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Newsletter T3W5

Acknowledgement of Country

Today we acknowledge and pay our respects to the First Peoples, the traditional custodians of the lands and waterways and thank them for their continued hospitality.

We acknowledge and celebrate the continuation of a living culture who have lived with Creator God through creation of land, sea, waterways and life.

Prayer

Leadership & Stewardship

Principal's Message

Dear members of the OLHC school community,

Next Thursday our senior girls have somehow managed to make it all the way to the state final of School Sport of Victoria AFLW. The final will be held in Heidelberg, Melbourne and we have organised a bus to take them and some family members to the game. Regardless of the result, we are very proud of them and wish them all the best. I do wish to recognise Dean's efforts to support and coach the girls. He often does extra practices for all our kids and I can assure you in these times with a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement in place, this isn't the norm in schools.

I continue to receive inquiries about the progress of our new senior school building. At present, we are facing 2 objections to the build, including one from our Warrnambool City Council. Their objection is based on traffic concerns. This is despite the fact that this proposed building will not bring ONE more child, parent or car onto our existing site. I will let you read between the lines as to how this makes us feel. Needless to say, we will allow the process to play out and remain patient, professional and optimistic.

School Fee Reminder

All School Fee statements are sent monthly. If you are on a direct debit or credit card payment plan, please ignore the following.

All school fees for 2024 are to be finalised by 20/09/2024, please make contact with Christine Cook if you wish to discuss school fees.

Important Dates

Term 3

Saturday 17th August @ 6pm - Eucharist Celebration OLHC

Tuesday 20th August - Foundation Pet Parade

Wednesday 21st August - Book Week Dress-up Day

Thursday 22nd August - SSV AFL Girls Footy - Melbourne

Friday 30th August - Father's Day Breakfast

Friday 30th August - Assembly 3CS

Friday 6th September - OLHC Disco

9th - 18th September - Yr 5 Swimming Program

Tuesday 10th September - PFA Meeting

Thursday 19th September - Grandparents/Special Persons Day

Thursday 19th September - Assembly FNM

Friday 20th September - Staff Maths PD - Student Free Day

Teaching & Learning @ OLHC

A Message from Mr A

Week 5 Term 3

SACRAMENT OF EUCHARIST

We’ve had a large number of Grade 4 students make their Sacrament of Eucharist last weekend and some to do it this weekend. 31 students last weekend and 6 completing theirs this weekend. Our Sacramental program is an integral part of what makes us a Catholic school and we are lucky to have Mr Inverarity and Mrs Harney driving this program.

Sacrament of Eucharist

GRADE 5 TREE PLANTING

Our Grade 5 level has been busy planting trees down along the Flume this week. They volunteered their time through Coastal Care to assist with the revegetation of our local coastline. Great work Grade 5!

Tree Planting

MINNIE VINNIES

On Friday some of our Grade 6 leaders headed to Emmanuel College for a Minnie Vinnies day. The day was aimed at celebrating all the amazing Catholic Social Justice initiatives happening across our Catholic schools and recognising our leaders' hard work here at OLHC. A big thanks to Mrs Harney for supporting the students at Emmanuel College.

Mini Vinnies Conference

Have a great weekend with your family. Up the Hawks!

Thanks,

Naish

Lawn Bowls

On Friday, August 16, ten of our Mini Vinnies students attended our Mini Vinnies Conference at Emmanuel College, Emmy Dyer, Chloe Burleigh, Marli Moore, Laila Conn, Ed Thornton, Evie Coxall, Alicia Martin, Lawson Chow, Jevin Almeda and Henri Forsterling all attended.

Our School Conference networking event gave students from different school conferences the chance to connect, collaborate and celebrate their Good Works. The event encourages students and school communities to connect with cohorts in their local area, to learn from each other and to inspire further action. The event will help to create awareness of what other schools are getting up to in their Catholic social justice efforts and provide the opportunity to plan future collaborative efforts.

We were able to have the chance to:

Connect with peers who are also engaged in Social Justice efforts

Develop leadership and presentation skills

Practice social networking and build confidence

Reflect on and celebrate their ‘Good Work’ achievements from 2024

Inform and inspire their peers from other schools

Collaborate on new ideas for how to help communities

The students presented their work raising awareness and money in the Assist A Student program. As part of our Catholic Social Justice work at Our Lady Help of Christians we work to make a difference in our world by: Caring for, respecting and loving the dignity and opportunities of others. In term 2 we worked with Dedy Friebe, our local East Warrnambool St Vincent de Paul President, and money to Assist a Student in Asia to go to school.

