We are very excited to say that we are now able to have classroom helpers back at STM!

In light of our most recent guidelines, we are now able to have people other than teachers in the classrooms. Whilst this is the case, however, there are a significant number of requirements that need to be met in order to be able to help in the classroom. Please know that we are aware that there are a lot of boxes to tick. This is beyond our control at this point, but once you have met the requirements, you are good to go for the future and will only need to resubmit the annual forms going forward.

Please see the following requirements for helping in the classrooms:

1. Classroom Helper Online Training Seminar (Complispace online training) *Only required once **Qualified teachers exempt from this online training

2. Child Safety Training (Complispace online module) *Completed annually

3. Working with Children Check (school needs a copy) *Checked annually

4. St Thomas More Volunteer Application Form (completed online) * Only required once

5. Signed Role Description & Confidentiality Agreement (Operoo) * Signed annually

6. Signed Code of Conduct (Operoo) *signed annually

7. Interview/ Declaration/ Induction *Only required once

8. Vaccination Certificate (as of March 2022 all classroom volunteers are required to be triple vaxxed) * As determined by government guidelines * Required for now

If you are interested and able to meet all requirements, please put your name on the form below and you will be sent the training courses. Please check your email for these two emails over the coming week.

The emails will be coming from 'St Thomas More's School Staff Learning System' and the title of the emails will be:

1) 'You have been assigned to Classroom Helper course'

2) 'You have been assigned to CECV Child Safety for Volunteers'

If you have not received any emails by Wednesday, please check your junk mail.

This week we present our first Curriculum newsletter for term 2! This term's through-line focus for Inquiry is DESIGN! In this update you will find snippets of learning in all learning areas across the school. We encourage you to head on over and take a look at the amazing learning experiences being designed in our classrooms!

NAPLAN

Congratulations to our year 3 and 5 children who this week completed their NAPLAN testing this week. A big thank you to the classroom and LSO staff who supported our children throughout the process. NAPLAN online was a smooth process for us at STM with few technical challenges and drop outs, something which has plagued other schools. Results will be available in October to families.

Semester 1 Reports

This semester you will receive your child's semester 1 report. This report will be available in the afternoon of Wednesday June 22 via the NOFMRA parent portal. I will be hosting an information session for our Prep parents to explain our reporting processes on Tuesday 14th June at 2.30pm via a Google meet.

At St Thomas More the semester reports are intended to go hand in hand with the ongoing reporting you have received across the year through your child’s individual SeeSaw posts. The reports are a summation of the learning growth across term 1 and 2 for various areas of the curriculum.

Seesaw update

We have recently reviewed our Seesaw posting procedures and can share some changes that will help parents to have clarity around learning progressions throughout the year. Each term, you will receive three assessment posts which will unpack learning intentions and feedback for learning. These will be posted throughout the term for:

• Reading

• Writing

• Listening and Speaking

• Mathematics

• Inquiry

• Religious Education

• Respectful Relationships

You may also receive other Seesaw posts throughout the term for general communication and the sharing of learning experiences. The assessment posts however are aimed at providing clear feedback about student achievement and areas of need.

Report Conferences

This term is a short one at only 9 weeks. Staff spend a great deal of time gathering a wide range of evidence for report writing and the short term means that reports will go home in the final week. This means that our parent / teacher report conferences will be held in week 2 term 3 - Monday July 18 (half day finish) and Tuesday 19 (after school). In light of the reports that you will receive in term 2, these meetings will form 'learning conversations' about areas of growth and need in order to plan for your child's needs in term 3 and 4. More information will be given later this term about dates and booking times.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me

Kate Korber

Learning & Teaching Leader

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How to stop sibling rivalry

Question: What causes sibling rivalry? Answer: Having more than one child.

This joke always gets a laugh in my parenting presentations but there is more than a hint of truth about it. Sibling rivalry comes with the parenting territory. If you feel uncomfortable with this then maybe it is best to stop at one child.

Sibling rivalry is usually at its most intense when there are only two children in a family. There are many simple, straightforward strategies parents can use to decrease the likelihood of rivalry between two children. The following ideas will help parents reduce rather than eliminate rivalry between two or more siblings.

Accept children’s individual differences

An acceptance and real tolerance of different children’s interests and abilities is crucial for reducing the likelihood of sibling rivalry. The fact that parents have their own hopes and dreams for their children and have their own notion of what constitutes acceptable behaviour means that it is difficult to be accepting of children’s differences – particularly of those children whose ideas, values and behaviours are different from our own.

Recognise their role in the family

When I asked my children years ago to help make their grandmother feel welcome before one of her visits, my eldest two children responded in conventional ways. One child helped clean the house while another put some flowers in a vase. My youngest daughter went straight to her bedroom and started to read. Puzzled and a little annoyed that she wasn’t pulling her weight I asked what she was doing. She said that she was memorising a story because Grandma loves stories. This little episode reminded me that children help in different ways and adopt their own roles according to what gains a positive reaction.

Use encouragement liberally and praise sparingly

Do you praise your children when they fulfil basic bodily functions? Do you praise your children for obeying the laws of gravity? Do you give praise for simple socialisation procedures that your children practise every day? ‘No,’ you say. Children gain their self-esteem from the messages that they receive and through their interactions with the world. The main developmental tasks for children under 10 are to work out what they can do and how they fit into the world. An encouraging parent gives children feedback about their performance, but they ensure the feedback is realistic and they work from positives rather than negatives.

Put them in the same boat when they misbehave

Many parents spend time hunting for the individual culprit when children misbehave, neglect their jobs, or create a disturbance, when they would be better off putting them both or all in the same boat when any child is less than perfect. Making all children responsible for each other’s behaviour increases teamwork and stops setting children up against each other. Next time a child is too noisy in the car resist the temptation to seek out the culprit. Instead remind your children that everyone will miss the outing if the car trip continues to be noisy. You will then place responsibility to resolve the problem where it lies – with them.

Focus on solutions not the fight

There are two broad approaches that parents can adopt with sibling fighting: become involved or remain neutral. In his book Becoming Better Parents, Australian psychologist and parenting authority Dr Maurice Balson recommends that parents leave children to resolve their own disputes. This approach makes a great deal of sense, but as most parents know, some fights are impossible to ignore, particularly when they happen under your nose. If you do intervene, make sure that you get in early before a full-scale fight occurs.

Introduce family meetings at age five

The use of regular family meetings is one way to promote cohesiveness between children and reduce unnecessary conflict. They provide children with a forum to air their gripes in a controlled, safe atmosphere and give children a chance to impact on family decision-making. Family meetings work best when they are short, held on a weekly or fortnightly basis and end with a pleasant activity. Like any meeting, they require effective leadership, and they should follow an agenda.

The family that plays together stays together

Have you ever noticed that when you are having fun with children the fighting ceases or at least decreases? It is hard to laugh and fight at the same time. Make sure you spend some time together as a family involved in enjoyable activities such as playing games, reading a story together and other ways that promote either interaction or closeness between children. When children believe and feel that they belong to the same tribe they are more likely to stick together and look after each other when difficulties arise.

This is an edited extract from the newly revised and updated edition of Why first-borns rule the world and later-borns want to change it.