Informer Week 8 Term 3

From Our Principal...

Dear Families

I was asked a number of times last week, how my blood pressure was going. To be honest after a few weeks of rest and slowing down, it was pretty good. The late night visit by vandals and the usual day to day hustle and bustle of school life can be annoying and hectic, but not necessarily the things that cause great worry.

We would probably all be familiar with the words, God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,  courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. We may know it as the Alcoholics Anonymous prayer that is attributed to the American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr. 

In its original state, Niebuhr's  prayer was "Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped and the insight to know one from the other."

As people, we can usually summon the courage to complete most difficult tasks, we generally tend to struggle with acceptance of those things we can't control.

Too often we have our perceived solution and outcome. Experience has shown me over and over again that God will solve problems in ways I would have never conceived or thought possible.

In the Lord's Prayer we ask for our daily bread, not wealth success or fame. We ask for what we need each day, not for the perceived perfect life with no problems.

I can sympathise with St Paul very easily when he told the people of Corinth that he had a thorn in his side that he asked the Lord many times to remove and the Lords response was that "My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness".

Acknowledging that I don't have all the answers is often the first step to accepting what I cannot change and if I cannot change it, then I need to be prepared  to open myself to accept the graces that come into my life in so many unexpected ways.

One of my mantras is ‘pray, hope and don't worry’. I read many years ago that worry was a denial of God's graces. I just have to be prepared to not be in control, and to be perfectly honest, I don't always do well at giving up the controls. But as I continue to find, when I am prepared to Let Go and Let God,  grace and blessings fill my life and I can relate to St Paul when he came to conclude. "that is why I delight in weakness, hardship and difficulties , For when I am weak then I am strong."

Have a great week and hug your kids, they are often our greatest blessing.

Jamie Emerick
Principal

APRE News...

God Bless Fathers

Anyone can father a child but it takes effort and involvement for a father to be a dad and this role lasts for their lifetime.  Being a dad involves developing a relationship with their child.  Research has shown that children model their future relationships on the relationship they had with their own dad. How a dad treats his child will heavily influence the qualities the child will look for in other people. 

A girl will look to her father as someone to provide security and support.  A girl will choose her friends or spouse based on her relationship with her dad.  She will look for the same characteristics as her dad in people she associates with. 

A boy will often model himself on his father’s character.  If he sees his dad treating others with respect and being willing to lend a hand where needed, he  will likely try to mirror these traits.  Boys tend to want to impress their dads and try to impress them and seek their approval with their behaviours and achievements.  A boy looks to his father to set the rules on how to behave and if their biological father isn’t around, they look for another role model to learn from.  Another man can certainly be a good dad to a child when their love for that child, dictates the kind of relationship they develop with them.

As Christians, our greatest role model for fatherhood is God our Father.  Love that knows no boundaries, God our Father has given us all that we have as gifts.  Over the course of the world’s entire history, our Father has tried to guide his children and shown unconditional love no matter how wrong their behaviours were.  He gave us his only Son, who preached of the love of the Father.  Our Father is the one whom we know we can always go to, to share our joys, sorrows, fears and aspirations.  What a great role model Our Father is to all dad’s, as someone who is always there for us.

So, our dads or father figures have played an important role in our lives and had a huge impact on the people we have become.  This Father’s Day make sure you thank your dad for his role in your life.  Let him know that you appreciate all the little things he did and continues to do for you. 

Being a dad doesn’t end when their child leaves home.  The role continues because their love for their child lasts a lifetime.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads and father figures in our school community and thank you for all you continue to do and mean to our children.

A Parenting Style for our Times

By Michael Grose

“I spoke to a mother recently who was struggling to find the right balance in her parenting approach. She was frustrated that she always had to nag her children to get cooperation. More disturbingly, she felt a lack of connection to her children, which concerned her, given the challenges we are now experiencing.

