Principal’s Report – Issue 22

Dear Parents

We have come to the end of the third week in Term Three. It is amazing just how quickly time passes and yet we diligently manage to fit so many activities into our daily routines. In this busy world we live in, we can sometimes lose sight of the fundamental small aspects which keep us positive and hopeful. We all like to be appreciated and valued and in turn, demonstrate this to others in a genuine way.

Since the beginning of this year, I have noted the strong community spirit which is evident. This is practised by all members and leads to a happy, caring environment. I commend community members for their willingness to nurture community spirit through their readiness to assist in so many different ways.

We continue to keep in our prayers our students who will be receiving the Sacrament of First Eucharist later this term. As principal, and I am sure the staff would agree, that the receptiveness and willingness of parents to support their children in all facets of their learning, particularly their faith journey is most encouraging here at Infant Jesus School.

Success – How Should It Be Measured

As some of you may be aware, last week I celebrated another birthday. A “friend” sent me a rather unflattering checklist titled “50+ Ways to Know You are Getting Older”. Some indicators were:

You feel like the morning after but there wasn’t a night before.
You look forward to a dull evening.
The best part of the day is over when your alarm clock goes off.
Your knees buckle and your belt won’t.
You regret all those times when you resisted temptation.
Everything hurts and what doesn’t hurt doesn’t work.

And so on . . . Whatever our age, we all get that little flutter of worry about a number of years we seem to be notching up and whether we have sufficient material possessions to illustrate the success of our life to date.

When the Prophet, Elijiah, was told that the Lord would be passing by, he waited at the opening of his cave and watched a succession of natural phenomena: a strong wind that levelled mountains and crushed rocks, an earthquake and a fire. However, the Lord was not to be found in any of these.

Then came a “tiny whispering sound” and when he heard it, the prophet hid his face. In this gentle breeze the Lord was present.

Perhaps we tend to see the hand of God at work in those events which command our attention and to which we feel compelled to respond; grief, failure, personal loss, tragedy, catastrophes and natural disasters. We may not so readily see God active in simple things, in the routine and commonplace, the small and insignificant.

It is probably true to say that our society gauges success in life, by either material possessions a person has accumulated or by what the person has achieved. These evaluations are concerned with the external rather than the internal quality of life.

To accept this view of life is to run the danger of making possessions or prestige, our personal gods. It is definitely to ignore Jesus and his values. To Him having and doing were secondary to being; what you had and even what you did was not as important as what you were.

It is people who are made in the “image and likeness of God” and not material things. Christ encouraged us time and again, by his example and teaching, to understand that the important things in life dealt with people. He left no material goods to his followers, but he did leave the gifts of the Spirit.

It is through people that life’s real qualities come to the fore; kindness, love, sharing, forgiveness, understanding, encouragement, support and so on; it is daily that we receive and dispense these qualities and in so doing we are experiencing God’s presence amongst us. This is true success.

Dear Lord,
Give me the strength to search for a silent time every day
So that I can think things out peacefully and quietly
Give Thanks for the gifts that have been given to me
And learn to live wisely and graciously

Amen

Updating Records

It is most important that all student records are kept up-to-date. This means that contact phone numbers, residences, emergency contact numbers and medical records all need to be maintained. If there has been a change to any of these details parents are urged to contact the school office to make the necessary adjustments.

Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop

Next Wednesday, August 8th we celebrate the life of Mary MacKillop. As many parents would be aware, Mary MacKillop was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI on 17th October 2011. Mary MacKillop became Australia’s first saint.

Mary MacKillop was born in Melbourne in 1842. After what was considered a challenging childhood, Mary was forced to leave home at the age of fourteen to work and provide money for her family. By the time she was fifteen, Mary had decided she was going to become a nun. She wanted to devote her life to God and to assist the poor. Mary MacKillop truly lived and passed on the Gospel values. Her love, faith, trust, commitment and enthusiasm live on in our lives today. Mary is a wonderful inspiration and model for all.

Mary MacKillop truly lived and ‘passed on’ the Gospel values. Her love, faith, trust, commitment and enthusiasm live on in our lives today. Mary is a wonderful inspiration and model for all.

Child Protection Week

Child Protection Week will be celebrated in our Parishes from the 3rd – 9th September. The Safeguarding Office of Perth have planned a number of events, including the Annual Breakfast to be held on Tuesday 4th September.

Once again there is a competition that our primary students can enter. The Competition sheets have been included in this newsletter and are also available at the front office.

Please complete the Competition Form and return it to Mr Hille (Principal & Safeguarding Officer Infant Jesus Parish) by August 19th. Archbishop Timothy Costelloe will be judging the winners. Good Luck!

Download the Competition Form

In Our Prayers

We pray for the Penwald Family, Jasmine (4W) and Shanice (6B) for the loss of their Grandmother who recently passed away. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your families at this sad time. We were also saddened this week to hear that Mr Rocco Capolingua’s grandfather passed away earlier this week. We keep Rocco and his family in our thoughts and prayers. May he Rest in Peace

Athletics Carnival

The date for the School Athletic Carnival is Friday 12th October (Week 1 – Term 4). Unfortunately, we have been unable to secure an Athletic oval prior to the end of this term. The venue for the carnival will be the Light Street Inglewood Little Athletics Association. More information to follow.

