In this issue

• Sibling Enrolment Reminder
• Career Wise
• Reconciliation Week
• School Position Report

Grammarian Issue 8, 3 June 2022

Traralgon Junior School

From the Head of Traralgon Junior School,
Ms Tracey King.

Every 26 May in Australia, National Sorry Day reminds the colonist-descended people of our nation to remember the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Why? During the 20th century, Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families to be “assimilated” into white Australian culture. They are known as the “Stolen Generations.” It took several Australian government administrations coming and going before an apology was officially offered to the Indigenous Australians, but it finally was made official, and actions are still being undertaken to this day to repair the damage caused by tearing families apart.

National Sorry Day is a day to acknowledge the strength of Stolen Generations Survivors and reflect on how Australians can all play a part in the healing process for the people and nation. While this date carries great significance for the Stolen Generations and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is also commemorated by Australians right around the country.

Our teachers and students together acknowledged National Sorry Day and the beginning of Reconciliation last week with a range of special activities including designing reconciliation rocks with buddies and reading stories together. Many thanks to Ms Karen Fox and Mrs Lauren Vercoe for their organisation of these activities across the school. Student reflections and contributions to discussions about the Stolen Generation and the importance of understanding Australia’s past were compassionate, empathetic and thoughtful impressing their teachers.

Congratulations to our students who performed at the recent Kammer Konzert in Warragul. All performed confidently and can be congratulated for their efforts and musical skills. Well done to Angela Guo, Stella O’Mara, Xavier Light and Alexandra O’Brien.

Six excited and determined students competed at the Division Cross Country Championships last week and all have successfully progressed to the Regional competition. Congratulations to Isaiah Clavarino (third place), Anson Law (fifth place), Adele Brady (eighth place), Gracie Hasthorpe (first place), William Lambert (sixth place) and Abi Dean (first place). We look forward to hearing their results at the Gippsland Region Cross Country finals.

Our annual Open Day began with some stunning sunshine and lots of guests to talk to and share information about our school. It was fabulous to have Junior School classrooms open and in action with students and teachers modelling lessons and explaining programs and special activities. Taking our visitors on a tour of our school was a joy and I felt a great deal of pride as I listened to our students sharing their learning experiences and identifying their favourite parts of a St Paul’s school day. Many thanks to our wonderful students and teachers who assisted on this day.

The Resilience Project is well and truly underway in classrooms and the ELC, with teachers and students engaging in lots of activities and discussions about Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness. The next presentation from The Resilience Project is all about Empathy and Kindness. Empathy is our ability to put ourselves in the shoes of others to feel and see what they do. We practise this through being kind and compassionate towards other people. Brain imaging data shows that being kind to others registers in the brain as more like eating chocolate than fulfilling an obligation to do what is right, for example eating brussel sprouts! Research shows that practising empathy, such as performing acts of kindness, taps into our brain’s ‘mirror neurons’, builds compassion and our behaviour becomes more social and community-based.

View Part 3 of the series here – Empathy: https://theresilienceproject.com.au/parent-and-carer-hub-hugh/

Here is an activity to practise empathy and kindness:
Reflect on someone in your life who could benefit from an act of kindness today. It could be a friend who would love some affirmation about their work, your pet who deserves an extra treat, or a family member who would love a phone call or text message. Make a plan for who you are going to show an act of kindness to, and what you are going to do. If you want to add accountability to your plan, share it with someone else and encourage them to do the same thing. Follow up with each other in a few day’s time to ask how it went!

Sources: Psychology Today, UC Berkeley, Greater Good Science

Tracey King
Head of Traralgon Junior School

Class Updates

Prep
What a busy learning week in Prep! We had National Simultaneous Storytime during our Nature Play session. We learnt about what being mindful means and practised ways to be mindful. We celebrated Sorry Day by looking at our individual fingerprints and noticed that everyone’s is different. We used our fingerprints to make a special ‘Sorry Day’ sign. When discussing ‘Sorry Day’ students learnt that by honouring this day we are saying that it is okay to be different and reflected on the importance of learning from others who have different ways of doing things. Then we finished the week with a session with our buddies to learn about National Reconciliation Day and made a unique piece of artwork to share with our families.
Year 1
Year 1 students have participated in National Sorry Day and National Reconciliation Day. The students listened to books about National Sorry Day and what it represented. We discussed what it meant and tried to help the students to understand that we have Sorry Day to recognise the Stolen Generation and how First Nations Australians had been treated in the past. Year 1 students were also able to visit our Year 5 buddy classes where we learnt more about Reconciliation Day. We celebrated this by completing several activities, including rock drawings.

