MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Death of Mrs Karen Harris

All parents have received a letter about the death of Karen Harris, who was a Year 3 teacher in the Junior School. Our Chaplain, the Reverend Paul Harris, is Karen’s husband and their daughter, Sophie, attends the Junior School.

During this sad time, our staff and students of the Junior School have been well supported by our School Counsellors, Paula Morelli, Julie Smith and Sharon Prendergast. We have received tremendous spiritual and counselling support from our fellow Anglican schools.

Our Junior and Senior School staff have supported each other, either in very practical ways, like taking a grounds duty for a colleague, and in offering emotional support. We are also very grateful to the many parents who have offered their sympathies and practical assistance.

At this time, we do not have a date for the funeral. The School will also hold a memorial service. It is important that we say our farewells and offer our support to Paul, Sophie and their family.

Deputy Principal/Head of Senior School

I have communicated to the Board and our staff that Fiona Godfrey, Deputy Principal/Head of Senior School, has accepted the position of Principal at St Peters Collegiate Girls School in Adelaide from 2008.

This is an exciting period of time for Fiona and we are delighted that she has been offered her first Principalship. St Peters Collegiate has an excellent reputation and we are confident that under Fiona’s leadership, the school will continue to grow and flourish.

During Semester 2 we will have a number of opportunities to farewell Fiona and her family before they travel to Adelaide.

Parent Functions

During this week parents have participated in the Year 8 Information Evening and the Father and Daughter/Son breakfast.

My thanks to all parents who attended the Year 8 Information Evening. Comments received have indicated that parents found the evening informative and that the presentation by our School Counsellor, Julie Smith, was particularly useful.

It was wonderful to see over 700 people attend our fathers, daughters and sons breakfast on Tuesday morning. The Safe School Committee initiated this function and our guest speaker was Mr Christopher Chenoweth OAM.

It was particularly pleasing for all of us to see students from the Early Learning Centre to the Senior School enjoying breakfast with their fathers. I certainly felt that this was a true community event for the School.

My thanks to Jeanette Widmer, Director of Pastoral Care, and the Safe School Committee members, for their work in organising the breakfast, along with our Community Relations staff.

The events of this semester have left us all feeling quite overwhelmed with a sense of loss and grief. We have felt a great sense of sadness as people that we deeply care about face a difficult and painful journey. As a community, we have worked together to support each other and to continue our work. At all times, I have seen the deeply caring natures of our staff members as they sometimes struggle to find the correct response or take the correct action. We speak together as we try to find our way and this has offered us a sense that we are not alone in finding the best response to situations we are faced with. We find strength from each other and no person is afraid to ask for help from their colleagues. This is the true foundation of a strong community.

Susan Just
Principal

MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF SENIOR SCHOOL

Advice from the School Counsellors

Last Monday night, we held the Year 8 in 2008 Information Evening for parents and students of the current Year 7 cohort. The evening began with very informative presentations from both our Director of Faculty, Jennie Harris, and Director of Curriculum, Jenny Bartley, outlining our philosophy of teaching and learning and the need for balance and considered decision making when choosing electives. Year 7 students were given a similar presentation on Tuesday morning and we would now encourage all parents and their daughters to discuss the options available so that informed decisions can be made.

The second half of the evening was taken up with a presentation by one of our two Counsellors, Julie Smith. Julie spoke about some of the emotional, social and educational issues often associated with Year 8 students. While many of the issues that Julie covered were particularly relevant to Year 8 students, much of her advice could be applied to all Year levels.

Julie spoke about the importance of communication between adolescents and their parents and spoke about strategies to promote openness, honesty and trust. She stated that the Counsellors encourage students to develop strategies to improve communication and work toward parental involvement to solve difficulties.

• parental pressure
• some motivation and organisational concerns
• some test anxiety

Social Issues

• friendship issues
• bullying
• relationship issues

Family Issues

• relationship issues; parent-child, sibling, separation-divorce
• feeling misunderstood
• desire for greater independence

Mental health Issues

• depression
• anxiety
• self-harm
• body image and eating disorders
• concern for friends wellbeing

Parents also regularly make contact with the School Counsellors and the most common reasons are:

Social Issues

• concern about child’s friendship group eg. bad influence, risk taking behaviour
• concern about friendship/bullying issues

Academic Issues

• motivation issues
• drop in academic performance

Behavioural Issues

• girls testing limits
• risk-taking behaviour
• parent-child relationship eg. lack of respect, limited communication
• concern regarding MSN, mobile phone

On Monday evening, Julie presented an outline of Twelve Tips to Assist Parents.