Father’s Day Breakfast

Sunday September 2nd, is Father’s Day – A very significant day as we all know!!!! To recognise the occasion, we would like to hold a ‘Sausage Sizzle Breakfast’ for all of our Dads in the school. This will commence at 7.30am on Friday August 30th. We encourage all Dads to join us on this morning for a ‘bite to eat and a cuppa’ before heading to work. Please register your attendance via the following link.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=Iy-FxTM2KU-zhlHaU-NeI2_eQieF-KhGs26VsZBufqFUMUZYREJaQ0xTNTRNR1VCVDZHTVpDWExBUS4u

Grandparents Day

Parents would have noticed that this year we plan to celebrate Grandparents Day! This has been scheduled for Tuesday, 4th September. Please put this date aside and let the grandparents know about this date as we would love for them to come to our school and join this special day. More information will be shared later this term.

Derby Dress up Day

This Friday all children are invited to come to school wearing their favourite codes guernsey in celebration of the Derby happening this weekend. Please be aware that this isn’t a free dress day. Come dressed to support your favourite team for a gold coin donation which will be donated to Catholic Mission. Go the Mighty Eagles!

From My Readings . . .

Win Kids’ Cooperation, Don’t Demand It

Parenting is fun when kids are cooperative, but a nightmare when kids refuse to behave the way you wish they would. Normally, we would expect kids to cooperate with their parents. After all, fitting in with the expectations of their family is the start of an important socialisation process. I’m not talking about blind obedience, but a desire on the child’s part to fit in with the expressed needs of their parents and teachers.

But we know from experience things don’t always work out that way.

So let’s take a closer look at the factors that may be driving their unruly behaviour.

The language has changed

When I grew up, my parents spoke more about obedience than cooperation. In fact, my Year 2 school report even had a section about obedience. (Yep, I got a tick for obedience that year!) Adults demanded obedience from kids back then…and generally got it. Corporal punishment was in vogue, which helped keep the troublemakers in line.

But we also lived in a hierarchical society where men were paid more than women, certain races were discriminated against all over the world, and corporal punishment in schools was the order of the day. Kids were expected to show their elders respect…or else.

These days, thankfully, our society is far less rigid. All voices are considered equal and mutual respect is an expected social norm.

Adults (parents, teachers, sports coaches, grandparents and others) now must win cooperation from kids, rather than demand obedience. The question then becomes, what steps can we take to win their cooperation?

Build a relationship first

Co-operation is more likely to be won if you have a healthy, strong relationship with your kids. In fact, parents of teenagers will know that a strong relationship gives them leverage.

Developing a relationship with kids before adolescence is like money in the bank: you’ve got lots of goodwill to draw on when normal teen-parent conflict occurs.

But it’s not just with teenagers that your relationship matters. Kids in primary school are more likely to side with you when your relationship is strong.

Invite cooperation

Cooperation is usually invited in families. For instance, if grandma comes to visit you can either tell your kids what to do, or you can invite them to actively participate in the occasion.

“Grandma is coming to stay next weekend. How can we make her visit more fun?”

Inviting kids to cooperate encourages them to voluntarily contribute, while keeping your expectations clear. Kids that usually rebel against their parents’ demands (those stubborn “Make me” kids), will often happily cooperate when they are invited rather than told what to do.

Inviting cooperation rather than demanding compliance works gangbusters with young power-seekers and control freaks. My successful behaviour management book One Step Ahead was based on the premise that parents can work successfully with kids who insist on having their own way as long as they developed a new set of behaviour management skills based on cooperation rather than obedience.

Use the language of cooperation

In the days when obedience ruled parents generally relied on the language of coercion to get kids to help out or do the right thing. “Do this now please!” “Jeremy, I want you to help your sister with her homework.”

There is still a place for coercive language in families, but it won’t generally work with kids who like to have their own way. For those kids, cooperative language works far better because they get to feel like they are calling the shots. It’s also more respectful as well.

Developing a relationship with kids before adolescence is like money in the bank: you’ve got lots of goodwill to draw on when normal teen-parent conflict occurs.

Cooperative language is different than coercive language in both tone of delivery and choice of words. Cooperative language is generally more friendly and delivered using an ‘adult voice’ rather than in the ‘demanding parent’, or ‘whining child’ voice. Here are three types of cooperative language you can use to get more cooperation:

Give a choice of two actions: “If you are going to make a racket play outside; if you want to stay inside please play quietly. What would you like to do?” Giving kids a choice of what to do, or how something will be done will get you cooperation 90% of the time.
Ask, don’t tell: “Can you give me a hand with dinner during the advertisement break?” A little consideration goes a long way.
Focus on you, not them: “I’ll put the meal on the table when you’ve set the table.” Focusing on what you will do, rather than on what they should do, is the absolute kicker when it comes to winning cooperation from tough nuts and ‘you-can’t-make-me’ kids.

From my experience mums, are more likely to use the language of cooperation than dads. Regardless of gender, when you switch to a more collaborative, cooperative tone with your children, you will generally experience far more success getting your kids on your side and enjoy better quality relationships too.

What’s more, you are also teaching your kids, by example, how to gain the cooperation of their own kids when they become parents someday.

Such is the long-term impact of our parenting.

Prayer for the Week

Father we ask you to send the Holy Spirit into our lives.
Open our ears to hear what you are saying to us in the things that happen to us, and in the people we meet.
Open our eyes to see the needs of the people around us.
Open our hands to do our work well and to help when help is needed.
Open our mouths to tell others the Good News about Jesus, and bring comfort, happiness and laughter to other people.
Open our minds to discover new truth about you and the world.
Open our hearts to love you and all people as you have loved us in Jesus

Amen

Did you Know?

In literature, the average length of a sentence is around 35 words.
The Olympic was a sister ship of the Titanic, and she provided twenty-five years of service.
Smiling releases endorphins in the body which makes people feel better.