Year 2
We have enjoyed quite a few different learning experiences in Year 2 lately. Last week on Wednesday we enjoyed National Simultaneous Storytime where we listened to the story Family Tree written by Josh Pyke and completed some craft activities as a reflection on the story. On Thursday we explored National Sorry Day and on Friday we spent time with our Year 6 buddies learning about Reconciliation and creating decorated rocks. This week, we have been busy learning directional language in Maths and Play is the Way and have been using the persuasive writing technique of OREO (Give your opinion, state your reason, give an example, restate your opinion). We enjoyed eating Oreo biscuits during our writing session.
Year 3
Students begin most days with a ‘Play Is The Way’ activity. Many of these activities involve playing games that the students love. While at a first glance they may look like simple competitive games that could be played in a sport lesson, they are designed to create challenges around self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. This prompts useful discussions on behaviours and alternative actions. It is useful to learn these skills in a non-academic and non-threatening environment whilst having fun. The discussions around these situations are then unpacked in other sessions where they learn more about the five Life Rafts of: Treat Others as You Would Like to be Treated; Be Brave to Participate; Pursue Your Personal Best No Matter Who You Work With; Have Reasons for the Things You Say and Do; and It Takes Great Strength to be Sensible. The students are then more able to apply the skills and Life Rafts to more challenging situations in the classroom and out in the yard
Year 5
Students in Year 5 have each chosen a former Prime Minister of Australia to write an informative text. Students have been eagerly researching special achievements and interesting facts about their chosen Prime Minister. Students will then be using these informative pieces to develop a class timeline of Australian Prime Ministerial history.

In Maths, students have been working on adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimal numbers. It has been great to see the students excited about their learning, especially the ‘ah ha’ moments when understanding simple tricks that will support them in solving different equations.

Our buddies from Year 1 joined us to mark National Reconciliation Week. Students used symbols from Aboriginal art to create their own designs which they drew on rocks. The respect and understanding shown by all as we discussed these important events from Australia’s history was a credit to the class.
Year 6
In Literacy, Year 6 students have been delving into the world of persuasive techniques, learning the purposes of these techniques and how to identify these in an array of different texts. Students have also begun to implement their knowledge of figurative speech and in Maths, students have been learning to identify coordinates within a quadrant and are beginning to add, subtract and order fractions. Students have continued learning about the different levels of government in Australia and have begun to look at the Australian Federal Government electoral process, voting process as well as the law-making process.

WHAT’S ON

JUNE
8 June District Winter Sports
10 June Student Free Day
13 June Queen’s Birthday (Public Holiday)
15 June Division Winter Sports
22 June Special Friends Day – has been rescheduled for Term 3

* Please note that all events/excursions are dependent on COVID-19 restrictions.
* TBC – to be confirmed.

DOBSONS TRADING HOURS

Please note that some COVIDSafe procedures may still apply. We thank you for your cooperation.

Order online or click and collect: Please ensure that you only attend the store to collect your items once you have received notification that your order is ready, order here.

ENROLMENTS REMINDER

Dear Families,

The Enrolments team would like to remind parents that a separate Enrolment Application is required for each child in the family. Families with a younger child expecting to commence at St Paul’s in 2023 should by now have submitted an enrolment application for any children yet to commence at the School. If you have a younger child due to commence next year, for whom you have not yet submitted an Enrolment Application, please contact the Enrolments Office as a matter of urgency.

Online Enrolment Application is available via our website: https://stpaulsags.vic.edu.au/enrolment/enrolling-at-st-pauls/ or you can collect a hard copy Enrolment Pack from the Junior School Reception.

2023 ELC families please note that Pre-Kinder and Pre-Prep programs will offer the same hours, days and groups as the programs we have running in 2022. Families should be aware that St Paul’s is currently experiencing a large demand for places at Pre-Kinder and Prep in 2023, and the School recommends families and any interested friends in the broader community enrol at the earliest opportunity to reserve their child’s place on the Enrolment Register.

If you have questions about enrolment at St Paul’s, or if you would like to arrange a tour of the ELC, Junior or Secondary School, please contact our Enrolments Office on 5175 0133 or by email at enrolments@stpaulsags.vic.edu.au.

(Current families, please note that enrolment at St Paul’s is continuous from the point of entry until the end of Year 12, and your child’s place in the next year level is automatically allocated; you do not need to submit an Enrolment Application for your child to transition to the next stage of their schooling at St Paul’s).

Enrolments Team

GIPPSLAND REGION TENNIS

On Wednesday 27 April, Siena Rikken and Stella O’Mara competed against students from all over Gippsland in the Region Individual Tennis Championship at Traralgon Tennis Club.
Both girls did well in the round robin stage of the event winning two out of their three matches and qualifying for the Quarter Finals. Siena found herself in a rematch of the Latrobe Valley Division Final against Candice from St Michael’s. Siena put up a good fight against a much older opponent going down 0-4 in a match that was far closer than the result showed. Stella squared off Milla from Wellington Division. This match went back and forth, being decided in a tie-breaker, sudden death match point. Stella just missed out on a Semi Final berth losing 3-4. What a terrific effort by both girls to make it through to the Quarter Finals at the Gippsland Region level. Congratulations Stella and Siena.

