Dear Parents and Carers,

Did you know this is the longest period of time our students have spent at school this year? With only one week of this term remaining I give thanks that we have been open for the whole term. When we look at Melbourne, and the entire United States, we remember that things could always be more difficult.

Though everyone is tired and looking forward to the break, let’s do all we can to be positive and work hard right to the end.

At St Benedict’s we have been talking with the children about Respect – Respect for Self, Respect for Others, Respect for Our Belongings and Respect for Our Surroundings.

Respect is one of the most important virtues a child can have. Teaching children how to respect others will ensure they develop positive relationships with their family, friends and teachers throughout their life. Respect can be taught in many ways, but ultimately it’s about ensuring children lead a happy life and treat other people kindly.

Below are some of the most important traits a child can gain from learning the virtue of respect.

Good manners
Teaching children good manners might seem difficult, especially at a young age. However, good manners stem from respect. Saying a simple “please” and “thank you” can go a long way and, with practice, these gestures can become natural to a child. By practising manners, a child will learn that all relationships benefit from give and take.

Tolerance
A child is bound to face conflict throughout their life. While they might not always agree or understand what’s being said or done, teaching them respect will ensure they do their best to address conflict in a productive way. Teaching a child respect will allow them to communicate in a way that is effective and also will encourage them to take responsibility for their own mistakes, and better tolerate the mistakes of others.

Listening
Listening is an important part of having a productive or positive conversation. Learning how to communicate effectively means knowing how to listen, and this can be taught by understanding the importance of respect. We need to show a child how to listen intently, not interrupt and take their turn in order to help them better engage conversationally with others. This will also help the child to better understand rules and avoid conflicts.

Open-minded
Teaching children respect ensures they will get to know a person before making a snap judgement. This behaviour will help them throughout their entire life, and ensures they treat everyone with kindness. As well, for some children, diversity is a hard concept to understand. However, teaching children respect at an early age ensures they accept everyone for who they are.

For all children, learning respect takes time, but it’s never too early to start practising this essential life skill. Ultimately, teaching children respect will help them to create more positive relationships with their family and friends. 

It is also vital that we teach children respect for their belongings and surroundings. So often at the end of session, end of break or end of a day we find the children’s personal belongings scattered around the classroom and playground. Many have the expectation that someone will pick it up and return it to them. Likewise they will leave rubbish behind for someone else to take care of. We must work with our students to value their belongings and surroundings, by teaching them to be independent, responsible and respectful of their have.

This term’s Ways of Being award, and the first for this year, will be for ‘Being Respectful’.

Thank you for your ongoing care and partnership in your child’s learning.

God Bless.

Rachel Smith
Principal

Holidays and Absences
If your family is going away on holidays early, please ensure you have provided a note to your child’s classroom teacher prior to leaving. Notes are a legal requirement for our class rolls and must be provided for all absences. We appreciate your support with this.

School Uniform
A reminder that Summer Uniform commences in Term 4, so please check the wardrobe and visit the Clothing Pool and Savvy if any items are needed. We will have the usual transition period early in Term 4 to cater for the unpredictable weather.

Safety In and Around the School Grounds
I am asking for all our drivers to be careful and alert when driving along the roads around our school, in particular on Jerrabomberra Avenue where the cars are parked outside the townhouses next to the church. It is difficult when cars are parked in the street, but please be mindful that this is a shared road and at times we do need to give way to other oncoming traffic. If we are all aware of the traffic, the parked cars and remember stick to the school zone speed limit we should all continue to remain safe getting to and from school. Thank you for your assistance with this.

Leaving St Benedict’s
If you anticipate that your child will leave St Benedict’s at the end of this year, could you please notify the Front Office where they a heading to. We need to begin planning for staffing and class configurations for 2021. Naturally Year 6 parents need not respond to this request.

First Holy Communion
We wish Trinity, Claire, Leilah, Uma, Vivienne, Hunter and Ben all the best for their First Holy Communion this evening. We pray that they will always know the peace of Jesus, the light of his love and the joy of his life within them.

Amen.

Mini Vinnies Hygiene Donation Station
The St Vincent de Paul Night Patrol are in need of mini toiletries (hotel size is perfect) to re-stock their hygiene packs to be distributed to the people who approach the van. We invite all families to make regular donations to the Mini Vinnies Hygiene Donation Station in the Front Office.  This is one way our school community can help teach our children about human dignity and how we need to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to look after their body.