It was a great way to meet new students from many different schools across our area and find out what they have been doing in the community as well.

Congratulations to our ten students who helped out on Friday and to all the students at Our Lady Help of Christians and their work in Catholic Social Justice.

Technology Toolkit with Mrs Fitzgerald and Mrs Murfett

New technology updates, cyber safety tips and snapshots of the learning experiences happening in the digital classroom. Let’s work together to make the online space a positive space! If you have any questions or concerns please contact us:

Mrs Sarah Murfett: smurfett@olhcwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

Mrs Ellen Fitzgerald: efitzgerald@olhcwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

A non-gamer parent's guide to kids and online gaming

My primary schooler wants some new games for the iPad, the kind where she can meet and chat with friends.

"Roblox has got millions of cool games," she pleads, referring to the online game creation site aimed at kids.

"Yes, everything from unicorns to porn," I mutter.

I've read those lurid headlines about digital sex parties.

"In any environment where people can create content, there'll be some that's explicit or upsetting," says Martin Cocker, Chief Executive of Netsafe.

"But the majority of young people that get onto a platform like Roblox or Minecraft will have a good time and won't come across it. The thing is to engage with them early and discuss what to do if they do."

Belinda Hope is the founder of TenForward, an Auckland based after school and holiday programme which helps kids game safely.

She agrees with Cocker.

"When we grew up in an analogue childhood, we could go to the park or see our friends at school. Kids are digital natives and play online in communities with their friends. That's how they socialise," says Hope.

"A bit more education is needed to help parents understand that there are lots of positive aspects to playing online. It's about communication, friend making, teamwork. We just have to make sure it's being done in an appropriate way"

All good advice. I've decided to make gaming in general more of a family experience.

Choosing Games

Developer Toca Boca's interesting games have taken my daughter through pre-school and early primary. Now the trick, I'm told, is to look at her real world interests to find a game that suits.

Continue reading here

Faith & Culture

Parish Office Hours: 9am - 4pm Monday - Friday

P: 5562 2231

E: southwestcoast@ballarat.catholic.org.au

webpage : https://www.southwestcoastparish.com.au/

Weekend Masses

Saturday Vigil

6:00pm OLHC, Warrnambool East

Sunday Morning

9:00am Infant Jesus, Koroit

9:00am St Pius X, Warrnambool West

10:30am St Joseph’s, Warrnambool

10:30am St Patrick’s, Port Fairy

6:00pm St Joseph’s Warrnambool

*11:00am St Anne’s, Purnim

2nd Sunday of the month (Eucharist)

Weekday Masses

NB: MASS OF THE DAY IS REPLACED WHEN A FUNERAL IS HELD AT THAT CHURCH

Tues 10:00am St Pius X

Wed 10:00am St Joseph’s

Thu 10:00am OLHC & 11:00am Mercy Place

Fri 10:00am St Joseph’s

Sat 10:00am OLHC

Piety Shop

With the celebration of the First Eucharist coming up, parents and grandparents may be interested in purchasing items from the Piety Shop.

The Piety Shop sells a wide selection of suitable Christian gifts for the significant sacraments and liturgical times of the year. Marita Flannigan can be contacted on 0402 431 053 for items from the Port Fairy Piety Shop.

Updated Changes - Eucharist Dates

Eucharist Celebration Mass at OLHC church on Saturday, 17th August at 6 pm

Congratulations to the following students who have completed the Sacrament of Eucharist last weekend or this upcoming weekend:

Bonnie McLeod
Ned Busuttil
George Green
Matilda Parsons
Annika Coomaraswamy
Pippa Byrne
Harry Sabo
Hallie Lewis
Tommy McCrohan
Lennox Robertson
Jaxson Aiken
Elise Ryan
Ryland Hoy
Hugo Auld
Tayah Lake
Oliver Vorbach
Harry White
Audrey Sheldon
Lucy Coxall
Emily Bunting
Isaac Sheen
Jordan Levett
Toby Sedgley
Michaleen O’Brien
Max Couch
Grace Vorbach
Zara Doherty
Gemma McConnell
Bonnie Dickson
Mabel Clements
Lenny Chiller
Annabel Rea
Zara Morfett
Lincoln Paul
Tadhg Amarant

Dinner at Wisdom’s Table
(John 6: 51 - 58)

Jesus continued, “I am the Bread – living Bread! – who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live – and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.” (John 6: 51 - 52)

Do a quick calculation of how many times you’ve received communion. If you’re a cradle Catholic, and have been taking communion since the age of seven, that is, technically speaking, a LOT of communion. The numbers don’t really matter, of course, but the habitual reception of communion does. What do we GET, exactly, when we get Eucharist?

