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Hardly a week goes by without reports of some new risk to children online. Talking with them early and often, teaching them about how to keep safe online can equip them with the skills to stay safe.
Children and young people are using the internet at school, at home and with friends. Even if you are at home together, it is not possible to monitor your child’s online activities every second of the day. It is important to talk with them about online safety issues to help develop their ability to make good choices.
Research by eSafety shows that 81% of parents with children between 2 and 5 use the Internet, so we have to start educating early. The Internet is a place that can be enjoyed if we are aware of the risks. Finding age-appropriate and curriculum aligned online safety resources for this young age group can be a challenge. eSafety has developed a new package of resources for this age group. It is aimed to build good habits when being online as well as promoting positive experiences.
Here are 10 top tips to help protect your children online:
- Build an open trusting relationship around technology — keep communication open and supportive so your child knows they can come to you if something goes wrong or does not feel right online.
- Co-view and co-play with your child online. This will help you understand what they are doing and why they enjoy an app, game or website, as well as providing a great opportunity to start conversations about online safety.
- Build good habits and help your child to develop digital intelligence and social and emotional skills — such as respect, empathy, critical thinking, responsible behaviour and resilience — and practice being good online citizens.
- Empower your child — wherever possible, help them make wise decisions for themselves, rather than telling them what to do. Try to provide them with strategies for dealing with negative online experiences that will build their confidence and resilience.
- Use devices in open areas of the home — this can help you manage and be aware of who your child interacts with online through phones, tablets, smart TVs, gaming consoles and other connected devices.
- Set time limits that balance time spent in front of screens with offline activities — a family technology plan can help you to manage expectations around where and when technology use is allowed — search online for templates or examples.
- Know the apps, games and social media sites your kids are using — make sure they are age-appropriate and learn how to limit messaging or online chat and location-sharing functions within apps or games, as these can expose your child to unwanted contact and disclose their physical location. The eSafety Guide includes information to help parents and carers choose safer apps and report and block unwanted contact and sexual approaches.
- Check the privacy settings on the games and apps your child is using and make sure their profiles are turned on to the strictest privacy setting. Restrict who can contact your child or ask them to check in with you before accepting new friends.
- Use available technologies to set up parental controls on devices that can filter harmful content, monitor your child’s use and limit or block their time on connected devices or functions (e.g. cameras, in-app purchases).
- Be alert to signs of distress and know where to go for more advice and support.
Time Online
Establish time limits around when and for how long your child can be online when they are at home.
- Use the available technologies — parental controls and tools to monitor online time allow you to measure and set time limits on device use or internet access. Be honest and open about why you want to use these technologies.
- Turn off notifications for social media apps to help minimise distractions. We often hear that too much screen time is bad for children. But how much is ‘too much’?
- Depending on your child’s age, you can establish a family tech agreement that balances time spent in front of screens with offline activities. You can find templates by searching online.
- Include ‘offline’ activities in your routine at home — this can include family exercise, reading time or board games.
- Reduce your own time online to model positive behaviour!
More advice available here:
Mrs McLeod's Inaugural Brixhibition
In assembly, the Brixhibition winners were given their winning medallions and prizes. Congratulations to Xzavier, Zavier, Aylah and William. Good luck to Xzavier who will be representing St Joseph's in the upcoming Hobart Brixhibition over the holidays.
New Furniture
Last week the new furniture for our Early Years classrooms arrived. This furniture matches our explicit teaching pedagogies as it allows teachers to directly see and encourage each child’s participation in the classroom.
Board
In our last meeting we began to look at the Jewellry Policy and Hair Policy. We will share this with the community early next term. As a board we would like to look at the Uniform Policy. To do this we are asking for feedback from the community.
Please spend a couple of moments, if possible, to complete this survey to have you say on the uniform at St Joseph’s.
Link not working?... Copy and paste URL(https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DWZNpIaA51Dtd04JLD69PAoGAwDr6FMa05z3uV1tOtg/edit?pli=1)
Enjoy a well deserved break.
Happy Everything!
Teresa
Around the Halls...
A quick whip around the classrooms and you will see how busy the students have been with their learning this term.
Walking through the front door, you can hear a hive of activity and fun in Blue Gum! All students are coming to school every day learning and looking out for each other. Three quarters through the term and the Kinders are loving learning. They are learning their letters and numbers through songs and chants and then do lots of activities around them.
In Prep, students highlighted their working with letters, knowing diagraphs and learning their tricky words. The words they are using are helping them in other areas of their work including naming shapes in Maths, looking at landscapes in Humanities and recently their study into dinosaurs for Science.
