Principal's Message
WELCOME BACK TO TERM 2
Welcome back to all our families from the Easter break. I hope everyone had a safe, happy, and holy Easter with family and friends. We look forward to the start of a new term, where our whole school focus will be based on creating quality dialogue in the classroom between teacher and students and building all our students' capacities to be resilient learners.
A big thank you to all in the St Ita’s community who supported our Mega Easter raffle at the end of last term. Your generous support helped raise $4,009.75 for our school.
NEW STAFF APPOINTMENT
I am pleased to announce that Miss Tahlia Peterson has accepted the position of Grade 5-6 class teacher, taking over from Miss Misso for the remainder of the 2024 school year. Tahlia has an extensive background in early childhood education and recently completed an outstanding teaching round at St Ita’s, working in a variety of different class levels. I would like to welcome Tahlia and I really look forward to the skill sets she brings to our wonderful learning community.
SIBLING ENROLMENTS FOR 2025 SCHOOL YEAR
Can we please ask that any families who have sibling children wanting to enrol in Foundation in 2025 at St Ita's, contact the school admin on 5623 7222 or via email, admin@stidrouin.catholic.edu.au. We will record your interest in enrolment, and contact you with further details regarding the enrolment process.
ANZAC DAY
Thursday 25th of April is Anzac Day, and Friday 26th of April is our whole school time in lieu day as outlined in the current Catholic Education Employment Award. The school will be closed on both of these days.
As in previous years, our school captains and vice captains will be invited to participate in the mid-morning service and the laying of the wreath. All St Ita’s students are invited to attend the march, however, students must have a parent with them as this is not a school-sanctioned event. We ask that all St Ita’s students attending the march wearing their winter school uniform.
Details of the service are as follows;
Drouin Cenotaph Memorial Park:
6:00am - Dawn Service
9.15am – Assemble at Bendigo Bank Car Park
9:30am - March from Bendigo Bank Car Park
10:00am - Main Service
SCHOOL PARENTS AND FRIENDS MEETING
Our next Parents and Friends meeting will be held on Wednesday 24th of April, in the St Ita’s admin office starting at 7.00 pm.
WHOLE SCHOOL ASSEMBLY
Our first whole school assembly will be on Wednesday 24th of April in the multi-purpose hall starting at 2.30 pm. Families are welcome to attend our whole school assemblies.
PROJECT COMPASSION
Project Compassion boxes can be returned to the school over the coming weeks. Thank you for your support with this important fundraiser. Reaching out to the marginalized answers Christ’s call to action and service and ensures that some of the poorest members of our global family have greater access to what we take for granted.
BUILDING RESILIENCE: IT’S OKAY FOR OUR KIDS TO FAIL
As parents, we tend to see one of our main missions as helping their kids succeed. But there’s a growing realization among teachers and other professionals who work with children that kids increasingly need help learning how to fail.
Not learning to tolerate failure leaves kids vulnerable to anxiety. It leads to meltdowns when the inevitable failure does occur, whether it happens in preschool or college. And perhaps even more important, it can make kids give up trying—or trying new things.
Chicago Bulls and arguably the world’s greatest basketballer, Michael Jordan, spent a lot of time preaching the importance of losing. Jordan regularly spoke about how perseverance and resilience in the face of challenges on and off the court are what made him a winner.
Unfortunately, as the world puts increased pressure on kids to be winners, and parents feel compelled to enable them in every way possible, we’re seeing more and more kids who become distraught over even the smallest misstep.
Clearly, distress or frustration tolerance is an important life skill to master. When it comes to school, the ability to tolerate imperfection—that something is not going exactly your way—is oftentimes more important to learn than whatever the content subject is. Building that skill set is necessary for kids to be able to become more independent and succeed in future endeavours, whether it’s personal goals, academic goals, or just learning how to effectively deal with other people. So how do parents teach kids to fail?
First, show empathy
Empathize with your child; see that she or he is in distress. “Don’t just say, ‘It’s okay, you’ll do better next time. It’s invalidating to brush off a child’s feelings of frustration and disappointment.” Instead, parents need to change their language: I see you’re really disappointed, I know you really wanted to do better. Make yourself a model
You can explain that failure is a part of life and happens to everyone, even you. You could share examples of failures you’ve had. Parents can model how to handle their own disappointment, such as losing out on a promotion at work, kids aren’t necessarily exposed to the reality that life includes mistakes, missteps, and even failures. As much as everyone likes things to go according to plan, it’s important to teach our children that it is also okay when they don’t.
Make it a teachable moment
A child’s failure is a chance for parents to teach acceptance and problem-solving skills. You and your child can try to come up with what she could do the next time for a better chance at success. For instance, could they study differently or talk to the teacher about any problems they’re having before a test?
It’s a balance of acceptance and change, it’s about accepting that the situation is what it is and building frustration tolerance while also asking, can we change something in the future. can we learn from this?’
The minefield of social media
At the same time, kids need to know that sometimes when we fail or face disappointment, there’s not a lot we can do about it in that moment; we have to accept it as a part of life and move on. An example of this is the minefield that is social media.
Just imagine the following, a girl’s friends tell her they can’t hang out with her on the weekend and then she sees them together out and about on Instagram or Facebook.
This situation can be really hurtful, there are lots of emotions: frustration, disappointment, sadness, anger. How does she deal with all that? Calling friends and screaming at them only makes things worse. She could ignore it and pretend she never saw it, but that’s not going to make her feel better or change what happens in the future.
So how can a parent help her accept what happened? The girl might be able to get more information to make herself feel better. Perhaps she can talk to these kids in a calm way, telling them that she saw the photos and her feelings were hurt. Maybe she’ll discover a reason behind it. But she may not get an answer she likes, or get one at all.
That leads to another life lesson: Sometimes we get left out, sometimes we aren’t liked, and we have to learn to cope with that truth without making the situation worse.
Step back and allow kids to fail
It can be very tough to watch your child fall down but they can only learn how to handle disappointment through trial and error. As books like The Blessings of a Skinned Knee and the newly released Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed emphasize, parents must stop hovering. Otherwise, they rob children of the very experiences that require problem-solving and set them on the path to resilience and the confidence to take on new challenges.
IMPORTANT DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
- Thursday 25th April - Anzac Day
- Friday 26th April - Pupil free day
- Monday 10th June - King's Birthday
- Tuesday 11th June - Pupil Free day
- Thursday 27th June - Last day Term 2
- Friday 28th June - Pupil free day
- Monday 15th July - Pupil free day
- Tuesday 16th July - Term 3 starts all students
- Friday 20th Sept - Last day Term 3
- Monday 7th Oct - Term 4 starts all students
- Monday 4th Nov - Pupil free day
- Tuesday 5th Nov - Melbourne Cup
- Tuesday 17th Dec - Last day term 4