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MON 13 TO FRIDAY 24

NOVEMBER

Pre Primary

Swimming Lessons

FRI 17 NOVEMBER

Assembly—Choir @

8.30am

WED 22 November

BYOD Information

Evening @ 6.00pm

FRI 24 NOVEMBER

Advent Liturgy

MON 27 NOVEMBER

School AGM @ 6.00pm

N E W S L E T T E R

1 6 N O V E M B E R

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Dear Parents,

Year 6 Camp

Congratulations to our Year Six class on the way they

represented themselves and the school on camp. Camp is always very taxing but great fun, and

hugely rewarding for all who participate. Many thanks to Mr

Yorke, Mrs Tomlinson and Mrs D’Alessandro for their time and energy, and to the Year Six class

for making it such an enjoyable and memorable experience. The

highlight for me was seeing and hearing about the leadership and teamwork displayed by the

students as they challenged themselves and each other to

complete tasks that may have seemed daunting and in some cases impossible. It is amazing

what can be achieved when we all work together for a common

goal.. Happiness never decreases by being

Notice of School Annual General Meeting

The Board of St Patrick’s Primary School invites you to attend the

Annual School Community Meeting at 6.00pm on Monday 27th November 2017.

The purpose of the half hour

meeting will be to give the school community a report on the Board’s activities during the past

year, Principal’s report on school activities, present a Provisional

Budget for the ensuing year and, most importantly, to elect

From the Principal

St Patrick’s Primary School

8 Ellen Street

Fremantle WA 6160

(08) 9335 5215

admin@stpatsfremantle.wa.edu.au

www.stpatsfremantle.wa.edu.au

Dates

For the

Diary

members to the Board who have

an interest and can share their gifts in the welfare of the

students and are eager to promote Catholic schooling. It is not a forum for general

questions. There are two vacancies for the Board and we

hope you will consider nominating.

Election of Board for 2018: The School Board is accountable

to the Catholic Education Commission of Western Australia (CECWA). Its task is to help the

Catholic school achieve its educational responsibilities in

accord with CECWA policies, guidelines and procedures and

any Diocesan guidelines and prescriptions for religious education. The School Board is

responsible for financial management and planning and

for provision of advice in the formulation of school policy. The Board has no responsibility for

the administration of the school. The Principal is the Chief

Executive Officer of the school and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the school

and for the implementation of policies.

If you wish to nominate yourself for election to the School Board

please indicate your intention to nominate with the school’s

Administration.

John Ryan

Principal

Community

Christian Meditation

Every Wednesday

8.10am in the Library. Everyone

welcome!

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For the school calendar, click on the following link:

www.stpatsfremantle.wa.edu.au/calendar.php

Surf Online Safe

Thank you to the parents who attended Paul

Litherland’s presentation, Surf Online Safe, on Monday night.

We have now uploaded Paul’s latest newsletter about internet safety on to our

website.

If you were unable to attend the presentation and would like to catch up on what you missed, go to http://

www.stpatsfremantle.wa.edu.au/parentinfo.html.

Please click on the following links for more

information about the resources that were mentioned in last week’s Reading Workshop:

For spelling: https://pld-literacy.org/product/teach-a-child-to-spell-in-3-simple-steps/

For reading: https://pld-literacy.org/product/teach-a-child-to-read-in-3-simple-steps/

Socktober

Reading Workshop

http://www.stpatsfremantle.wa.edu.au/calendar.phphttp://www.stpatsfremantle.wa.edu.au/parentinfo.htmlhttp://www.stpatsfremantle.wa.edu.au/parentinfo.htmlhttp://www.stpatsfremantle.wa.edu.au/parentinfo.htmlhttps://pld-literacy.org/product/teach-a-child-to-spell-in-3-simple-steps/https://pld-literacy.org/product/teach-a-child-to-spell-in-3-simple-steps/https://pld-literacy.org/product/teach-a-child-to-read-in-3-simple-steps/https://pld-literacy.org/product/teach-a-child-to-read-in-3-simple-steps/

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Tickets to our High

Tea are still

available.

If you would like to

enjoy an afternoon

of fine food and

beverages, please

purchase your ticket

from the school

office.

PS. Bring a friend!

Forthcoming Events

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Christmas Appeal

Donations of

hampers or cash can be

left at the school office.

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Around St Pat’s

Left and above—Pre Primary students were dressed to

impress on Melbourne Cup day.

Left and above—On Monday the Year 5

and 6 students learned about cyber-safety with Paul Litherland.

Left—On Friday 10th

November, the whole school

assembled for a very poignant Remembrance Day

ceremony, in lieu of the 11th hour of the

11th day of the 11th month.

