Newsletter – Term 3, Week 7 2020

We are at the end of week 7!  We are continually amazed with the quality of work being produced by our students and the teachers have loved the phone calls and WebEx’s over the past few weeks. Just a short message this week!

SUPERHERO DRESS UP DAY – Thursday 3^rd September is our Superhero Dress up day. During this time families and students are indeed Superheros! Who would have ever believed that we would be in our current situation and our community is embracing the situation and doing an amazing job. Let’s celebrate this by having a fun day dressing up like Superheros!

RETURN TO ON-SITE EDUCATION – at this stage we still have no advice from the Department of Education around the return to on-site learning. It has been indicated that it will continue until the end of term three however this has not been confirmed. We have been told information around schooling will be released next week. We will let you know as soon as we know.

Thank you for your on-going support. As always, please contact your teacher or the school if you have any questions and we will endeavour to support you in the best way possible.

Take care, stay safe and enjoy the sunshine this weekend!

Principal

Assistant Principal

Creating healthy digital habits in your child

Surveys have consistently shown that children are being exposed to increasing amounts of screen time each year.

As adults we’re often concerned about the connections children and young people are making online and the subsequent impact on their wellbeing. The time they spend online, scrolling, searching and swiping which could be spent doing outdoor activities is also concerning.

Digital devices are here to stay, so it’s imperative to look at how kids can remain in control of their screen use and ensure the time they’re investing online is adding something helpful, positive and meaningful to our lives.

Here are four tips to help kids develop healthy digital habits. Being mindful of how time is spent looking at our devices is certainly not just reserved for young people.

 Encourage creation not just consumption

Is your child more of a consumer or creator when they’re online? Check to see if they spend time online time in creative mode such as making things, creating their own videos or presentations, editing photos, writing posts, coding a video game or composing a song. Encourage them to be creative rather than mere consumers of digital content.

2. Discuss who they are following

The digital world encourages leaders and followers. It places people and individuals from all walks of life in close contact with your kids. They can follow companies, musical icons, sports stars as well as friends. Encourage your child to follow people and companies that can fuel their passions.

For instance, if they love space, search for NASA and related accounts. If they love photography, help them find great photographers sharing their work online. When they’re following people that teach, inspire and ignite their passions, they’re less likely to spend valuable time with energy zappers.

3. Digitally de-clutter regularly

Many kids collect apps on their devices in the same way that former generations collected football cards or swap cards. Encourage them to delete the apps they no longer use or apps that offer no benefits to their lives. Could there be better games to play? Are there better videos for them to watch than the ones that the YouTube algorithm believes they want to see?

4. Show kids good practises

Most kids learn much more from what they see and experience, rather than from what they are told. As a parent be intentional with your screen time. Do you:

• Follow people that support you, challenge you in helpful ways or inspire and lift you up?
• Interact in positive ways?
  · Give people your attention rather than scroll whilst others are talking to you?
  · Put your digital devices away in order to fit all the other important things into your day?

Family Sharing

Setting your kids up with healthy digital habits will help make these practises the norm. If you don’t want your children falling prey to the harmful and unhelpful experiences online, you need to be sure that they are focusing on positive and helpful screen time pursuits. In addition to this, I highly recommend families using Apple devices set their child’s devices up through Family Sharing – If you use Samsung or Android devices that use Google Apps, you might like to set up a Google Play Family Sharing group instead.

What Is Family Sharing?

Family Sharing lets you connect up to 6 different Apple ID accounts together. These accounts form your Family Sharing group, which you can use to save money by sharing various Apple purchases and services, including apps, movies, TV shows, songs, books and iCloud storage.

What Can You Manage?

The main attraction for parents setting up Family Sharing is that you can manage the Screen Time or Content & Privacy Restrictions for any children under 18 in the group. With Ask to Buy turned on, you can also approve or deny App Store and iTunes purchases your kids want to make. You can choose to set App Limits, Communication Limits, Downtime, and Content & Privacy Restrictions on your children’s devices. This is particularly useful if you want to restrict an app (like iMessage or Facebook) during certain hours of the day – such as during school hours or after bedtime.

Family Sharing also gives you regular usage reports so you can keep an eye on how much your children use their devices.

You can follow these instructions here to begin setting up your child’s device.

Assistant Principal

A reminder to families that OSHC statements were emailed this week.  Please ensure your statement is paid in full by the due date, as most of these charges relate to Term 1 care.  If you are having difficulty paying in full, a payment plan can be arranged.  Please contact the Business Manager, Kate Matthews, via the school office 03 5243 5203 for a confidential discussion of payment options.  Thank you.

Mrs Thomas has been very busy in the library during the last couple of weeks.  There are over 300 new books on the shelves, with more to come, and the library may look a little bit different when you visit it next!

Don’t forget, you can still borrow books from the Geelong Regional Library (GRL) by using your membership card, and the wonderful library staff will home deliver it to your door.  Visit this link for more information about the GRL Click and Deliver Service https://www.grlc.vic.gov.au/deliver

The Children’s Book Council of Australia have made the decision to change the dates for Book Week for 2020.  Book Week will now be held on 17-23 October, so you have lots of time to plan your costume!  Happy Reading!

School Account Statements were emailed to families this week.  Accounts can be paid via BPay or on QKR.  Families are welcome to pay by instalment, please contact the Business Manager, Kate Matthews, via the school office 03 5243 5203, for a confidential discussion regarding options for paying your account.