PRINCIPAL’S NEWS

Effective hand hygiene is vital As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to evolve, and the cold and flu season comes upon us, it is important to remember that effective hand and sneeze/cough hygiene is the best defence against viruses and can help prevent the spread of illness. Lead by example and encourage your children to:

wash their hands regularly with soap and

water, before and after eating, and after

going to the toilet

use alcohol-based hand sanitiser if soap

is not available

cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue

or the inside of their elbow

dispose of tissues in the bin immediately

if they’re unwell, stay at home and avoid

contact with others such as touching,

kissing or hugging.

Check out the 20 second routine: youtube.com/watch?v=NpmB80pWUsk&feature=youtu.be

Connecting school

communities for 10 years Friday 20 March 2020 marks the 10th

anniversary of the National Day of Action

against Bullying and Violence (NDA). Australia’s key bullying prevention event for

schools is celebrating 10 years of action,

connecting communities to find workable solutions

to bullying and violence.

Operating since 2011, Bullying. No Way! delivers

the NDA annually for Australian schools. The

NDA encourages all students to stand together

against bullying and violence, providing an

opportunity for schools across Australia to

showcase bullying prevention and response

initiatives.

Throughout the year, the Bullying. No Way!

website supports schools with free, quality and

evidence-informed resources on bullying

prevention in schools and early childhood settings.

For the NDA 2020, school communities are being

rallied to unite their ideas and actions to address

bullying. The theme for the NDA 2020 is Take

Action Together. This theme aims to elevate

student voice, empowering young Australians to

join the national conversation.

The 10th anniversary of the NDA offers the

opportunity to recognise the dedication of

Australian school communities and involves young

people on the journey to generate a powerful

roadmap to bullying prevention.

Normanton State School Newsletter

“Normanton State School is a Great School”

Phone 47697222 Fax 47451322

the.principal@normantonss.eq.edu.au No.7 11/3/2020

Whether you’re a parent, teacher, student or

member of the broader community, everyone has a

role to play. Let’s Take Action Together.

Student tips try these: • Ignore them. Try not to show any reaction.

• Tell them to stop and walk away.

• Pretend you don’t care.

• Go somewhere safe.

• Get support from your friends.

try these: • Avoid responding to the bullying.

• Report and block anyone who is bullying online.

• Protect yourself online using privacy settings and

keep records.

• Leave negative conversations. Don’t join in.

• Support others being bullied.it doesn’t stop:

• Talk to an adult (parent/carer/teacher) who can help

stop the bullying.

• Keep asking for support until the bullying stops.

Parent tipsr child talks to you about:

1. Listen calmly and get the whole story.

2. Reassure your child that they are not to blame.

3. Ask your child what they want you to do about

it and how you can help.

4. Visit www.bullyingnoway.gov.au to find

strategies.

5. Check in regularly with your child

Need help now? Kids Helpline www.kidshelpline.com.au

1800 551 800 headspace www.headspace.org.au

1800 650 890 Online bullying www.esafety.gov.au

Good habits start young Parents and carers play an important role in helping

children to develop digital intelligence — the

social, emotional and practical skills needed to

successfully navigate the digital world.

Even for preschool children, it is never too early to

instil good habits, and as your child gets older it is

useful to keep reminding them of these basic

digital intelligence principles: respect, empathy,

critical thinking, responsible behaviour and

resilience. These are also principles you can

emphasise with your child when things go wrong.

How to build digital intelligence Promote respectful communication

Encourage your child to use the same positive

manners and behaviour they would use offline,

understanding that others may have different

cultures, backgrounds or points of view. If it is

not OK to say or do something face to face, it

is not OK online.

Remind them to avoid responding to negative

messages and to tell you or another trusted

adult if they receive them. Tell them it is OK

to report others who are not being nice.

Emphasise the positives. For example, ‘I know

what a kind and respectful person you are, and

it makes me so proud to see you acting the

same way when you're online. You are such a

great friend — I can see how much everyone

looks up to you at school.’

Encourage empathy

Help your child to imagine being in someone

else’s shoes, so they can relate to diverse

opinions and understand what might make

people behave in different ways.