Items that can be donated are:

• Shampoo/conditioner
• Moisturisers
• Combs/hairbrushes
• Sunscreen
• Tissue packs
  
• Feminine hygiene products
• Soap/body wash
• Toothbrushes/toothpaste/mouthwash
• Mouth wash
• Lip balm
• Deodorant
• Hand sanitiser/masks

 Community Meals Program: HELP NEEDED

The Community Meals Program freezer is one way we can assist

families who are experiencing hardship. We are seeking donations of frozen meals (homemade or store bought), frozen food and non-perishable food donations. If making homemade meals please ensure that they are in a disposable container clearly labelled with the date made and ingredients. All donations can be brought to the Front Office. If your family requires temporary meal assistance, you can speak in confidence to any of our staff members.

Thank so much to those who have made donations to this service. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Is screen time affecting your child’s sleep?
“88% said screen time had a negative impact on their sleep”

(Source: Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.)

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) have published a guide (2019) which reviews the existing research on screen time usage by children. As a result of this research they have published a number of recommendations. One of those recommendations is around screen use before bed time.

• Does screen use interfere with sleep? Even quite modest sleep deprivation can interfere with mental and physical health, educational success and family relations. It is important, therefore, that screens do not interfere with a good bedtime routine, either for children or adults, and we would adopt the expert recommendation that screens are avoided for an hour before the planned bedtime.” 

• Protect sleep Most experts advise that children are not exposed to screens for an hour before bed, so that their brains have time to wind down for sleep without the stimulation from the light of the screen (and the content being viewed). Some manufacturers have introduced ‘night-modes’ which emit less blue light, but there is no evidence that these are effective so we do not think that this makes screen use before bed ‘OK’.

Chatting in games
Most popular online games include the ability to chat with others, likely strangers. We look at 3 of the most popular games to show you how to disable chat (where possible). If you don’t want to turn chat off then we recommend children play without a headset and in a room where you can hear their conversations. As always, ensure your children know how to report players and they know that they should also talk to you or a trusted adult if anything concerns them.

Fortnite (Recommended Age 13+)
Fortnite contains voice and text chat systems. You can turn the voice chat off but not the text chat. To turn chat off, go to Settings, Audio and switch voice chat to off.

Minecraft (All ages – Parental permission required to create an account if user is under 13 years)
In multiplayer mode children can chat with other people. To turn chat off, click ‘options’, select multiplayer settings and click on chat choose shown, hidden or commands only.

Roblox (Recommended Age 13+)
For users aged 12 and under, Roblox automatically enforce more restricted settings so they can only directly message other friends(that they’ve accepted), but does your child know all their ‘friends’ on Roblox? Are they signed up with their right age? To adjust the chat and interaction settings of your child's account, click on the gear icon in the upper right corner and click Settings, click the Privacy option and adjust the Contact Settings and Other Settings.

We have tried to keep as many of our usual school events as possible. Please understand that in the current environment these events may be cancelled or the style in which they are held may change.         

16 Sep First Holy Communion, 6pm
18 Sep Ways of Being Award Ceremony
21 Sep International Day of Peace
23 Sep School Photos (Full Winter Uniform)
25 Sep Mindfulness  and Student Fun Day
25 Sep Last day of Term 3
12 Oct First Day Term 4 (Summer Uniform)

The following notes were sent home this week.

Letter from CE - Misleading ABC News article on Catholic school funding

• Response to Misleading ABC News Article on Catholic school funding

Summer Netball 

• summer netball nomination form 2020

Year 3/4 Movie Permission Note

• The One and Only Ivan PG Permission Yr3 and 4

Head Lice 

• Head Lice September 2020

Please remember to check the Schoolzine App (SZapp) for all the latest school information.  You are able to register via either:

Google Play - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pidigi.schoolzine&hl=en_AU

Head Lice
We have been informed today  that there has been a couple of cases of head lice at St Benedict's.  Could you please examine your child's hair and if you find any nits or lice, we would appreciate you advising the school office.  Confidentiality is assured and no embarrassment should be felt, as it is very often impossibe to know where or how a child contracted the lice or nits.

DTT (Doing Things Together)
Last Friday students participated in another DTT session in small K-6 groups. The activities were run by Year 5/6 students and focused on our recently reviewed ‘5 Ways of Being’. Students investigated what each Way of Being ‘looked like’ and then spent some time paper crafting some bees that will become part of a display for each classroom. Everyone had an enjoyable time, appreciating the opportunity to mix with students from all year levels. The younger ones also enjoyed the help of some bigger ‘buddies’.

St Benedict's School Cookbook
The Harmony Day Cookbook’s publication is underway, and we would love more recipes from your cultural heritage. Also, please include your full name on the recipe, and if you have already entered a recipe please put your name down on the clipboard located in the front office. We would love it if we could credit you and your family in the cookbook as you have been a huge part of sharing your culture with our community. If you do decide to add recipes, the due date is Tuesday, 29th of September, 2020. We are very excited to be sharing all of these recipes with our school community. 