Billy Rilen
Physical Education and Sport Teacher
Traralgon Junior School

IN THE LIBRARY

Students in Prep listened to a story titled ‘My Two Blankets’ by Irena Kobald. This is a beautiful book about a girl only referred to as ‘Cartwheel’, who has moved to a place that is so strange to her, that she no longer feels like herself. It is a story about new ways of speaking, new ways of living, new ways of being.
As a class, the students discussed if they have ever felt left out/alone/scared before or if have they been the person who made someone feel welcome and what was it that made them feel better?

Students were then asked to create an image of their favourite thing. The thing that gives them comfort when they are feeling vulnerable. These images were then joined together to create a class blanket.

Jannet Taylor
Head of Libraries

FINANCE NEWS

Annual Fee Account
Families have recently received via email an annual fee account for 2022. If you have any queries in relation to your annual fee account, please contact Mr Peter Lees on 5623 5833. As detailed on the second page of the account, payment options are:

Direct Debit
All families are encouraged to participate in the School’s direct debit payment arrangement.

We offer fortnightly instalments (22 payments) on Wednesdays or Fridays that commenced on 4 February and monthly instalments (10 payments) that commenced on 15 February 2022.

Other direct debit payment dates are also available by arrangement.

Should families wish to commence payment by Direct Debit, please contact Mr Peter Lees, accountsreceivable@stpaulsags.vic.edu.au as soon as possible to set up an arrangement.

Please find the direct debit form on the school’s website at this link, https://stpaulsags.vic.edu.au/enrolment/school-fees/

Instalments (due dates)
Instalment 3 – 3 June 2022
Instalment 4 – 12 August 2022

Private Car Conveyance Allowance
Families driving students more than 4.8 kilometres to attend St Paul’s Anglican Grammar School may be eligible to receive a conveyance allowance. For further information on the eligibility criteria and application process, please refer to, https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/conveyance-allowance/policy

Eligible families applying for the car conveyance allowance will have funds credited to their fee account during the year. If the fee account has been paid in full, or is on a direct debit arrangement, any allocation will show as a credit on the following year’s invoice.

The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF)
The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) provides payments directly to the school for the benefit of the eligible student to attend camps, sports and excursions. Families holding a valid means-tested concession card or temporary foster parents are eligible to apply. $125 per year will be paid for eligible primary school students and $225 per year paid for eligible secondary school students. Payments will go directly to the school and be tied to the student. For more information and to download the application form please go to, https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/Pages/csef.aspx

Parents are encouraged to lodge the application form immediately. The CSEF program for 2022 closes at the end of Term 2. All forms must be received by 15 June 2022 to be processed.

For parents who received CSEF at the school in 2021 (and the student/s are still enrolled in 2022), the schools will ‘copy’ the application across from 2021 to 2022 on the CSEF system. The CSEF system will automatically validate the parent’s eligibility with Centrelink.

Grammarian Issue 8, 3 June 2022

Traralgon Secondary School

From the Head of Traralgon Secondary School,
Mrs Leonie Clark

‘Understanding, appreciating and respecting diversity within our community’
We are certainly a nation of many cultures having found ourselves enjoying this extraordinary land, its quality of life and the abundance of opportunity. We are also a nation that is still hurting as we learn to recognise the atrocities of the past and the ongoing impact on the original inhabitants, the Indigenous custodians of this precious land.

Reconciliation Week, Friday 27 May to Friday 3 June, is an exceptionally important week for our local communities as it is for us, as we acknowledge the pain of the past with honest and open hearts. The National Reconciliation Week 2022 theme, “Be Brave. Make Change” is a call to ‘Be Brave and tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation so we can Make Change’ and at St Paul’s we are determined to help bring greater awareness and understanding to the suffering as well as the generational devastation still endured and felt by Indigenous communities today.

Our Year 7 students have recently studied a text in English that aims to challenge perceptions and promote Indigenous cultural understanding, and it was certainly a highlight of the unit to allow students time to appreciate an Indigenous scar tree only metres from their classroom. ‘Scar trees can be found in many locations in Victoria but most often they are located along rivers, lakes and on flood plains’. Our Year 7 students could not help but develop a deep respect and connection to our local Indigenous culture. Once their eyes fell upon the enormity of the large scar on the trunk of the tree there was a communal acknowledgement of the significance of the tree in our own front garden. We are certainly very blessed to have a site of Indigenous cultural significance and the poignancy of the moment and relationship to the text was a powerful teaching and learning experience. To stand at the entrance to our school and survey the vista that includes the wetlands and flood plain to the north, is to understand the importance of this site and the abundant life-giving protection this location would have provided to the original inhabitants of this generous valley.
At St Paul’s we welcome and celebrate the many cultures and religions amongst our students and their families. We are a varied community from a wide range of cultural backgrounds and we warmly welcome and celebrate all families from diverse religious and cultural settings into our St Paul’s family. Our Year 9 students study religions of the world in Christian Studies and have recently started their world views task and travel diary to document what is different and similar to Christianity. We love that they come to understand the many similar values shared between religions.