I suggested that she should “guide like a cat and nurture like a dog”. She loved what I had to say so I thought it valuable to share my ideas with the Parenting Ideas community.

You have some cat and dog in you. It’s just a matter of accessing those parts and bringing them out when we need them.

Find your inner cat to guide and manage

The cat is the credible side you all have, but find difficult accessing. It’s expressed through your non-verbals – your tone of voice, your posture and your head position.

A cat speaks with flat, clipped voice. Your head is very still and body upright and confident. The quickest way to access your inner cat is to speak with your palms facing the ground. You’ll find you’ll naturally speak with a clipped voice, still head and body and a serious expression on your face. This is your credible (and calm) side.

When you speak from your cat side people will usually believe what you have to say. The cat side gives you authority.

Australia’s former foreign minister Julie Bishop was a good example of using cat behaviour. Whether you liked her or loathed her you couldn’t deny that she oozed authority. That’s because she accessed the cat side of her nature in public.

Guide like a cat by speaking calmly, quietly and staying still when you speak. ‘Cats’ will also withdraw eye contact rather than stand and argue so look away or respectfully move away rather than become involved in a pointless argument with a child.

‘Cats’ also look for ways to manage visually (with such things as rosters or charts) or by moving close and whispering, rather than repeating themselves. If ‘cats’ repeat themselves, they are more likely to lower their voice than raise it to get attention. These cat behaviours work well when guiding and managing children and teenagers.

Use your inner dog to nurture and build relationships

We also have a dog side to our nature. This is the approachable, conversational, relationship-building side. When you access this side you’ll speak with lots of inflection in your voice. Your head will bob up and down. You’ll probably lean forward as you speak and you’ll smile a lot. The quickest way to access your dog nature is to speak with your palms up. You can try it now. Stand up, put your hands out with your palms up and start speaking. You should notice a big difference in how you deliver your message from when you spoke with palms facing down. If not, alternate speaking with palms up and down until you see a difference.

The dog side of our nature is what many of us feel more comfortable with. If you are in a management position at work, you probably spend more time accessing your cat than your dog. Although effective managers will move seamlessly between the two, accessing their dog when networking and relationship-building, then finding their cat for negotiations or when making decisions.

Actor Hugh Jackman is an example of a public figure who is dog-like as he usually speaks with lots of up and down pitch in his voice, a big smile and open body language. However, he can switch to cat mode in interviews when talking about something serious. He will speak quietly, calmly and his head will stay very still. We believe him when he speaks. He’s no lightweight. It’s his ability to switch from cat to dog and back again that makes him so charismatic.

Bring your cat and dog to your parenting

Effective parents can make subtle adjustments to their communication. That is, they alter their style to suit the situation rather than let their moods dictate their communication styles. This is not necessarily conscious. Do it often and you’ll find switching from cat to dog and back again becomes an ingrained parenting pattern.

Get your cat and dog wrong and you’ll be ineffective. Guide like a dog and you’ll do one of three things – whine to get cooperation, become angry if they ignore you, or do nothing because you don’t want to offend your children. Build relationships like a cat and you’ll be seen as distant, stiff and unapproachable.

Get the mix right and you’ll be able to give your children exactly what they need. That is, the leadership and safety that cats provide and the nurturance and encouragement that comes naturally to dogs.”

Michael Grose

Michael Grose, founder of Parenting Ideas, is one of Australia’s leading parenting educators. He’s an award-winning speaker and the author of 12 books for parents including Spoonfed Generation, and the bestselling Why First Borns Rule the World and Last Borns Want to Change It. Michael is a former teacher with 15 years experience, and has 30 years experience in parenting education. He also holds a Master of Educational Studies from Monash University specialising in parenting education.

Did You Know?

Dwellings in the time of Jesus:

Caves:  Sometimes small homes were built into existing caves

Stone Houses: this was the building material mostly used and needed to be cut by a skilled stonemason.  Poorer people piled stones on top of each other.

Wood: Wood was very scarce and cedar was imported from Syria.