1. Be informed. Read up on adolescence and the issues facing your daughter and her friends. Then share your knowledge with your daughter to show that you are open to talking about the issues.
2. Negotiate the rules. As early as possible draw up together as early as possible rules that relate to her safety, clearly defining the boundaries and the consequences and rewards attached to breaking and keeping the rules.
3. Work at improving and maintaining communication with your daughter. Talk less and listen more. Avoid lecturing, nagging, pleading and criticising.
4. Maintain family rituals. Rituals provide opportunities for you to connect and often create a haven for teens away from the rough and tumble of the peer world eg family dinner, family time on weekends etc.
5. Know your daughters’ friends. Be involved with her friends and know who their parents are. Talk to them and compare stories. Don’t ever accept the line "but everyone is allowed to do it".
6. Encourage your child to participate in healthy risk taking activities eg sports, dance, drama.
7. Keep the computer in an open household area and watch over their MSN, Bebo and MySpace activities. Limit MSN time and consider monitoring MSN content.
8. Focus on the positives and be positive in your interactions with her. Decide what you want her to do and then state it in positive terms; tell her what you want, not what you don’t want.
9. Don’t be a doormat. To protect our own space, belongings, items, money and dignity parents need to have a notion of ourselves as separate human beings and a sense of worth and self respect. This is necessary not only for our own mental health but to model these qualities for our children.
10. Be around the house as much as possible. Even if your daughter doesn’t want to talk, your physical presence is a comfort.
11. Focus on who she is and what she does, rather than how she looks. Help her to develop a sense of competence and confidence not based on how she looks. Help her to establish ‘body comfort’.
12. Make sure she is getting enough sleep. According to recent US research the average teenager needs 8-9 hours sleep.

Continuing Problems with Bebo and MySpace

Some weeks ago I wrote in a Newsletter article about the dangers of Bebo and Myspace. At the time I highlighted that a large proportion of adolescents were creating their own ‘pages’ on these sites and displaying a staggering array of personal information and photographs, many of them of an intimate nature. Public display of this sort of information is highly dangerous as it is well documented that sexual predators use these sites to ‘meet’ adolescents. Research from the federal watchdog NetAlert shows a huge disconnect between parents and their teenage children over online behaviour. A recent study conducted together with NineMSN found that 40 per cent of teens would potentially meet in person someone they have ‘met’ online.

While the issue of passing personal information to complete strangers continues to be of great concern for teachers and parents, in recent weeks we have experienced a growing number of disputes between students arising from inappropriate comments being posted on individuals’ Bebo and MySpace sites by students. These issues are very difficult for us to investigate and police as we cannot access the sites or identify the authors. The comments are posted through domestic computers but the resultant upsets and angst are often played out at school. I would ask that parents assist us in educating the students about what is appropriate to place on these sites in the first place and being aware of the ramifications if untoward comments are placed on other students’ pages.

Fiona Godfrey
Deputy Principal/Head of Senior School

MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD OF JUNIOR SCHOOL

The events of the last week have been incredibly stressful for our School community and this has highlighted to us all how precious are our loved ones, our health and life itself. We are especially grateful for the support, friendship and prayers that have been offered during this time.

Karen Harris was a much loved and respected member of our staff and community. She was an exceptional teacher of Year 3, a colleague, a mother to Sophie, wife to Paul and a dear friend to many. Karen was warm, generous and kind and we remember her with love.

Anglicare Winter Appeal

We are encouraging all students to think of others and to bring to school tinned or packet food items for the Anglicare Winter Appeal. Each classroom has a collection area or items can be left in the Reception areas of all campuses.

Shop for Your School

Please keep in mind that we are hoping families will keep all dockets when shopping at Westfield. These can be sent to school or personally left at collection points at Westfield.

Early Learning Centre Staffing

Due to other work commitments, Lynelle Hamer leaves the ELC After Hours program this week. Lynelle has worked in the ELC since the beginning of the year and we wish her well for the future. Catherine Way and Katherine O’Brien will share the role of Coordinator of the ELC After Hours Care and Holiday program. Both Catherine and Kate are well known to the students and families and we are delighted that they have accepted this position.

Early Learning Centre Parking

I have been alerted again to dangerous parking practices as parents drop off and pick up students both at the ELC and the Junior School. We acknowledge that parking is very tight at the ELC and sometimes parents are required to park parallel to the kerbside in Grey Street, especially at peak times.

There appears to be an increasing number of parents parking illegally on the nature strip either side of the ELC driveway, often in large 4WD vehicles that obscure the view of parents exiting the car park. Occasionally it has been reported that part of these illegally parked cars overhang the driveway, limiting the ability of cars to exit and enter the driveway simultaneously. Also of great concern is the speed with which some drivers choose to leave, sometimes mounting the nature strip in an effort to get away quickly. These incidents happen all at a time when parents might be walking their young children to and from the ELC.

These practices can only lead to disaster. We ask that for the safety of all the School community drivers drive and park safely at all times. We have contracted to monitor the situation and hope that everyone will act responsibly in the future. We ask for your co-operation and support.