Up the stairs into 1/2, and you will see students with all the time in the world! Students are consolidating the days of the week, months of the year and reading and telling the time on the analogue clock. There is not a second to loose in Leatherwood as they continue their work in building their Literacy and Numeracy Skills and applying them in all learning areas, including Humanities where they were also able to squeeze in a visit to Hunters Hotel to look at its rich history.
Around to 3/4 and it is not uncommon to hear some singing on a daily basis. From daily prayer to preparation for their visit to Lyell Wing, the class makes the most of every opporuntity to showcase their talents. Not to take away from their learning, students are consolidating their subtraction skills and multiplication facts as often as they can. In Science, students are staying grounded as they have learnt lots about landscapes and erosion, and who could forget their amazing work during Science Week!
Rounding out the classes, is of course 5/6. With a swish of a wand, all the students are responding to the explicit teaching and direct instruction in their reading, spelling and daily reviews with high praise. The class is capitalising on the careers day earlier in the term to write some explainations on "How to become a <job>" in their English writing. There will be some entertaining texts to read when we return next term. Finally, 5/6 have undertaken their own research into saints and matyrs as part of their RE. Each student will present their chosen person in a multimedia presentation to the class.
Well, there you have it - the Term 3 Wrap Up! What can we say but bring on Term 4!
In Blue Gum this term, we have been exploring and attending Church. We have learnt that it is a place that we gather to pray and remember God and Jesus. We have been learning how to be respectful and join in with the responses throughout whole school prayers. This lead us to then explore the many elements of the Church and use our counting knowledge to count how many crosses, candles and alters we could see.
Blue Gum thoroughly enjoyed looking for colours and shapes within the building's structure and windows, we then took our discoveries back to the classroom to make our own stained glass windows using a variety of colours and shapes.
During the week we had a visit from Football Australia to lead our classes through some soccer techniques and drills before playing a Mini World Cup competition. We would like to thank Football Australia for their time with our students. All the kids had a ball (pun intended) and were left inspired about where soccer can take them.
On Wednesday 20th September we shared a cultural day together. Through the leadership of staff at school, under the guidance of Ms Carmen Holmes, students were provided with opportunities to further connect with Aboriginal and Toress Strait culture. Students cooked damper, engaged in traditional games, as well as discussing modes of traditional communication and storytelling through symbols and story. A BIG thanks to Mrs Thompson, Mr Jones, Mrs Austbo and Miss D'Alton for running the activities.
During the week, students were treated to some theatre right here at St Joseph's. Meerkat Productions and Terrapin Puppets dropped in to perform for us.
Meerkat Productions performed 'Frank's Red Hat' - a story about never giving up on your talents because even though what you do now may not be appreciated right now, it will be in time.
For the Terrapin Puppet Show, we got to meet a trio of performers to perform 'The Riddle of Washpool Gully'. A story about 'Kid' and 'Mum' who travel to a nearly forgotten tiny town where something was stirring...
It is so wonderful to be able to experience peformances such as these two and bring it to our students.
What a great turn out we had for our "Bogan" Quiz Night, with 12 teams battling it out for not only the prize, but bragging rights. When the final tally ended with a draw, a quick tie breaker declared a final winner by a single point. Congrats to all teams for playing and their table decorations - spectacular.
We would like to thank everyone for coming along, thanks to all your generosity we managed to raise a total of $2500.
A further thanks to the following people and businesses for assisting and donating prizes: Setori Engineering, The Old Woolstore, World Heritage Cruises, Wings Wildlife Park, Queenstown Marketplace, Williams Earthmoving, Henty Gold Mine, Belladonna Hair Lounge, West Coast Wilderness Railway, Bunnings Burnie, Linda Cafe, Soggy Brolly, Evans IGA, Missing Tiger, Mountain Blooms, Penghana Guest House, Railway Express Supermarket, Huon Aquaculture, David & Narissa Gaspersic, Morrison's Huon Pine Sawmill, Ian Bradshaw, Tassal, Dianne Powell, Kerri Bugg, Clare Hales, Cheryl Gamble and Leigh Styles.
A reminder that all students need to be in full summer unifom as of Tuesday 17th October. Uniforms may be purchased via the QKR app. A school bucket hat is to be worn for all outside play.
Our Summer uniform:
GIRLS
Summer Dress
Knitted Jumper / Soft Shell Jacket
Fawn Socks
Maroon School Hat
BLACK School Shoes
BOYS
Short Sleeve Fawn Shirt
Knitted Jumper / Soft Shell Jacket
Grey Shorts/ Grey Trousers
Grey Socks
Maroon School Hat
BLACK School Shoes
KINDER
Polo Top
Polo Fleece Jacket / Soft Shell Jacket
Black shorts/Track Pants
Maroon School Hat
Term 1: 3rd February - 6th April
Term 2: 26th April - 7th July
Term 3: 25th July - 29th September
Term 4: 17th October - 13th December
