8 February 2018

Newsletter Articles

A WORD FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Welcome back for 2018. I hope you and your children and young people had a great family break and are ready for a great year of engagement with your child’s learning and their school.

It is an exciting year for us as it is a conference year and this year our conference will be ‘Collaborating for Success’ led by Dr Karen Mapp from Harvard University and Jenni Brasington from Scholastic in the USA to help us go further in our journey into building our knowledge of stronger Parent Engagement in Learning and Wellbeing. The conference will be held in Townsville opening with an evening social event on Friday June 8 and then Saturday morning until Sunday Lunch time. We thank Principal Tim Ham for hosting our conference at St Joseph’s Catholic School, The Strand. We encourage all schools to support parents from your school to attend and also someone from your school leadership team so that you can work together on building parent engagement at the local level. A flyer has been sent to your P & F with further information.

A hot topic in the media in the past few weeks has been bullying and cyberbullying. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has called a stakeholder forum to discuss strategies that could be taken to Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on February 9. The Premier believes we are ‘just skimming the ocean of a big issue where bullying and harassment is now following young children in to the family home’. I was invited to be part of this roundtable and we listened to many talk about the statistics around bullying and sharing some ideas. We believe that it is everybody’s role to build respectful relationships and resilience in our children. We need to build strong relationships at home through talking to our children and modelling the behaviour we expect of them. Our work in parent engagement supports this and we believe that building strong parent engagement in learning and wellbeing needs to be part of the plan – after all they are our kids and we cannot expect the school to do everything. We must give the same messages at home and at school.

If your family is struggling with a bullying issue or you want to equip yourself to prevent your child from being affected by bullying, we offer some resources below in our newsletter. It would be great if all families could build confident young people who did not resort to bullying, but got along with other young people.

We are here to work with and assist parents in any way we can. Please contact us if you have any questions and we will try to answer them or direct you to somewhere you might find the answers.

Have a great 2018.

Carmel Nash, Executive Director

You may find your child in a range of different situations, please find below some E-resources that will support you in working with your children at home.

Information for you to share with your child if they are being bullied

There’s always something you can do.

Here are some ideas:

• Keep your distance from the bully
• Don’t respond and try to ignore it
• Talk to an adult you trust
• Take time to do something nice for yourself
• Have someone help you report cyberbullying or assault

Help for parents and carers — what to do if it's your child:

• Take the time to talk to them. Be open to listening and understanding their experience of cyberbullying.
• Teach them that cyberbullying is never OK
• Reassure them that they're loved
• Report the activity to the relevant social media platform. If this does not help, you can lodge a complaint via the safety website eSafety
• Support them to speak to another trusted adult or counsellor if they want to
• Advise them to avoid opening emails or responding to cyberbullies
• Respect that they may not want to limit online access as this can seem like a punishment and lead to greater social isolation
• Most importantly, reassure them they are not alone and that help is always available.

Help for young people at Kidshelpline (Ph: 1800 551 800)

Further online resources

Kids help line

Kids matter

eSafety Commissioner

Raising Children network

Hedspace – National Youth Mental Health Foundation

National Centre Against Bullying

Reachout

Cyberbullying

If you’re experiencing cyberbullying, you’re not alone. It can be upsetting and difficult to escape. Find out what cyberbullying is and what you can do to protect yourself.

Technology Thoughtfulness

Social media reminder cards for schools

Using social media responsibly has become a key life skill and schools tell me they are needing to get this message across to their students as early as upper primary school as so many kids already have social media accounts then.

That’s why we’ve created these business-card size reminders as a quick reminder for kids to think twice before posting things. The cards are also a handy reference to some key online youth support services. Schools can order between 500 and 3000 cards as print-on-demand products and postage is included.

FOR YOUR P & F

Qld Catholic Schools Parent Conference

The Collaborating for Success conference is to build and strengthen a parent engagement community of practice. We encourage parents and school leadership to attend together.

This year we have moved to make our contact form available online via the link below.

We ask that every school community completes this form either online or the hard copy that has been sent to you enclosed with the parent levy invoice.

Why does every Qld Catholic School pay an Annual Parent Levy?

The Annual Parent Levy Invoice should have arrived at your school. Please ensure you have received this and please take a read about the work we do on your behalf.

If you have not received your levy invoice please contact us at info@pandf.org.au

Building Respect for Diversity through Inclusive Education

Every child is an individual, with their own strengths and challenges and different ways of learning. But for some, the very differences that make them unique also make it challenging for them to participate and thrive in mainstream schooling.

Without specialised resources and expert support, children with different linguistic or cultural backgrounds, disability or other special needs may not receive equal access to educational and social opportunities.

