St Kieran Newsletter Term 4, Week 3 - 24th October 2024

Principal's Message

Spirit of God,  
through the witness of our lives as parents,  
may we spread the warmth of Your love,  
the light of Your Wisdom, 
 and the fire of Your Justice, 
 to the children we love.  
Amen. 

Sometimes advice given in the form of a proverb is quite simple to understand: “The road to a friend’s place is never long.” –Danish Proverb.  
Sometimes the advice given takes a little more thinking about:  
The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.”  
–Chinese ‘Proverb’.  

Maybe the advice for us parents that the Chinese proverb has to offer is to encourage us to be flexible in our dealings with our children. The exchange of thoughts, understandings and feelings that we have with our children is essential for their – and our – personal growth, as we learn our life-lessons with and through one another. Through this free-flowing process, we can be assisted in our learning of how to be parents. Also, we can be released from the humiliating role of imposing our will onto our children. The respect we receive from our children has to be chosen by them not forced by us. We teach our children flexibility by being flexible in the way we play our role of parents.  

We all know that when we have stressed our body by engaging in too much physical exercise or exercise that’s too intense, the consequence will be felt the following day when we will have stiff joints and aching muscles; we will have lost the usual flexibility that allows us to be free in our movements. A parallel to this would be that if we engage the “control” aspect of our relationship with our children, we could end up with a rigid mind-set; we will have lost our mental flexibility that allows us to communicate positively with our children. An inflexible attitude can shame, humiliate and cause resistance; a flexible attitude can inspire, teach and engender cooperation.  

By not having a rigid mind-set approach to our children, we dispose ourselves to be able to enter their mind, to look at the world from their point of view, to see how they think and feel. Before we can offer any meaningful assistance to our children, they have to believe that we truly understand, though not necessarily agree with, their point of view. Nothing annoys our children more than their sensing that we do not understand their viewpoint. This is no less true for us in our dealings with other adults; we feel satisfied if we are sure that our viewpoint is listened to and understood.  

According to the Chinese ‘proverb’, if we truly be ourselves, be natural and authentic, we will be flexible parents; we will have the confidence to respond naturally and authentically to the variety of situations that comprise our daily life. At some point we will get fired from our position of “general manager of our children” but, if we have been flexible in our parenting role, we might be invited back on occasion as a “consultant”.  

We all want our children to be assertive and gentle, intuitive and analytic, fun loving and responsible, ambitious and compassionate and a whole lot of other complementary things. If we are attending to this form of flexibility in our own lives then our “wanting” may not be in vain.  

I hope the week has been good to you all. 

Best wishes and take care. 

Mr Daine Burnett 
Principal 
daine.burnett@cewa.edu.au

Calendar

A reminder to all families to continue to check the school calendar on our website for dates and events that are coming up during the term. We conclude the school year on Friday 6th December. 

Contact Details - Parents

It is imperative that parents and families update the school when your personal details change during the year. If you change you email address or mobile phone please ensure that the school administration is contacted so we can update these details for communication purposes.

School Fees

A reminder to all families that school fees are due and that if for any reason you are falling behind you need to make an appointment with the school principal to address these and the payments required. 

Kindy Induction Night

Just a reminder that we have our 2025 Kindy Induction night on Thursday 30th October at 6pm in the Upper Learning Area. All parents with students in Kindy 2025 are expected to attend this night to find out about more about the program and meet the families in this year level. Parents must make sure they sign in on the night. Please enter through the Morgans Street Gates. 

Kieran Connect 2025

Kieran Connect have had a very successful year in 2024 with our planned events including; the Family Welcome event, the Mothers and Fathers Day Breakfasts and our upcoming end of year student events. These events are testimony to the amazing efforts of our Committee members and our Parent Class Reps. In order to help ensure continued success we are seeking parents interested in joining the Kieran Connect Committee for 2025.  

We understand that everyone is busy and time is precious, so we can assure you that it won't be a big ask, however we can confirm it will be a rewarding experience. Please contact Mr Burnett for further information - daine.burnett@cewa.edu.au  

Parking

We again need to remind parents about parking at St Kieran, unfortunately this seems to be an ongoing concern and while many families do the right thing for everyone it continues to create frustrations for many. The school staff do not have the legal ability to enforce parent driving behaviours, however if you are putting a child at risk by not following our very simple instructions we will follow up with you and address this.  

1. DO NOT turn right into the Kiss and Drive - please wait your turn in the queue. 
2. Do NOT overtake the queue and push in front of the Kiss and Drive line. Be respectful of others. 
3. Keep the Corner of Tyler Street and Morgans Street free from all traffic. 
4. DO NOT pick up or drop your child off on the road outside of the administration - find a parking legal bay or use the Kiss and Drive. 
5. If you DO Not have an ACROD Permit please don’t use the disabled bays. 
6. Ciaran Centre Families are the only families welcome to use the front administration parking. 
7. DO NOT park at the Servite Friars house of residence and business - this is private property. 