The Church teaches that the bread and wine are Christ’s Body and Blood. Transubstantiation is the million-dollar word for the event, but it’s mostly helpful for theologians. Long before the invention of that word, table fellowship was shared among Christians. They understood that eating and drinking in memory of Jesus made them bearers of his life. They knew that sharing his supper also meant they shared his saving mission in the world. They believed that taking part in this meal was a commitment, a covenant in flesh and blood. This was serious business. To claim Jesus in this way meant that they might die for him.

Most of us in the receiving line at communion time will not be asked to die for Christ. But every one of us IS being asked to live for Christ. Are we in the right line, or aren’t’ we?

If you knew you might be put to death for your faith in Jesus, would you still take communion?

Getting It
(John 6: 51 - 58)

The people in this week’s gospel who just “don’t get it” when Jesus tells them his flesh is the living bread from heaven remind me of a time we scared the daylights out of my much younger sister. She was just about 3 years old when she and her older sister were having trouble getting to sleep. They were in the same room and kept giggling and laughing long past their bedtime. Our parents were tired and the end of the day and getting exasperated. One of them whispered something and once again the giggling erupted uncontrollably.

In desperation, I yelled out, “It looks like we’re going to have to separate you two.” At that, my younger sister started wailing in terror. Mum and Dad went in to console her, but she cried all the more saying, “Don’t separate me, don’t separate me!” Earlier that day she’d been watching Mum separate a whole chicken into pieces for the barbecue grill and the image obviously stayed with her. She thought that’s what we were threatening to do to her and her sister.

We sat with her and soothed her. We reassured her mummy and daddy might get mad but they would never do anything like that to hurt her. Comforted, the two little girls drifted off to sleep, and we learned a lesson about the trouble of taking things literally.

Wellbeing

If you want to learn to ride a skateboard or get better at maths, you need to practise. It’s the same when you want to feel happier!

Here are some easy ideas to give Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness and Emotional Literacy a try every day. Because the more you practise, the better you will feel.

Let's Practice!

Tap here to access SchoolTV

Andrew Fuller: How parents can increase motivation and confidence in children (Part 2)

Andrew Fuller
Clinical Psychologist

One of the characteristics of most kids that I secretly admire is, if they don’t see a point to doing something they won’t do it. End of story.

Given that some of them can be incredibly hard to convince, persuade, cajole, entice, or lure into anything, this can make motivating them a tricky business.

Even at the best of times, motivation is a slippery customer. Sometimes your child will have it in abundance and other times, it sneaks off and goes missing in action.

The most important thing to know is that not feeling motivated hasn’t really got much to do with motivation. It has more to do with feeling anxious and worried. In fact, this is the formula:

Fear + Worry = Loss of Motivation

Overcoming fear and worry

Motivation has a lot to do with overcoming their fears. Your child’s fears loom larger if we try to help them avoid them.

This is where parenting gets really tricky. No one wants to see their child upset or distressed at the prospect of having to do something they really, really, really don’t want to do BUT if we let them slide out of too many things their fears build and their confidence decreases.

Build on your child’s learning strengths and forget about their weaknesses

Most people are not good at everything. They don’t have to be.

Success in life is about doing more of what you are good at and less of the things you are not good at. Serena Williams is not well known because she can do Mathematics, Einstein wasn’t well known because he played soccer.

When you focus on the things your child finds more enjoyable and interesting at school, even the things they find harder become easier.

How parents can help

Assess your child’s learning strengths at My Learning Strengths and develop a starting point from their top learning strength. Building from a learning strength area they already feel confident in will helps them to overcome their worries or fears. Starting with what is easiest builds momentum and motivation.

If their strongest learning strength is:

Spatial Reasoning – start with by drawing and linking main ideas

Perceptual-Motor Skills – start with by linking their learning with physical movements.

Concentration and memory – convert their learning into a memory game.

Planning and sequencing – make a detailed plan for their learning and put the tasks to be completed into order.

Thinking and logic – evaluate the pros and cons of learning

People smarts – think about people who will be impressed if they succeed. Think about the lives of people they admire.

Language and word smarts – create a story about the key pieces of information they need to learn.

Number smarts – find ways to integrate thinking in numbers with the information they are learning about.