Inclusion Works! CEO Monique Belousoff said providing inclusive education was about all children – not just those with special needs.

“Wonderful things can happen when children of different abilities and backgrounds are in a classroom together,” Ms Belousoff said.

“All of the children develop a greater understanding and respect for individual differences, while being supported to reach their education goals.”

Ms Belousoff said a stricter national curriculum and more administrative duties often made it difficult for teachers to juggle strategies to develop the abilities of all those in a class.

“P&Fs can help fill the gap by raising much-needed funds for facilities and resources,” she said.

“And it takes only a small investment to make a vast difference to the education of all children in the school community.”

She said a subscription to Inclusion Works! resource library gave educators access to a wealth of material and support.

“We have more than 15,000 of the latest teaching resources, aligned to the National Curriculum and targeted to different ages, needs and development goals,” she said.

“With more than 40 years’ experience supporting inclusive education in Queensland, we know there is nothing more satisfying than helping children discover their joy of learning.”

Every child has the right to start their education by harnessing their innate sense of curiosity and each one deserves the tools to reach their full potential.

For more information about funding an Inclusion Works library subscription for your school or teacher, please visit the website below

The Queensland Association of School Tuckshops invite your school to become a member of the Association for 2018/19. Once a member, anyone from your community is welcome to access our support and we do have a number of services available that we know your tuckshop would find useful. In 2016 we launched our new on site consultancy service, Tuckshop TuneUp, follow the link for more information should your tuckshop require this additional assistance.

Just like your tuckshop, we too are only as strong as the support we gain from the community we serve. We really do value each school being a member so that we can provide quality services and valuable help when you might need us. Membership is very affordable with annual fees of just $330 inc. gst. We would welcome your school as a valued member. If you have any questions you are most welcome to contact Karen on 3324 1511 or admin@qast.org.au .

Get this school year off to the best start possible!

Set up your children for success – whether it’s at the start, middle or end of their school years – with Triple P! The Triple P – Positive Parenting program is a toolbox of tips and strategies proven to help kids and teenagers learn new skills, cope with stress, better handle their emotions, and communicate more effectively. You’ll notice the difference at home and teachers will notice the difference at school.

Triple P has already helped more than 161,000 Queensland parents, carers and grandparents, plus it’s FREE. And it’s easy for P&Fs to let parents know how they can do Triple P – there’s an online program , sessions with other parents or one-on-one consultations . Find out more at via the link below.

PARENT ENGAGEMENT

When families and schools work together, children are more likely to build good relationships and do better at school.

If you would like to know more about parent engagement please click on the link below to download the parent fact sheet. Alternatively please visit our website via the link below for the resources on parent engagement in learning and wellbeing.

Helping kids deal with the stress of the test!

There is no predicting what particular worries your child will have or develop. But testing time can be a common time of anxiety for parents, teachers and students alike. In fact, because there are pressures on teachers to prepare students for tests, students can pick up on their teacher’s anxiety and feel even more worried experiencing the emotional contagion to which we are all susceptible. So it’s worth looking at ourselves from a bird’s eye view and asking, “How do I talk and act when it’s test-taking preparation time?”

GREAT INFORMATION ON P&F WEBSITE

The Federation has a Marquee. Would you like to borrow it for your next event?

Please note that we can only lend to Brisbane Schools.

The truth about private schools

By Blaise Joseph

A huge misconception in Australian education is that all non-government schools charge exorbitant fees — that only super-rich parents can afford — and hence shouldn’t receive government funding.

PARENTING

Maggie Dent shares her insights on parenting

Raising Boys

Popular parenting author and “queen of common sense” Maggie Dent shares her insights, practical suggestions and passion for raising boys in our chaotic world. Statistically, boys are still at greater risk than girls of injury, death, school failure, cancer … the list goes on. From before school to adulthood, the journey of a boy to a man is often misunderstood. Boys’ needs are different to girls and in order to help our boys grow into wonderful men, parents, teachers and carers need to understand these needs and how to meet them. Maggie draws her wisdom not only from the research that has gone into writing seven books, but from parenting her own four sons, teaching in high schools for over 17 years, counselling troubled lads and working with men in her men’s-only seminars. She is a champion of boys and wants you to be one too.

Best-ever communication tips around teens >
Title: Click here to read Maggie Dent’s latest tips for Parents

Understanding Boys - 'Boys Boys Boys’

New Sky Blue Relaxation audio

As many of you know I have been using creative visualisation audios for many, many years and I feel continually inspired to create new tracks. So I am thrilled to release my latest download, Sky Blue Relaxation, a simple 3-minute standing relaxation focusing on breathing while using imagery of the blue sky. It uses soothing sounds (courtesy of Ute Coleman at soundrelaxation.com.au) that will enhance the senses by relaxing tension and tightness. Sky Blue Relaxation can be used in homes, early years settings, classrooms and even workplaces. Whether you’re 5 or 105, it will leave you feeling calm, grounded and centred – a much-needed state of mindfulness in our busy often chaotic world. Just $5 in the online store.

