'Real Kids in an Unreal World' at Pottsville Public School on November 18. The event will commence at 10 am and conclude at 12 noon.  from 10 am -12 noon. Registration is $35. Book through the link. 

Stall Holder Call Out

Pottsville Pre-school Trivia Night

Nutrition and physical activity

Boarder Clay Trails

Save water to delay restrictions

Summer Hockey