In recent weeks our staff have provided some outstanding wellbeing education for our Traralgon Secondary School students in diversity and respect. Our Year 10 students maturely participated in a workshop conducted by Elephant Ed in appreciation of, as well as celebration of diversity. Students developed a greater understanding of the LGBTIAQ+ community in a supportive and safe space. Our Year 9 students also participated in a workshop that addressed consent, what it is, the legalities of consent, what consent looks like in a healthy relationship and, what consent does not look like. In the coming weeks, our Year 7 students will attend a ySafe workshop on online safety and respectful online behaviours.

I sincerely thank our Heads of Year, Mr Andrew McGrath and Mrs Sandra Timmer-Arends, for their commitment to providing these important and diverse learning opportunities for our students as an invaluable component of the Pastoral program. It is our aim to provide safe spaces for our students to learn about and ask questions about current and sensitive topics to promote greater understanding, inclusion, respect and safety for all in our community. I thank our English and Commerce/Humanities faculties for providing culturally and spiritually appropriate learning opportunities for our students to open their eyes to the past. We encourage our families to continue these significant and relevant conversations at home. We love the team approach to the affirmation of personal values, appreciation, and celebration of diversity as well as wellbeing education that has occurred for many of our students around respect for the diversity of culture, faith and individuality as well as respectful relationships.

References:
https://nrw.reconciliation.org.au/
https://www.firstpeoplesrelations.vic.gov.au/fact-sheet-aboriginal-scar-trees

Years 7 and 8 2022 Glow Party ‘Disco’ Friday 17 June
All students attending the ‘2022 Glow Party’ disco must remember to RSVP to the Consent2Go invitation sent to Parents/Guardians and provide $5 to their Years 7 and 8 Mentors to cover the cost of the refreshments on the night. We are looking forward to a fabulous evening with our Years 7 and 8 students, we have a special guest DJ attending and we thank our very talented Peer Support Leaders, Alice Nguyen and Ella May, who created the brilliant poster below the promote the event to the school community.
ySafe ‘Creating a Cybersafe home’ Friday 17 June
All Years 7 and 8 Parents/Guardians are invited to attend the following event while their children enjoy the Glow Party/Disco. The ySafe presentation will take place in the Salvation Army Church, Cross’s Road Traralgon 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm on Friday 17 June.
Topics covered will include:
• Insights into popular social media platforms
• Managing cyber bullying
• Screen time recommendations
• Online gaming
• Practical steps for setting up a cyber safe home
At the end of the session all attendees will be provided with our follow-up resource ‘A Parent’s Guide to Setting Up a Cyber Safe Home’ as well as access to an email tutorial series for further support and information.
A registration link for the YSafe parent evening has been sent to all Years 7 and 8 families. Please contact Maddison Scott in Reception on 5175 9222 should you have any questions about the evening.

Years 9 and 10 Examinations
A reminder to parents that our Years 9 and 10 students will commence their examinations next week. An examination timetable is posted on the Year Level Pages and students have been gently prepared by their teachers. Our Director of Studies, Mr Chris Ambrozy, has emailed a letter home to all families explaining the process and included some reminders about preparing necessary equipment and resources. Please do not hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher or mentor should you have any concerns about your child during this period.

Semester 2 Rollover and Student Free Days
We will roll into our Semester 2 classes and timetable after the Student Free Day on Friday 10 June followed by the Queen’s Birthday on Monday 13 June. Students will commence their new timetable and classes on Tuesday 14 June. MyStPauls will roll over into the new timetable over the weekend in preparation for the return of students on Tuesday.

June/July School Holidays
The June/July holidays commence on Friday 24 June with a 2:30 pm finish, our staff will return on Monday 18 July, while our students will return to school on Tuesday 19 July. The Secondary School Office will be open from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm each weekday should you wish to contact us during this period.

Out and about with Years 9 and 10 at Morning Tea on Tuesday

Year 9 students Bilal Ashraf, Quinn Hastie and Michael Gali catching up at the lockers.

Year 10 students Sophia Hastie, India Van Berkel and Asha Nightingale keeping warm next to the student kitchenette.

Leonie Clark
Head of Traralgon Secondary School