CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK 2025

This week we attended the launch of Catholic Education week at The Bishops Mass held at Francis Xavier Secondary college in Beaconsfield. The school captains and the Liturgy leaders will be attending with St Angela of the Cross, St Joseph’s Traf, St Joseph’s Warragul and Columba Bunyip.

Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Sale will celebrate Catholic Education Week from Friday 16 May – Friday 23 May 2025. This year’s theme is Pilgrims of Hope to coincide with the Jubilee Year of Hope in 2025.

We launched Catholic Education Week at assembly our whole school assembly last Friday. The liturgy team lead us in prayer and a variety of 3-6 students lead us in a song with the theme of ‘Hope’ that they learnt in Art over the last couple of lessons.

During Catholic Education week all classes will be participating in lessons about the Jubilee Year with the theme of Pilgrims of Hope.

The whole school will also celebrate together with a Mass on Thursday 22nd May at 9.30am. Everyone from our school community is welcome to attend.

ST ITA’S MEDAL WINNER

Congratulations to our latest St Ita’s Medalist, Max Baguley from grade one Gleeson.

The St Ita’s community is very proud of your achievement.

DIVISION CROSS COUNTRY

Last week 23 of our amazing students represented St Ita’s Primary School at the Division Cross Country held at the Geoff Watt Track. Each and every student showed outstanding determination, sportsmanship, and school spirit throughout the day. We are so proud of how they conducted themselves and gave their very best.

A huge shoutout goes to River, Tommy, Mason, Noah, Eli, and Pippa who placed in the top 10 in their events! These students have now qualified for the Regional Cross Country which will be held on Thursday the 5th of June. What an achievement by all our kids, we wish them all the best as they continue their cross-country journey!

WORKING THROUGH AN AGGRESSIVE MELT DOWN

When a child—even a small child—melts down and becomes aggressive, they can pose a serious risk to themselves and others, including parents and siblings.

It’s not uncommon for kids who have trouble handling their emotions to lose control and direct their distress at a caregiver—screaming and cursing, throwing dangerous objects, or hitting and biting. It can be a scary, stressful experience for you and your child, too. Children often feel sorry after they’ve worn themselves out and calmed down.

So, what are you to do?

It’s helpful to first understand that behaviour is communication. A child who is so overwhelmed that they are lashing out is a distressed child. They don’t have the skill to manage their feelings and express them in a more mature way. They may lack language, or impulse control, or problem-solving abilities.

Sometimes parents see this kind of explosive behaviour as manipulative. But kids who lash out are usually unable to handle frustration or anger in a more effective way — say, by talking and figuring out how to achieve what they want.

Nonetheless, how you react when a child lashes out has an effect on whether they will continue to respond to distress in the same way or learn better ways to handle feelings, so they don’t become overwhelming.

BEHAVIOURAL TECHNIQUES FOR ANGER MANAGEMENT

Here are some pointers to help kids learn techniques to regulate their emotions:

Stay calm. Faced with a raging child, it’s easy to feel out of control and find yourself yelling at them. But when you shout, you have less chance of reaching them. Instead, you will only be making them more aggressive and defiant. As hard as it may be, if you can stay calm and in control of your own emotions, you can be a model for your child and teach them to do the same thing.

Don’t give in. Don’t encourage them to continue this behaviour by agreeing to what they want in order to make it stop.

Praise appropriate behaviour. When they have calmed down, praise them for pulling themselves together. And when they do try to express their feelings verbally, calmly, or try to find a compromise on an area of disagreement, praise them for those efforts.

Help them practice problem-solving skills. When your child is not upset is the time to help them try out communicating their feelings and coming up with solutions to conflicts before they escalate into aggressive outbursts. You can ask them how they feel, and how they think you might solve a problem.

Time-outs and reward systems. Time-outs for nonviolent misbehaviour can work well with children younger than 7 or 8 years old. When using time-outs, be sure to be consistent with them and balance them with other, more positive forms of attention. If a child is too old for time-outs, you want to move to a system of positive reinforcement for appropriate behaviour — points or tokens toward something they want.

Avoid triggers. Clinical psychologists, say most kids who have frequent meltdowns do it at very predictable times, like homework time, bedtime, or when it’s time to stop playing, whether it’s Legos or video games. The trigger is usually being asked to do something they don’t like, or to stop doing something they do like. Time warnings (“we’re going in 10 minutes”), breaking tasks down into one-step directions (“first, put on your shoes”), and preparing your child for situations (“please ask to be excused before you leave Grandma’s table”) can all help avoid meltdowns.

Help with behavioural techniques.

If your child is doing a lot of lashing out — enough that it is frequently frightening, you and disrupting your family — it’s important to get some professional help. There are good behavioural therapies that can help you and your child get past the aggression, relieve your stress, and improve your relationship. You can learn techniques for managing their behaviour more effectively, and they can learn to rein in disruptive behaviour and enjoy a much more positive relationship with you.

MAKING SENSE OF EXPLOSIVE BEHAVIOUR IN CHILDREN

Tantrums and meltdowns in children are especially concerning when they occur more often, more intensely, or past the age in which they’re developmentally expected — those terrible twos up through preschool. As a child gets older, aggression can become more and more dangerous to you, and the child. It can also lead to problems in school and social settings often impacting on relationships.

If your child has a pattern of lashing out it may be because of an underlying problem that needs treatment or support. Some possible reasons for aggressive behaviour include:

ADHD: Kids with ADHD are frustrated easily, especially in certain situations, such as when they’re supposed to do homework or go to bed.

Anxiety: An anxious child may keep their worries secret, then lash out when the demands at school or at home put pressure on them that they can’t handle. Often, a child who “keeps it together” at school loses it with one or both parents.

Undiagnosed learning disability: When your child acts out repeatedly in school or during homework time, it could be because the work is very hard for them.

Sensory processing issues: Some children have trouble processing the information they are taking in through their senses. Things like too much noise, crowds and even “scratchy” clothes can make them anxious, uncomfortable, or overwhelmed. That can lead to actions that leave you mystified, including aggression.

Autism: Children on all points of the spectrum are often prone to major meltdowns when they are frustrated or faced with unexpected change. They also often have sensory issues that make them anxious and agitated.

Given that there are so many possible causes for emotional outbursts and aggression, an accurate diagnosis is key to getting the help you need. You may want to start with your paediatrician. They can rule out medical causes and then refer you to a specialist. A trained, experienced child psychologist or psychiatrist can help determine what, if any, underlying issues are present.