Out of School Hours (OOSH) Care in 2020:

Only a few days left to express your interest!

Good Samaritan is currently looking at providing an OOSH service beginning in the 2020 school year. This service would be facilitated by CatholicCare with close collaboration with Good Samaritan. The service would operate based upon the systems and structures that are valued at Good Samaritan.

In order to ascertain the interest of parents in accessing such a service, the completion of a survey is required. This survey would take no longer than 5 minutes to complete and seeks to collect information including operating hours, days of operation and what parents would value in such a service.

The establishment of Out of School Hours Care in 2020 will mean that supervision by Good Samaritan staff will begin at 8:20am.

Click here to complete the survey or follow the link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GoodSamaritan_OOSH

The survey will close this Friday 24 May.

Tips for Talking to Your Child about Strengths and Challenges

Last week the first 5 tips of strengths and challenges were published. Here are the next 6 tips to help you strike a healthy balance and keep the lines of communication open with your children.

Tie things into family lore

Most families have things that everybody knows and makes fun of in a good-natured way. Maybe Mum can never remember phone numbers. Or maybe Grandpa’s clothes never match because he’s colour-blind. Talking about those family traits is a great way to start conversations about strengths and challenges.

Talk about skills in the context of other kids

Listen as your child talks, then follow up on the things that stand out. For example, if your child mentions that another kid got in trouble at school, ask why. It can open up a conversation about the types of things other kids find challenging. You can also ask questions that don’t put the spotlight on your child. A general question like “How was school?” will usually score a dead-end response like: “Fine.” Instead, ask questions that are more specific: “Tell me how reading group was today. What did you read? Did you enjoy it? What was your favourite part? Why?”

Don’t fear the word “lifelong”

Learning and thinking differences are lifelong. All that means is that you and your child will have to continually re-evaluate what’s working well and what’s not. It doesn’t mean your child isn’t going to make progress. In fact, the skills and strategies your child is learning now may make current challenges less of an issue down the road. Explain that there are people who can help your child get better at the things that are difficult. This acknowledges challenges while offering hope.

Keep the bar high

Don’t expect less of kids just because they may be struggling with something. Try to keep expectations realistic but not too low. And be sure to adjust goals as time moves on. Your child might not be able to take care of the dog now, for example. But he may be up for the job next year. Have ongoing conversations so you can review and adjust those goals together.

Remind kids that not everything is a conversation

Your child isn’t always going to want to talk about how things are going. That’s OK. But let your child know that sometimes you need to say what’s worrying you or what’s making you proud—without it becoming a conversation. Make sure your child knows that he can do the same at times when he just needs you to listen.

Encourage kids to find their passion

Kids may not know right away what they’re good at or what they love to do. It may take some exploration on everybody’s part to find that out. This means you may have to give up your own dream that your child will love soccer or become a great artist. But once your child finds a own passion, you’re likely to have a happier and more confident child.

Thank you

To all our parents and carers for making sure that students were sent to school in Summer uniforms on Monday for school photos. Photo day ran quite smoothly and there were lots of smiles from both students and staff alike!