Telling or “Tattle Telling”… Is There a Difference? – on NBC’s Parent Toolkit

by confidentparentsconfidentkids

A parent wrote to the Parent Toolkit team asking them about her challenge in understanding how best to support her five-year-old. This parent poses important questions about how to react to a young child "telling" on the mistakes of other children but her question also involves helping her child deal with exclusion and hurtful behaviors and her role with and support of her child's teacher and the school's rules. Check it out!

Helping Your Young Adult Find Her Purpose

You’ve laid the groundwork. As young as elementary school, you’ve likely asked your child, what do you want to be when you grow up? You may have had conversations about what your family values are, or your kid picked up guiding principles over the years. Now you have a young adult, who may be on a path to finding their purpose in life, or they may feel completely lost and unsure of what to do. Finding purpose can be a lifelong endeavor—something you may still be working through yourself!

FUNDRAISING

Australia's leading fundraising supplier of highly successful fundraising products and fundraising ideas for schools, clubs, child care and community groups. We helped groups raise over $8 million in 2017.

Australian School and Club Fundraising Specialists
1A/43 Spine St, Sumner Park Q 4074
Ph: 07 3279 0140
E: mail@australianfundraising.com.au

Trivia/Games Night Ideas - Fundraising Tip

We've all seen, and likely participated in, the typical trivia night games. If you want people to 'show you the money' and keep coming back year after year, you've got to mix it up a bit. So here are a few cool ideas that you might like to include at your next trivia night!

OPPORTUNITIES

HP has launched Kids Fund | $500,000 grant program | Apply Now

Did you know? 65% of students will be employed in jobs that are not yet created1.

It is crucial that schools in Australia are well equipped to transition classroom learning into the future.

That's why, HP Australia is committing half a million dollars to make technology accessible to all Australian children.

Through HP Kids Fund, schools across Australia can apply for grants of $10,000.

The grant program runs four intakes throughout the year and they are offering a total of fifty grants to be used towards the purchases of HP technology to take your classroom learning to the next level.

Queensland School Library Week

School Libraries in Focus

5 - 9 March 2018

In 2018, the Queensland School Library Association is introducing a ‘Queensland School Library Week’ to focus on the work accomplished by qualified teacher-librarians and library staff in improving literacy and research skills in print and digital formats in ALL school libraries, not only those who are members of QSLA.

The QSLA initiative is in direct response to concerns around the alarming fall in children's literacy levels; yet research indicates that qualified staff in a well-resourced school library can directly inspire and increase student literacy.

This celebratory week will be held from the 5th to 9th of March and QSLA offers a range of resources, competitions and suggested activities around the theme ‘School Libraries in Focus’.

School libraries are encouraged to join in the competitions and activities, focusing their school community’s attention on the positive impact of school library programs which enrich student literacy and learning.

Information on downloading posters, informational flyers, competitions and activities are available on the QSLA ‘Queensland School Library Week’ webpage.

QSLA supports school libraries all across Queensland and we look forward to hosting the inaugural Queensland School Library Week for the benefit of all Queensland school communities.

Digital documents are now live at Griffith

My eQuals gives students and graduates access to secure, encrypted digital copies of their academic records and allows them to share their documents with anyone they choose for any length of time.

Our July 2017 graduates will be first to have free lifetime access digital copies of their testamur, official academic transcript and Australian Higher Education Graduation Statement.

We are the third of the 45 participating universities across Australia and New Zealand to go live with My eQuals.

From today, current students and alumni (post-2010 to pre-July 2017) can also request access to their available digital academic documents (fees apply).

If you have any questions about the introduction of digital documents, please read our FAQ document or contact the Graduations Office ( griffithgraduations@griffith.edu.au ).

Schoolzine

Schoolzine is proud to be a digital partner and supporter of Parents and Friends Federation.

Schoolzine has been an industry leader in digital school communications for 14 years. They are dedicated to customer service, product development and understanding the school landscape that keeps them at the top of the industry. Schoolzine’s Parent Engagement Platform consists of 3 packages, an eNewsletter, Mobile App and Website offering. Purchased separately or together, they guarantee each package will make engaging with parents easy and even enjoyable for a school of any size. Schoolzine addresses the need for media-rich, interactive content that engages parents.