I do ask that families don’t use the Acrod Bays unless they have permit - we now have a large number of families that need these bays and recently have not been able to access these. Ciaran Centre families are more than welcome to use the bays at the front of the school as well. 

Parking - Servite Friars and School

Just a reminder about parking to ensure that St Kieran families only park in the required designated areas. Please don’t park at the Servite Friars, including on their lawn and please don’t park in the Servite Staff areas. Servite College will be checking these areas and issuing reminder notices on cars that are not staff cars. Can you please give this your full attention as we need to be respectful of our neighbours. 

Servite College

Just a reminder to all of our St Kieran families you must get your children's applications into Servite College nice and early. Please don’t wait until Year 5, as it will be too late we would suggest getting the applications in before Year 4. While St Kieran and Servite have a great relationship and are very close, parents still need to submit a separate enrolment application to Servite College. Please make sure you are organised nice and early with this enrolment process. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us in the office. 

St Kieran Enrolments 2025

We have a very limited number of positions available in some year levels. Please contact the administration office for further details.

Students Leaving St Kieran

Can you please let the school know as soon as possible if your children are moving on from St Kieran in 2024. We currently have families on our wait lists and would like to accommodate as many people as possible. Please note a terms notice should be given in order to not be charged any subsequent fees.

School Uniform

As we come to the end of the 2024 and to keep reminding all parents that for the academic uniform the below shoes are to be worn - black lace up school shoes for both boys and girls. I would ask all parents to refer to the Uniform Policy on our school website. https://stkierancps.schoolzineplus.com/_file/media/2012/school_uniform_guidelines_2024.pdf 

Kieran Connect All Student Social Event

ITS DISCO TIME FOR OUR YEARS 1-6

Book your tickets today!
No ticket cost, however registration to the event is a must for catering purposes.
Click on the link to secure entry to the event.

https://stkieran.cdfpay.org.au/MonitorOnline/app/#!/shops

Ticket sales close on Thursday, 31 October 2024 at 5:00pm
Please see above information for the different year groups

Sacrament of Confirmation Parent/ Child Workshops

Parent and Child Workshops: 

Tuesday, November 12: Sessions at 4:00pm and 5:15pm 

Thursday, November 15: Session at 4:00pm 

Details: These workshops are designed to help parents and children understand the significance of Confirmation and prepare together for this important event.  

There has been some time since families nominated their preferred session and we understand that schedules have changed. Please complete this form to nominate your preferred session. Parent/Child Workshop form. 

Cyber Safety Month - How to support your child online

As part of Cyber Safety Month, we want to remind our students and families about the importance of protecting themselves online and the active parts parents play. 

CyberSafety: Are Your Children Old Enough? 

Under 5 Years Old 

• Supervise and restrict online activity. 
• Keep devices out of reach. 
• Set up parental controls. 
• Choose age-appropriate content. 
• Always be vigilant; don’t leave them unattended with devices. 

5 to 10 Years Old 

• Introduce basic cyber security: strong passwords, not sharing personal info, thinking before clicking links. 
• Guide them to secure websites and age-appropriate content. 
• Be aware of their online activity and encourage them to share uncomfortable experiences. 
• Always be vigilant; don’t leave them unattended with devices. 

10 to 15 Years Old 

• Introduce advanced cyber security: MFA, avoiding online bullying. 
• Teach the importance of privacy settings and the impact of sharing personal details. 
• Monitor their social media posts and discuss appropriate online behaviour. 
• Help them use technology securely and monitor their online activity. 

https://www.cyber.gov.au/protect-yourself/staying-secure-online/protecting-your-family/protect-your-children-online 

Where to report a cybercrime: https://www.cyber.gov.au/report-and-recover/report 

URSTRONG at St Kieran

URSTRONG’s whole-school friendship strategy has improved the social climate in schools around the world, connecting over a million kids, parents, and teachers with a common language of friendship.  

St Kieran are proud to be a URSTRONG School and are committed to empowering your children with friendship skills. 

You are invited to take advantage of a FREE Parent Membership to access hundreds of resources – including an 8 session video series. This will allow you to learn the same language & strategies being taught in the classroom through the Friendology 101 curriculum. We hope that, as a URSTRONG Family, you will reinforce the important messages of empowerment, self-compassion, & kindness at home. 

As a next step, we would recommend: 

• Click here to view an overview of URSTRONG. 
• Activate your FREE Parent Membership and explore all the resources available to your family. 
• Explore the hundreds of resources available to you! 

We believe that empowering our students with these skills will create a culture of kindness at our school and we hope that, together, we can support your children to have healthy, feel-good friendships. 

If you were unable to join the Parent workshop online last Wednesday here is a recorded video of the workshop. 

https://urstrong.com/languageoffriendshipworkshop/#component-7-video-1