Sticks and poles: tied together with rope and covered with mud to seal against rain and wind.

Bricks:  sundried mud and straw bricks was often used instead of stone.  This required frequent maintenance.

Tarps and blankets: These were used for tents and canopies.  They were made from rough wool mostly and hair.

Port To Park Results

Congratulations to the following students who came in the top 3 of their categories.

Sydney Smith
Logan Ellem
Alex Huth
Shana Paterson
Sophie Maitland
Kaylee Simpson
Levi Prosliner

You can view the race results here: GPC Port to Park (racetecresults.com) and then click on Category results for the top three for both male and female.

FUN RUN!

A few reminders:

• Money and forms are due (either online or to the school office) by Friday 17 September.
• Year 6 students will dress up just prior to the event, Prep - Year 5 students to continue wearing PE uniform as usual.
• Fun Run commences at 2pm Friday 17 September.
• School day concludes as normal at 3pm. 

Pupil Free Day

A reminder that Friday 3 September is a pupil free day!

St John's Outside School Hours Care is open for pupil free day! Bookings are essential! For OSHC enquiries and bookings, please email sjgoshc_@rok.catholic.edu.au

Swimming Carnival

St John's Way Awards

OSHC - Vacation Care

Volunteer Tuckshop Roster

Tuckshop Menu

Tuckshop Special

QLD's Single-Use Plastic Ban

Single-Use Plastic Ban in Qld

From September 1 2021, certain single-use plastic items will be banned in Qld, including plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery, plates, bowls and expanded polystyrene cups and containers. 

As many community groups provide takeaway food and drink as part of their community and fundraising activities, this may affect how you operate. As such, your group may benefit from information on how to comply with the new bans.

To help you prepare, the Qld Government has contracted the Boomerang Alliance* to conduct a series of early evening forums across the state to answer your questions on:

• What items are included in the ban?
• What alternative products can be used?
• How can my organisation adapt to comply with the ban?

We would like to invite you to your local forum which is listed below. For venue information and to register, please follow THIS LINK to our Eventbrite page.

Our St John’s App Is Live!

We are very excited to announce that the St John’s is live and ready for parents to download to their devices.

Please follow the instructions step-by-step for downloading the St John’s App. The one-off St John’s set-up passcode is 8892.

Additionally, to download the St John’s App to your iPad, laptop or PC, please follow the following link - https://stjohnclinton.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Once you have downloaded the App you will see we now have a one-stop-shop for all information you need to stay informed at St John’s.

In the top banner you will see Home, Feed and Manage.

Home will take you to the tiles and Feed will take you to alerts/messages (as Dojo did).

The latest ‘feed’ will be displayed on the home screen above the tiles.

The ‘’tiles’’ we have used are as follows:

• Parent Lounge – takes you straight to the Parent Lounge sign-in page
• Latest Newsletter – each week the newsletter will be uploaded to this tile
• Website – takes you straight to our website
• Forms and Documents – in this tile the following documents have been uploaded – simply tap on the link:
  

Parent Handbook
School Uniform
Behaviour Management
Fees and Levies Schedule
ICT Code of Practice
Tuckshop Menu

• School Calendar – all key dates for the upcoming term (continually updated)
• Tuckshop – takes you straight to the online tuckshop log-in page
• OSHC – links to required forms
• School Contact – takes you straight to our phone contact
• Facebook - takes you straight to our Facebook page
• Seesaw – Our new ‘Dojo’’ – please note that this is still a work in progress
• Newsletter Archive – each weekly newsletter will be archived to this tile for referral where required
• Subscribe to Newsletter – please note that all existing families will be automatically uploaded to this new platform. This tile is for new families in the future

While we feel we have covered all bases, things can be overlooked so we look forward to your feedback or suggestions on information that would be a benefit to be included. As always your feedback is valued; please email Jakki Graham at Jakki_graham@rok.catholic.edu.au