Chatham Newsletter Issue 32—19th October 2017

THIS WEEK’S CLASSROOM VISIT: This week I had an opportunity to join the Year 4 classes on their excursion to Werribee Zoo. It’s been a few years since I was last there and I must say how much I enjoyed it with the kids. I can highly recommend the safari bus tour through the savannahs and the cat enclosure presentation from the zoo staff! Just sitting talking to the kids at lunch was also a highlight! We discussed all the important things related to the excursion, paying particular attention to who we thought was best on ground in the grand final, Houli or Martin, and who our teams were going to pick up during trade week! All in all, a great experience for our kids and I com-mend our Year 4 staff and parent helpers who organised and attended the excursion. Our students represented our school extremely well, which I expected and was very pleased to see!

WALKATHON: What a wonderful day we had last Thursday for our annual walkathon fundraiser! All the students got into the House spirit and wore their colours with pride as they walked their way around the school to raise money for new ICT equipment, outdoor fur-niture, air conditioners and minor works around the school. More specific details on what we will purchase will be detailed in coming weeks, but I take this opportunity to thank all our students and our parent community, who supported the event so well with a tremendous amount of money raised! Every student at Chatham will benefit from your generous support! Thank you. Also, a huge thank you again to our Parents’ Club who put so much time and effort into organizing the event. Thank you to Belinda Dalton, Rupert Nelson and your wonderful team for organising this event!

CLASS PLACEMENT 2018: Thank you to the parents who have taken the time to write regarding additional information they may have regarding their child’s class placement for 2018. A reminder, the final date to send a letter to me is Friday 3 November. Please see last week’s Newsletter for information regarding appropriate content of your letters.

NEW PLAYGROUND: Yes it is still coming! As we highlighted last term, it was going to take 10 weeks from the time we signed on the dotted line, but it seems to have taken 10 terms!! However, we are currently negotiating a time for installation in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for a date!

PROMOTING CHILDREN’S WEEK 2017: 21 – 29 October Children's Week is a national program recognising the talents, skills, achievements and rights of young people. The 2017 theme —‘Education has the power to transform children’s lives’ —is based on Article 29 the United Nations Conven-tion of the Rights of the Child. Schools are encouraged to promote Children’s Week to enable students and their families to attend events in their local area. For more information on what is going on near you for Children’s Week 2017, visit: Children’s Week 2017 www.education.vic.gov.au/about/events/Pages/childrensweek.aspx?Redirect=1

STARportal – STEM Learning Activities in your area! Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are key focus areas of our STEM specialist program. The STARportal pro-vides a resource for students and families to utilise at home to engage in STEM activities. There are an enormous number of opportunities to be explored. Read the information below to find out more. https://www.starportal.edu.au/ The STARportal makes the connections to STEM learning activities that inspire young people to explore, discover, and create. The STARportal is Australia’s first centralised national portal for exciting and engaging STEM activities from around the coun-try. This searchable database connects parents, students and teachers with local and online STEM activities in real time. The STARportal has been a collaboration between the Office of the Chief Scientist, Engineers Australia, Telstra, AMSI, BHP Billiton and the Commonwealth Bank, in consultation with the Department of Education to ensure all Australian families have access to any and all STEM outreach activities in their area and online. Page 2….

KEEPING KIDS SAFE IN A CYBER WORLD: Cyber bullying is one of the biggest, safety issues facing young people today. Bullying and harassment online is now commonplace. For instance, over a third of teenage girls have been sexually harassed via the Internet. The emergence of social media sites has seen cyber bullying go to a new level. Messages and images can now spread like wild fire reaching a huge potential audience in the time it takes to upload an image or shoot off a text message. The cyber world is enticing. Young people have always wanted to escape from their parents’ world. In the past they hung out in shopping centres. Parents tried their best to keep an eye on where their children were and what they were doing. The online world is now the shopping mall of the 21st Century. Parents have the same responsibility to help kids stay safe in the online world as they do in the real world. ‘Stranger danger’ and accompanying safe behaviours are just as relevant in the online world as they are in the real world. Parents should use the same offline preventative strategies to maximise their children’s online safety as they’ve always used. These strategies include: teaching children about the right way to behave online; don’t let them spend all night in the cyber world; and ask questions about what they are doing and where they go when they’re online. Parents need to remind children that things in the online world can spin out of control very quickly. A written mes-sage or an image can be circulated electronically so rapidly that the scope and scale of cyber bullying can be great-er than any other form of bullying.