For example, you might say something like: ‘I

noticed that Sam seemed a bit sad when she

came over yesterday. Have you noticed

anything? What do you think is wrong? Would

that make you sad? What can we do to help?’

Teach them to question

Encourage your child to think critically about

what they see online. Teach them to ask

questions so they can identify content or

messages that may be misleading or

exploitative.

Talk to them about ‘fake news’, or false

information that is designed to look like a

trustworthy news report, and how quickly it

can spread on social media. Teach them to fact

check news sources and do their own

independent searches on issues, so they can

see the variety of opinions on a particular issue

and make up their own mind.

Remind them to be careful when making new

friends online as people may not be who they

say they are. We are increasingly seeing

‘Finstas’ (fake Instagram accounts) and other

impersonation accounts. So it is important to

question whether what they are seeing online

from their friends is real or not. If it seems out

of character, it could be from a fake account.

Alert your child to the dangers of meeting

someone in person that they have been talking

to online. Advise them to never arrange to

meet an online friend unless a trusted adult is

with them and it is during the day in a public

space.

Encourage safe and responsible behaviour

Work on achieving a healthy balance in

your child’s online and offline activities and

set boundaries for digital device use in your

home. Find out how in time online.

Remind your child of the importance of

safeguarding personal information that can

be used to identify or locate them.

Explain why they should be suspicious of

unsolicited messages and emails, and avoid

clicking on pop-up ads on websites. Some

pop-ups that seem safe can lead to

inappropriate sites or ask for personal or

financial information.

Help them configure the strongest privacy

settings on all the social media apps and

sites they use. It is best that only their circle

of friends can view their information, tag

them in a photo or share posts. And get

them to check their settings regularly as

updates can sometimes change them back

to the default.

Ensure your child uses strong passwords on

devices and accounts, and explain the

importance of not sharing passwords, even

with friends.

Help them build resilience

Keep your cool if your child experiences a

negative experience online. Remember, the

choices they make as they navigate difficult

situations can help them learn. Our 2017

‘State of Play’ research shows round six in

ten young people were able to identify

some positive impacts from a negative

online experience.

Remind your child that they can screen who

they accept as online ‘friends’.

Make sure they know how to block and

report users or pages on the sites they use.

If they have a negative online experience,

find out how they are feeling about it, offer

support and encourage them to keep things

in perspective at the same time.

For example, you might say: ‘What that

person has done is not OK. They must be

feeling pretty bad about themselves to treat

you like this. How are you feeling? Let's

block them to stop their messages coming

through.’

Build your child’s confidence and

encourage positive ways of thinking —

looking on the bright side, thinking

rationally, understanding that difficult times

are a part of life but there is help and

support available.

I am worried my child might be

bullying others If your child is treating others badly, is

dismissive of their feelings or targeting or

intentionally excluding a particular child or

group, they could be seen as someone who

bullies. If they also socialise online there is

a chance they may be bullying that person

or group online too.

Finding out your child is bullying others

can be very painful but you can help them

to change, with your guidance and positive

engagement.

Here are some strategies to try Talk to your child, in a way they can relate

to, about how it feels to be left out or

teased. Use examples. Build empathy —

what it might feel like to be the other

person.

Encourage your child to be honest about their

behaviour, take responsibility for it and

apologise to those they have bullied. Talk

about accepting differences and how to

deal with people that annoy them. Give

examples from your own life such as

working with a difficult colleague.

Explain there will be consequences for them

if they treat others badly — for example, if

they are rude they need to apologise and

lose access to something they enjoy.

Remember to also praise any change for the

good so they start afresh.

Identify activities that make your child feel

good about themselves such as

membership of a sports club or an art class,

where they can be successful and have fun.

Praise your child’s strengths and any

behaviour changes they try to make.

Practice treating others well at home and let

them know when they are being kind.

Spend one-on-one time with your child such

as watching a movie, playing sport together

or cooking with them.

Talk to your child’s school about their

academic achievement, learning style and

abilities and whether they need additional

support.

Work with the school on ways to develop

your child’s social skills.