Heather Ablett
Head of the Junior School

 IMPORTANT DATES

• 2-3 Jun Australian National Eisteddfod, CGGS Hall, 9am
• 3 Jun Trinity Sunday Family and Friends’ Chapel Service, 9am
• 4 Jun ACT Cross Country
• 4 Jun Y7 in 2008 Information Evening, CGGS Hall, 7pm
• 4-8 Jun Y11/12 Test Free Week
• 5 Jun Junior School Sport, Music and Family photos
• 7 Jun Y6 excursion to Parliament House
• 7 Jun Junior Primary exchange with Canberra Grammar School
• 7 Jun Y11/12 Dance Performance Evening
• 8-10 Jun Senior Big Band trip to the Merimbula Jazz Festival
• 11 June Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday
• 11-19 Jun Y11/12 Test Week
• 12 Jun Junior Primary Numeracy Evening
• 14 Jun Y8 Geography excursion to Geo Science Australia and Questacon
• 17 Jun Connections Choir, Oaktree Foundation Concert, CGGS Hall, 7.30pm

Tuesdays 8.15am to 2.00pm
Wednesdays 8.15am to 2.00pm
Thursdays 12noon to 5.30pm

NOW IN STOCK - ELC and Junior Primary fleecy track pants.

 Junior School and Early Learning Centre Non-Uniform Day

On Friday 25 May, the students in the Junior School and Early Learning Centre held a Loud Shirt non-uniform day to raise money for the Shepherd Centre for the Hearing Impaired in Canberra. The total raised was $660.45. This is a marvelous result and demonstrates the generous caring nature of our School Community. Thank you to all those who donated so generously.

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF PASTORAL CARE

National Safe Schools Week (NSSW)

This week, CGGS celebrated NSSW at the father and daughter/son breakfast. On Tuesday morning, over 700 dads and their children attended the School at 7.30am. The aim of the breakfast was to strengthen ties between students and their fathers in support of CGGS as a safe school. The event promoted positive relationships between home and school and raised awareness for fathers about our zero tolerance of bullying, harassment, neglect, abuse and violence.

Bishop Browning led everyone in the Safe School prayer which was developed by class 3M.

Dear Jesus
Help all the sheep in our fold to become shepherds, so that we may have a Safe School.
Help us to choose the right track and stick together and not exclude others.
Give us the strength to stand up to the sheep that tempt us to follow them over the cliff or into danger.
Help us to be like the sheep-dog and protect others from the wolves that attack those who are weaker.
Thank you, Jesus, for giving us the strength to make ours a Safe School.

Mr Chris Chenoweth OAM, a solicitor and who provides a range of advice to the School, was our inspirational guest speaker. He addressed issues that affect schools, their students and staff, as we strive to provide a supportive and all-round education for our students.

Mr Chenoweth’s address was followed by a display of slides of the CGGS Safe School Policy, procedures and guidelines, as well as other proactive strategies practised by the work of the Safe School Cmmittee and photos of the Committee members. The theme for the 2007 National Safe Schools week is ‘creating safe and happy schools – free from bullying’. The Safe School Committee has worked hard to create such an environment and it is our goal to continue to keep it as such!

We have been fortunate to have the media cover the event. Journalists and photographers from the newspapers, The Canberra Times (page 1, 30 May) and The Chronicle, both attended the breakfast, and Mr Chenoweth was interviewd on Radio 2CC AM on Wednesday afternoon. We appreciate that the media and the wider community are interested in important issue of having a safe school.

Thank you to all those families who supported our Safe School initiative, enjoying this unique opportunity for father and daughter/son bonding at the School. The event could not have been such a resounding success without the collaborative efforts of the Community Relations Dept, Kitchen staff and Maintenance teams, ELC, Junior and Senior School staff and the dedicated members of the Safe School Committee.

The thoughts and prayers of the Pastoral Care team are with the Reverend Paul Harris, Sophie and his family at this sad time.

In God’s care.

Jeanette Widmer
Director of Pastoral Care

JUNIOR SCHOOL NOTICES
Excursion / Activity	Date Handed to Students	Permission Slip Return Date / Date of Activity	Staff Member / Department
Y1 Reading Homework	1 June 2007	N/A	Y1 Class Teachers
Family and Friends’ Chapel Service Flyer	29 May 2007	Sunday 3 June	The Gabriel Foundation
Nexus Arts Visit to JS to Perform for Y3 – Y6	1 June 2007	Wednesday 6 June	Corrie Bennett & Barbara Selleck, Teacher Librarians
Junior Primary Exchange with CGS	1 June 2007	Thursday 7 June	Emma Cox, Assistant Stage 1 Coordinator
Letter regarding Mrs Karen Harris	30 May 2007	N/A	Susan Just, Principal

SENIOR SCHOOL NOTICES
Excursion / Activity	Date Sent To Students/Parents	Date To Be Returned	Staff Member / Department
Y10 Asian studies, be an Asian studies student for a day – 5 June	28 May		S Brennan, Teacher, Department of Geography, Asian Studies and Commerce; L McInnes, Teacher, Department of Geography, Asian Studies and Geography

More articles on School news, activities and events are available in the section ‘In the News’ on our website.

Featured articles this week:	Careers News	Year 10 News
Year 3 Art News	Prep News	Gymnastic News
Year 5 News	Junior School French	Senior School Sport Teams of the Week

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS

The inclusion of announcements in this publication is in no way to be interpreted as an endorsement of support by the School. Readers are responsible for forming their own opinion as to the value or reliability of the information contained in such announcements.

Thredbo St Moritz Ski Club 2007