Commonwealth Student Banking is Wednesday.  Please ensure your bank book and money are sent to the Front Office via the class notebag.

Happy birthday to the following children who celebrate their special day this week: Claire L, Sandile N, Luciano C and Arwyn S.

Kinder:        Sandy W and Reuben W

Year 1/2G:  Elias S, Andrew K and Geordie B

Year 3/4B:  Kate S

Year 3/4G:  Mia F

Year 5/6B:  Finn W, Himiona T, Joanna M and
                   Natalija M

Year 1/2G:  Matilda B

Year 3/4B:  Ekamjot K

Year 3/4G:  Anna N and Arwyn S

Year 5/6B:  Violetta B

St Benedict's Front Garden
The St Benedict's P & F are embarking on an exciting new project for the school!

Click on the link below to find out more about this exciting new initiative.

St Benedict's Front Garden

The lost property box was emptied again this week and uniforms were either returned to students if named or washed and given to the clothing pool for resale.  Thank you to all the families that have kindly donated uniforms to the clothing pool.  

Each morning when you drop your child or children off to school please ask them to go and have a look and find any of their missing items.

Please check your child/ren are bringing their uniform home.  If they have accidentally picked up someone elses uniform,  please return it to the front office so it can be returned to the correct child.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our normal school clothing pool processes are not in place. If you need uniform, please email the school office.stbenedicts@cg.catholic.edu.au or contact Mrs McRae with a list of items required.  We will endeavour to fill your order and reply to you as soon as possible.

PLEASE ENSURE YOUR CHILD/REN'S CLOTHING IS LABELLED WITH THEIR NAME.

St Benedict's Parish
Office Hours: Tuesday to Friday 9am to 12noon
Phone: 62957879
Email: narrabundah@cg.org.au
Web:   www.cg.org.au/narrabundah

Parish Team:
Fr Dan Benedetti MGL
Fr Rembert Fernando MGL
Fr Baiju Thomas MGL
Monica Nulley-Valdes (Parish Secretary)
Anjalie Upasena  (Parish Youth Minister)

Dear St Benedict’s community,

See below our links for booking our Saturday 6pm Mass and Sunday 9am Mass. Please remember that 9am Mass is being streamed live and the 10am live streamed Mass has finished.

These bookings closed at 11.30am this Friday. Please feel free to come if you fail to book as these numbers just give us an indication.

Mass Saturday 19 September https://www.trybooking.com/BLMRI

Mass Sunday 20 September https://www.trybooking.com/BLMRJ

Those who wish to attend the Friday Healing Mass and the Sunday 6.00pm Charismatic Mass still need to contact Carmel Henry on 0409777743 or email  carmelhenry2@gmail.com

Please book for the Weekend Masses by 11:30am this Friday:

Daily Mass from the Archdiocese is available online at https://www.catholicvoice.org.au/mass-online/ .

If you would like to have email updates from St Benedict’s Parish, please contact narrabundah@cg.org.au . Be assured of our prayers for the whole St Benedict’s community at this time. Please keep safe and if anyone would like to contact Father Dan, he is available through the Parish or through the school.

St Benedict, pray for us.

God Bless

Fr Dan Benedetti MGL PP
Parish Priest
St Benedict's Catholic Community Narrabundah ACT

WODEN VALLEY YOUTH CHOIR
Woden Valley Youth Choir has provided a music education to hundreds of students from ACT and surrounding region for over 50 years. WVYC offers a dynamic choral programme for young people aged 8 to 25 and we are proud to provide so many positive benefits to our members: the value of learning to sing with confidence, positive self-esteem, and performance skills, which will hold them in good stead for the rest of their lives. WVYC is a not-for-profit community choir with a strong music education programme. We don’t just sing – we become musicians.

AUDITIONS
Auditions for young people going into year 3 next year through to college age will be held in late September and early October prior to first term 4 rehearsal on Tuesday October 13. We have vacancies in all choirs and are especially keen to audition more young men for our changing and changed voices choir, Centauri Voices. For more information on auditions please go to https://www.wvyc.org.au and download an application form or email info.wvyc@gmail.com or phone 1300 599 655.

Spring Tennis Canberra coaching registrations are open!
Tennis Canberra's professional coaches are running junior tennis coaching programs at both South & North Canberra clubs this Spring.  We welcome first time players and those who are ready to play competition tennis.

The 2020 Spring Season starts the week of August 24th however you are welcome to join at any time.

For more information and to book please visit www.tenniscanberra.com.au/junior-tennis or email play@tenniscanberra.com.au 

All bus and light rail services, including special needs transport, are operating as normal.