Quote of the Day

“Thousands of candles

can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will

not be shortened. Happiness never

decreases by being shared”

----Buddha

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Year 2 Excursion to Fremantle Prison

By Lincoln

“We left school today and went to the Fremantle Prison. When we got there we lined up and waited for Steve the guide. Next we lined up and

talked about the rules. They are: no running, no shutting the doors or they will auto lock, no being

rude, and no shutting cell doors.

So we went in and when we got in Steve started talking about the cells. He said the small cells

are old and the bigger ones are new. It was very interesting. So we had a look. It was cool. In

there we could see the cool art. Then we heard Moondyne Joe escaped the prison 5 TIMES. Then we saw the ghost face that was made by Martha

that killed her grandsons but you don’t need to know any more yucky stuff like that. The

gallows, let’s not talk about this too much. They killed people there. Let’s not talk about this any more—it’s gross. Once in 1851 a prisoner set the

prison on fire and then they escaped but they got

caught again.

Then we saw where Moondyne Joe got chained up

for a week on the floor. Yeah, not nice.

Then we saw that you got whipped if you were

bad in prison.

Around St Pat’s

After 5 or 6 you would be screaming,

after 30 you would have lumps, after 100 you would have blood on your

back, and lots of blood. After 150 or 200 you would have fainted. But they didn’t do that many. Then we left and

that was what we did at Fremantle

Prison.”

The end!

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From Our Counsellor

How to end screen time without a

struggle

By Anita Lehmann

Do you ever struggle with getting your kids off the screen? Does it often end in tears

(both theirs and yours)? Like so many other

parents, I used to give my children warning.

“Five more minutes, then it’s dinner!” I’d yell

from the kitchen.

This statement would either be ignored or

grunted at.

Five minutes later, I’d march into the living

room and turn the TV/tablet/gadget off, expecting them to silently accept and for us

all to have a lovely, quiet dinner together.

Cue screams. Cue tantrums. Cue cold

dinner. Cue grey hairs.

I realized something was wrong. Something was wrong in the way I was approaching the issue. My children aren’t naturally prone to

tantrums, so I was thrown by this. I couldn’t work out what I could do to stop the sudden

screaming at the end of every screen-time.

I wanted to find a way of gently disconnecting my children from the screen,

of bringing them back into the real world without continual bumps and bruises along

the way (because this happened almost every night), but I didn’t know how. Then a friend introduced me to a little trick by

Isabelle Filliozat.

Isabelle Filliozat is a clinical psychologist

specializing in positive parenting. She is the author of many books about children’s education, and an authority on gentle

parenting in the French speaking world. From one day to the next, my world

changed. I suddenly knew how to handle the end of screen-time without the screams, the

tantrums, the cold dinner, or the grey hairs.

Here is Isabelle Filliozat’s very simple method to end screen-time without the

screams.

The science behind screen-time

Have you ever had the electricity cut off just as the football game reached its most nerve-

wracking stage?

Or your toddler pressed the “off” switch just as the protagonists in the deeply engrossing

romantic comedy were finally going to kiss?

Or you ran out of power just as you were

going to kill that alien and move up a level?

It’s hard to come out of the state of pleasure, which is what screen-time creates

in our brains. It’s hard for adults. For a child, it can be terrible. Literally. Here, according

to Isabelle Filliozat, is why.

When we human beings (not only children!) are absorbed in a film or playing a computer

game, we are, mentally, in another world. Screens are hypnotic to our brains. The light,

the sounds, the rhythm of the images puts the brain into a state of flow. We feel

good, and don’t want to do anything else. We certainly don’t want the situation to

change.

During these moments, our brains produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter which relieves

stress-and pain. All is well – that is, until the screen is turned off. The dopamine levels in the body drop fast and without warning,

which can, literally, create a sensation of pain in the body. This drop in hormones, this

physical shock, is where children’s scream-

time begins.

It doesn’t matter that we parents are quite

clear that now is the end of screen-time. After all, we’d discussed and arranged it

beforehand (”20 minutes!”), and/or given them warning (“5 more minutes!”). To us, it’s clear and fair enough, but to the child, it

isn’t. When in front of a screen, she isn’t in a state to think that way or to take that

information in. Her brain is awash with dopamine, remember? To turn the “off” switch on the television can, for the child,

feel like a shock of physical pain.

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You’re not exactly slapping her in the face,

but this is, neurologically speaking, how it

might feel to her.

Cutting her off forcefully is hurtful. So instead of simply switching the “off” button, the trick is not to cut her off, but to instead

enter her zone.

The trick: build a bridge

Whenever you decide that screen-time should come to an end, take a moment to sit

down next to your child and enter his world. Watch TV with him, or sit with him while he

plays his game massacring aliens on the screen. This doesn’t have to be long, half a minute is enough. Just share his experience.