The following seven key messages from Michael Grose (Parent Educator) form the basis of an online safety strategy for kids. They should be taught to children so they become second nature, just as the messages about stranger danger were absorbed by an earlier generation. Respect others Make children aware that what they send can offend. Discuss with children the types of messages and images that can cause harm to others when sent. Think before you send Remind children cyberspace is a very public and permanent forum. A text message or image sent to just one per-son can be passed to a potentially unlimited number. Once they are sent they’re almost impossible to erase and take back. Treat online passwords like your house key Teach kids to keep passwords guarded at all times. Young people can be incredibly trusting of each other, which is to be encouraged. However there are some things, such as online passwords that they don’t share, not even with their best friend. Block bullies Teach kids to block bullying messages. They can filter out messages and addresses online. Similarly, they can block text messages from bullies as well. Don’t reply to harassment Bullies can retain proof of your response, which can further be spread around. Besides, responding to bullying be-haviour often simply encourages the bully to continue. Save the evidence If children are bullied they should keep the pictures and offending messages. These can be used as proof if the bul-lies are brought to justice. Tell someone The insidious part of bullying is that children on the receiving end often don’t seek help, as they think there’s some-thing wrong with them. Talk with kids about going to a trusted adult, when they feel their rights or safety have been violated. They should with your help report online bullying to the appropriate service provider. Sticking the proverbial head in the sand regarding children’s use of communications technology is no longer an op-tion for parents. Savvy parents need to learn as much as they can about children’s and young people’s online lives so they can respond to situations appropriately. Have a great weekend! Rod McKinlay Acting Principal

Dates for the diary Friday 20th October Year 6 Fantastic Racers race Day @12:30pm in the hall Saturday 21st October Morning Whole School Working bee 9am to 12noon Monday 23rd October School Council meeting @ 7pm Wednesday 25th October Year 2 Excursion to Melbourne Zoo Senior School Science Fair Last day for Book club orders Thursday 26th October Junior School Science Fair Year 6 graduation meeting @3:45pm in 6gk Friday 27th October Year 3 Sleepover 4:45pm (to 8:00am Saturday) Year 6 Parliament House Excursion Monday 30th October Parents’ Club Meeting @ 9:10am in the library Year 5 Excursion to Werribee Zoo Tuesday 31st October Instrumental Music Soiree—drums, guitar, rock band Wednesday 1st November Instrumental Music Soiree—piano Monday 6th November Curriculum Day—no school for students today Tuesday 7th November Public Holiday Wednesday 8th November Prep Transition—session one Thursday 9th November Night Market Friday 10th November Regional Finals Hooptime Monday 13th November Year 1 excursion to the Aquarium Wednesday 15th November Prep Transition—session two Sunday 19th November Whole school working bee—2pm to 5pm Monday 20th November Prep and Year 2 Circus Skills School Council Wednesday 22nd November Prep Transition - session three Thursday 23rd November Prep 2018 Parent Information Evening Monday 27th November Parents’ Club meeting @ 9:10am in the library Prep and Year 2 Circus Skills Monday 4th December Prep and Year 2 Circus Skills Thursday 7th December Gingerbread House Night Monday 11th December Parents’ Club meeting @ 9:10am in the library Prep and Year 2 Circus Skills Monday 18th December Prep and Year 2 Circus Skills School Council Meeting Tuesday 19th December Year 6 Big Day out to MSAC End of year Class Parties—Prep to Year 5 Wednesday 20th December Visits to 2017 classrooms Reports sent home Thursday 21st December Year 6 Graduation Friday 22nd December Year 6 breakfast Last day of term 4 for students—1:30pm finish

PUPIL FREE DAY: A reminder that Monday 6 November, the Monday prior to the Tuesday Melbourne Cup public holiday,

will be a pupil free day. No children will be at school that day as staff will be preparing student reports.

Please lock this date into your calendar!