Semester One Learning, Assessment and Reporting

Semester One reports will be emailed home in the first week of Term 3 (11-15 July).

If you have changed your email address recently, please update your details through QParents or contact our office staff via email - Administration@craigsleass.eq.edu.au .

Please make sure you add Application.ONESCHOOL@dete.qld.gov.au to your list of safe senders to ensure the report card emails aren’t sent to the Junk folder.

PBL & Social-Emotional Learning

The focus for the fortnight is:

Be a Friend and Be safe in all Environments – We say NO to bullying.

As a school community we are very keen to ensure that Craigslea SS remains a safe, supportive and encouraging learning environment for all. Our staff regularly strives to ensure that children understand that bullying, in its varied forms:

• is to be reported quickly if experienced by any child;
• is taken seriously and addressed swiftly & appropriately when seen or reported;
• can be minimised, if not eliminated, from our learning environment when we work together;
• is not acceptable.

Unfortunately bullying does occur from time to time in every school, just as it does in society. we would like you to be aware, however, that we are serious about this issue and that our staff are proactive in dealing with, or intervening in, observed, or reported incidents. This fortnight, teachers are leading discussions and sharing strategies with all children about ways in which together we can minimise, (if not eliminate) bullying in our school.

We are learning the distinction between behaviour that is rude, behaviour that is mean and behaviour that is characteristic of bullying. Distinguishing between them allows teachers, school administrators, parents and kids all know what to pay attention to and when to intervene.

Rude behaviour is inadvertently saying or doing something that hurts someone else. In children this takes the form of social errors like “burping in someone's face, jumping ahead in line, bragging about achieving the highest grade or even throwing a crushed-up pile of leaves in someone's face. The critical factor? Incidents of rudeness are usually spontaneous, unplanned inconsideration, based on thoughtlessness, poor manners, or narcissism, but not meant to actually hurt someone.

Being mean involves purposefully saying or doing something to hurt someone once (or maybe twice). Unlike unthinking rudeness, mean behaviour very much aims to hurt or depreciate someone.... Very often, mean behaviour in kids is motivated by angry feelings and/or the misguided goal of propping themselves up in comparison to the person they are putting down. While both rudeness and mean behaviour require correction, they are different from bullying in important ways that should be understood and differentiated when it comes to intervention.

Bullying is intentionally aggressive behaviour, repeated over time, that involves an imbalance of power.... Kids who bully say or do something intentionally hurtful to others and they keep doing it, with no sense of regret or remorse — even when targets of bullying show or express their hurt or tell the aggressors to stop. There are multiple kinds of bullying, including physical and verbal aggression, relational aggression (like social exclusion, hazing, or rumour spreading), and cyberbullying. The key aspect to all of them is the ongoing nature of the behaviour, which leaves the victims feeling powerless and fearful.

The national definition of bullying for Australian schools says:

Bullying is an ongoing misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that causes physical and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power over one or more persons. Bullying can happen in person or online, and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert).

Bullying of any form or for any reason can have long-term effects on those involved, including bystanders.

Single incidents and conflict or fights between equals, whether in person or online, are not defined as bullying. However, these conflicts still need to be addressed and resolved. At our school, we encourage our students to use their Bridge Builders strategies to resolve conflicts in the classroom and playground.

The Bridge Builders strategies include:

• Ask them to STOP
• Ignore – Don’t react
• Share – Take turns
• Talk and Listen
• Be Kind
• Make an agreement
• Apologise

Cyberbullying and Cybersafety

Cyberbullying of children is when someone uses online content or communication to seriously humiliate, seriously harass, seriously intimidate of seriously threaten a child or young person under the age of 18.

It can take many forms including sending abusive messages, hurtful images or videos, nasty online gossip, excluding or humiliating others, or creating fake accounts in someone’s name to trick or humiliate them. 

Navigating online technology and keeping our children safe while they use it can become quite complex for families. The eSafety Commissioner website has an extensive section for parents and carers to provide advice on how to keep our children safe online.

Free webinars on a variety of topics, downloadable resources are available. The site offers a range of practical tips and strategies for parents. There is also a section under skills and advice called “Taming the Technology” which explains how you can input parental controls on devices to maximise online safety. It definitely worth a look.

Parentline also offers free cyberbullying training for parents, carers and grandparents to help support their young person.

Roxy at Craigslea State School

APPROACH

• Remain calm and move slowly
• Don’t call her name to avoid distracting her
  
  

1. CLASS VISITS

• Continue with what you are doing
• Wait for teacher instructions
  
  

2. ASK

• Always ask if it is ok to pat Roxy
• Let Roxy sniff your hand (closed fist) 

3. TOUCH

• Pat Roxy on her shoulders, back or belly rubs if she is lying on her back
• Use a calm, slow stroking motion down her fur
  
  

4. GOODBYE

• Enjoy your interaction with Roxy and then say ‘goodbye’
• Wash your hands

2022 International Competitions and Assessments (ICAS)

If you wish to have your child undertake any of the competitions this year, please take note of the information below and log on to the website to pay and enrol for this to happen
by 1 August, 2022. Go to the link at https://shop.icasassessments.com/pages/pps and enter the school code: RKD947

Have a great week!