Use the full personalised learning success plan from the website to help you to do this.

Set small goals and one large one

For each subject at school set a small goal each week. For example, a goal might read and understand one chapter. Write the goal down somewhere. When you have achieved that goal give it a tick.

Decide to make their favourite subject at school the one to ‘go for broke in’. In this subject the aim is to do really well. Success has a way of becoming contagious.

Get organised

If your child is in the senior years of school, try to convince them disable social media in the lead up to exams. Help them get yup to date. If they have fallen behind in any subject, have a working bee to catch up. They may need to ask others to help. Encourage them to ask teachers to help you by saying something like, ‘I lost motivation for a while in this subject but now I’d really like to catch up’.

If they have not been in the practice of making notes, start. If they feel embarrassed about asking questions in class, set a goal of asking one question per class. If that is too embarrassing, encourage them to ask the teacher after class. If they’ve missed notes, ask for copies of them.

Work with them to write a revision summary for each subject to date, topic by topic. If their study area has become a mess, clean it up.

Use post-it notes to organise the steps towards a successful outcome. On the first post-it note write the successful outcome they have in mind for that subject. Write the step before that and the step before that. Then write the first step they could take.

Motivation is like a muscle

No one would enter a marathon without doing a series of shorter training runs first and the same thing applies to doing well at school. Regaining motivation is a step-by-step process.

Most people who feel unmotivated think everyone else knows more, is more talented, is smarter and has a lot more brains than they are.

My research shows that most students have absolutely no idea how well they are going to do at school so don’t believe their negative self-talk or predictions of failure.

It is highly likely that they are more intelligent than they realise. They certainly have learning strengths they are yet to discover. It is also highly likely that most of their classmates are not quite as advanced or as organised as they appear to be.

Use the time in school well

Many students muck around in school and then wonder why they have to do so much work outside of school. Consider asking your child to sit towards the front in class.

If they can focus and listen well while at school, they can save endless hours. This is valuable time that can be used for hanging out with friends and having fun.

Have an honest discussion

If your child has been unmotivated, they may have done anything to avoid doing the study time. The world is full of excuses that we can all make: ‘The dog needs a walk’, ‘I have to finish this game and then I’ll study’, ‘I’ll have a nap and study when I wake up’.

We have to be tough enough on ourselves to do the work BEFORE we do the video games / TV watching / chat room messaging, etc.

Also be honest enough to admit to that lying in bed, with the computer on, listening to music, with YouTube in the background and messenger open to chat with friends, is not and will never be, studying. Have some study time sitting up at a desk or table with NO electronic distractions on.

Change your routine

If you’ve been finding it difficult to get your child motivated, change their set pattern. For example, study in a local library rather than at home or change the room you will study in.

Just as you learn to surf best by surfing, you learn to succeed in exams and essays by giving your undivided attention to your study.

Practice in the same conditions you intend to perform in. There won’t be electronics and music in the exam room.

Why we should you care?

Your child might be able to dismiss all of the above points by saying, ‘I can’t do it’ or ‘I can’t be bothered’ or ‘This sucks’. That is just the part of them that is scared that is talking them out of it. The scared part thinks that if they try and fail, it will be much worse than never having tried in the first place.

Think about what would happen if they applied this type of thinking to the whole of their life. They wouldn’t learn music and start a band because U2, Pink and Beyoncé have already done it.

They wouldn’t talk to someone they like because they would be rejected. They wouldn’t go to a place they would really like because it would probably disappoint them. They wouldn’t live the life they could live because they would lack the daring and courage.

Give up fear and gain motivation

You know the No.1 fear of all time?

Death? No.

Speaking in public? No.

The number one fear that people have is that other people will think badly of them. And you know what the biggest, saddest joke about that fear is?

Most people don’t think about other people much at all. Most people are so busy or so focused on themselves that haven’t got the interest or the energy to judge whether you are good at something or not.

So, there is a risk that your child could throw away a really successful, enjoyable life by worrying about something that doesn’t even exist. So as Yoda in Star Wars said: ‘Do. Or do not.’ It is up to them. But don’t make what other people might think of you if you stuff up, a reason for giving up on yourself.

So why listen to me?

I spend a lot of my time talking to adults who gave up on themselves at school and spend their lives doing boring jobs that don’t pay very well.

I also spend even more of my time talking to students who have done really well in school after not being thought of as clever, or talented, or gifted or smart in any way. These students have taught me the ingredients of success.

Now you have them too. What you do with them is up to you. Good luck.