My child has shared appropriate images

If your child has shared an intimate image

of someone else without their permission try to get the full story

explain why it is a problem

try to stop the image being further shared

help your child to repair any harm

You can also get help and support from

one of these counselling services Kids Helpline

5 to 25 year olds. All issues. Confidential phone

counselling available all day, every day. Online

chat available 8am to 12am EST daily.

1800 55 1800

Online chat

Headspace

12 to 25 year olds. All issues. Phone counselling

available all day, every day. Online chat available

9am to 1am EST daily.

1800 650 890

Website

Tonia Smerdon, Principal

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT NEWS Students in Grades 7/8 have swapped Rotations

this week. Students that were doing Design

Technology moved to Food Technologies. Food

Tech. moved to Digital Technology. Digital

Technology rotated down to Design Tech. Students

in practical subjects are required to wear enclosed

footwear and are supplied subject specific safety

equipment (PPE). The previous Design Tech group

did some fantastic work and the next group have

big shoes to fill.

A pencil rocker, tablet/phone holder and a

peanut/coin bowl all made from acrylic.

Vaccine forms need to be returned as soon as

possible. If your child/ren has lost the forms, please

let the office know so that we can get more. The

vaccines are part of the School Immunisation

program and help ensure the health and wellbeing

of all students now and in the future. If

parents/carers decide not to immunise, there is

provision on the forms to indicate this.

Feel free to contact me at school to make an

appointment to discuss any issues.

Mark Quadrio, Head of Department

SPORTS

Students are encouraged to be training for

the cross country which is to be held on

Friday, April 24 Week 1 of Term 2. We

are training at school on Monday afternoons

from 2:30 and if students are interested,

they are to see Mr McMillan for a

permission note. Parents and carers are

encouraged to come along and support

students in the cross country event.

Presentations will be held in the undercover

area at school at 2:00pm.

Croydon 10-12yrs Touch and Swimming

Carnival

This carnival is being held in Croydon in

Week 2 of Term 2, 29th April – 1st of May.

We will be taking a team to compete and

players are encouraged to participate in the

swimming carnival. Students need to have

85% attendance and positive school

behaviour records to be eligible to attend.

See Mr McMillan if you are interested.

Ricky McMillan, HPE Teacher

STUDENT OF THE WEEK Prep – Shequoiya Briggs – for a great effort in Maths

rotation

Year 1 – Kyemma Edwards - for her good work in

reading groups

Year 2/3 – Anthea Nimble-Brumby – for practicing

her reading and fluency daily

Year 4/5 – Taehya Gallagher - for a great effort in

improving her attendance

Year 5/6 – Xavier Keeman - for actively participating

in all classroom discussions and activities

Year 7/8—Kyla Grieve - for positive contributions in

class

Year 9/10 – Tarni Edwards for working without

disturbing others

HAPPY VOUCHERS

Brooklyn Hookey - I am a Learner

Blake Gregory - I am Safe

Shakana Casey – I am Respectful

DATE CLAIMER

April 6 -17 – School Holidays

April 24 – Cross Country

June 4 – Street Parade

June 5 – Show Holiday

June 29 – July 10 - School Holidays

July 16 – Interhouse Athletics Yrs 4-10

July 17 – Interhouse Athletics

July 23-24 – Gulf Sports

Aug 28 – FETE

Sept 4 – Student Free Day

Sept 14-16 – Karumba Festival of Sport

Sept 23– Oct 7 – School Holidays

Nov 25 – Interhouse Swimming Carnival

Nov 26 – Year 10 Graduation

Nov 27 – Last day for Year 10 students

Nov 30 – Awards Night

Dec 4 – School finishes

The Barra Farm On Wednesday, 4th March the Year 4/5 class went

to the Barra Farm, we saw the life cycle of a

Barra. There was so many grass hoppers

everywhere. We fed the small Barra outside the

tank too. We saw a fake crocodile in the pond.

There was a Barra who was big and her name was

Flossy. My classmates, I, Miss Smith and Mr Jake

had fun on our first trip the Barra Farm.

Lorene A.

On Wednesday, 4th March, Year 4/5 went to the Barra Farm. We fed the Barra some slimey and gross squid. The biggest fish at the barra farm was a 125cm barra named Flossy. We got to watch a video of how Karumba and Normanton started. I thought I had an amazing day at Karumba.

Brody G.