Then, ask him a question about it.

“What are you watching?” might work for

some kids.

Others might need more specific questions. “So what level are you on now?” or “That’s a

funny figure there in the background. Who’s

he?”

Generally, children love it when their parents take an interest in their world. If they are too absorbed still and don’t engage, don’t

give up. Just sit with them a moment longer,

then ask another question.

Once the child starts answering your questions or tells you something she has seen or done on screen, it means that she is

coming out of the “cut-off” zone and back into the real world. She’s coming out of the

state of flow and back into a zone where she is aware of your existence – but slowly. The dopamine doesn’t drop abruptly, because

you’ve built a bridge – a bridge between where she is and where you are. You can

start to communicate, and this is where the

magic happens.

You can choose to start discussing with your

child that it’s time to eat, to go have his

bath, or simply that screen-time is over now.

From Our Counsellor

Because of the minute of easing-in, your

child will be in a space where he can listen and react to your request. He might even

have been smoothed back into the real world gently enough, and is so happy about the parental attention that he wants to turn off

the TV/tablet/computer himself. (I’ve experienced my children do this, hand to

heart.)

To me, simply the awareness of what’s going on in my children’s minds helps me handle

end-of-screen-time much better than before. It isn’t always as smooth as I want it to be,

but we haven’t had a scream-time incident since I discovered Isabelle Filliozat’s little

trick.

Don’t take my word for it, go and try it

yourself

Next time your child is sitting in front of a

screen, and you want to end it, try this:

Sit with her for 30 seconds, a minute,

or longer, and simply watch whatever

she is watching/doing.

Ask an innocent question about what’s

happening on screen. Most children love their parent’s attention, and will

provide answers.

Once you’ve created a dialogue, you’ve

created a bridge – a bridge that will allow your child to, in his mind and body, step from screen back into the

real world, without hormones in free-

fall, and therefore without crisis.

Enjoy the rest of your day together.

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P & F News

For all of you who attended Monday night’s Cyber Safety Presentation for parents by Paul

Litherland we hope you all enjoyed it and got a lot from it. Particularly for the Year 5 & 6 parents, we hope you were able to go home and discuss what you learnt with what their

children also learnt from their afternoon presentation. This will be something that the P&F will try to continue and do every second year, so if you missed out be sure not to miss it in

2019!

Thank you very much for those parents who have put their hands up to continue or take on the role of class reps for their classes in 2018. There are still a few classes in need of reps

so please consider this for your class and let your current rep know. It’s always great to be

able to start the new school year with reps in place.

Dates for your diaries;

Term 4

School AGM – Monday 27th November

Edu Dance Concert – Wednesday 6th December – iPad raffle drawn

Peta Evans, President

on behalf of the P&F Exec Committee

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Parish News “Let us love, not with words, but with

deeds.” (1Jn 3:18)

To mark the Inaugural World Day of

the Poor on 19 November, why not show your support of the poor both abroad and locally.

Join us on Thursday 14 December,

7pm at The Basilica of St Patrick, Fremantle for a captivating and beautiful evening of sacred music,

readings and congregational carols to highlight the meaning of the

Christmas Gospel in our world today. Emeritus Bishop Justin Bianchini will give the reflection.

Music from Eva-Marie Middleton

(soprano), Paul Wright (violin),

Dominic Perissinotto (organ) and The Basilica Choir.

Proceeds to Catholic Mission’s work in support of maternal and child health in Uganda.

Tickets $30, Concessions $20, 12 and under free. Add another ticket to your order for just $10 and we will give that ticket to a homeless or otherwise disadvantaged person so they

too can share in the beauty of Christmas and enjoy a light supper beforehand. Booking, www.trybooking.com/SWMO or at the door.

Community News

Seton Catholic College Enrolments Seton Catholic College warmly extends an invitation to discuss your child’s education with

us. Our main intake is Year 7, however there are limited places available in Years 8 - 12. First round applications for enrolment considerations for Year 7 students in 2020 are now open and close on December 14th 2017. Please contact admin@seton.wa.edu.au to register

your interest and also receive information about our Open Day in March.

WAAPA Summer School 2017/2018 This summer The Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) is again offering

an exciting school holiday program for students in years 4 to 12. The Summer School in-cludes classes in dance, drama, acting, screen performance, music theatre and of course,

how to perform Shakespeare. For information about the fantastic courses on offer please visit WAAPA Summer School or contact Gabrielle Metcalf at g.metcalf@ecu.edu.au or 9370 6775.

http://www.trybooking.com/SWMOmailto:admin@seton.wa.edu.auhttps://www.waapa.ecu.edu.au/corporate-training-and-short-courses/explore-short-coursesmailto:g.metcalf@ecu.edu.au