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Dear Parents and Carers,
Let me begin with a story of gratitude.
A Short Lesson on Gratitude
A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which read, “I am blind, please help.” There were only a few coins in the hat – spare change from folks as they hurried past. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words.
Then he put the sign back in the boy’s hand so that everyone who walked by would see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon, the man who had changed the sign returned to see how things were.
The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?” The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.” I wrote, “Today is a beautiful day, but I cannot see it.”
Both signs spoke the truth. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind, while the second sign conveyed to everyone walking by how grateful they should be to see…
WRITTEN BY: Nick Ortner PUBLISHED BY: The Tapping Solution
So, this leads me to some words of gratitude this week to the amazing St Pat’s staff, students and parents:
Thank you:
PUBLICATION CELEBRATION
Every St Pat’s student for writing and publishing one or more pieces of writing and sharing these at our publication celebration.
The St Pat’s staff for working hard with each student and conferencing with them every week to support their progress as writers/authors.
The parents who were able to be here to listen to their own and other children’s writing.SHINE
All of the St Pat’s students who bravely took to the stage on Wednesday night to SHINE at our 2nd ‘Shine’ concert. Congratulations!
All the parents of the Shine students, and those who came to watch for being the live audience that is so important for performers to have!
Ms Spicer for coordinating the ‘Shine’ concert.
Nathan (Ms Spicer’s son) for the fabulous lighting at the ‘Shine’ concert.
Mr Twyford for being a terrific sound technician for the ‘Shine’ concert.BOOK WEEK
Mrs Platts and Mrs Kite for organsing the Book Week Parade.
The parents for helping your children ‘suit up’ in super hero costumes and coming to the parade.
The St Pat’s students and staff for dressing up and having fun!FATHER’S DAY
The Parish Men’s group for helping set up the hall and serve food and clean up for the Father’s Day breakfast.
The staff for their tireless work in preparation for events like Father’s day, setting up, coordinating the liturgy, the arts and crafts lessons! etc etc!
The St Pat’s students for making dad’s day!
Anya Alcock and her team of supportive parents on the fundraising committee for another fabulous Father’s Day stall!AND…..
Everyone else who has contributed to the fun and fabulous Book/Shine/Father’s Day/Author week we have had at St Pat’s.Happy Father’s Day to all our dads, pops, grandads, and father figures.
Blessings
Jo
On Wednesday of this week I went to Professional Learning course and the presenter mentioned that at times teachers can have Project Fatigue. This comment got me thinking, who else has Project Fatigue……can parents have Project Fatigue. After much thought I concluded that everyone can have Project Fatigue.
When I use the term Project Fatigue, I mean the feeling you have when you set a goal, gained some traction and success, but over time there has been a lull in progress.
Imagine you have decided that the amount of sugar in your child’s lunch box needs to decrease. You have done your research and you know that packaged foods, are full of sugar and not at all good for your child’s learning. You no longer put packaged foods in their lunch box, there are no more muesli bars, chips, packaged fruit juice or packaged dried fruit straps. The first week was great, your child’s feedback was great, they loved the novelty of the new food and looked forward to a new lunch every day. Week two; no more comments, all is going well. Week three; the challenges began, you didn’t have enough time to make the fresh lunch, your child was complaining, you wondered whether you were actually doing the right thing, the complaints were getting you down.
This is what the facilitator of the Professional Learning referred to as Project Fatigue. You’d set a goal, you’ve had some success but the longevity of it, was wearing you down.
SO, what to do? Keep at it. In terms of new behaviours this is called the storming stage. There are three stages; forming, storming, and norming. Forming is the stage when you are forming a new behaviour and there is a generous amount of positive energy around the new behaviour. Storming is what I have described. Norming is the stage you come to after the storming, this new behaviour becomes the norm. One cannot get to norming without storming.
Consistency, sticking to the rules and predictability can be challenging at times. However following through will not only give you a better outcome short term, but long term you will be teaching your children that learning and practising new behaviours takes time and practise.
Last Thursday 11 St Pat's students travelled to Canberra to be part of the Southern Region Team at the Archdiocesan Athletics Carnival. In spring like conditions the children competed to the best of their ability. We had a couple of first timers who had a few nerves but managed to overcome them. At this level only the first two competitor’s will travel to Sydney for the trials, to be part of the MacKillop Team.
Congratulations to:
Jaxson Dibley who came 2nd in the 11yrs boys 200m.
Kirra Seenan 2nd 11yr girls 200m.
Jontae Thompson 1st 11 yr boys discus.
These 3 children move forward to the MacKillop Trials. Lincoln Thompson claimed third in the Jnr boys shot put and received a ribbon for this.
The MacKillop Trials will be held in Sydney mid September.
Soccer
It's that time of year when winter sports are reaching the finals. Many of our student’s are involved in finals over the coming weekends. We will have children competing in rugby league, hockey and soccer.
The Bega Devils Soccer Team is one of these teams and half the side is made up of St Pat's children. This team is through to the Grand Final this weekend.
Good luck to everyone who is playing in finals over the weekend.
