Term 3, Week 8

Principal - Micheal Grogan

Welcome to week 8 of Term 3. This week we said farewell to Ms Adams. Christine is beginning her parental leave as of Monday and will be replaced by Bradley Darke. We look forward to welcoming Mr Darke on Monday as he takes over 5 Red.

Today we spent time looking at Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum in Mathematics and preparing for implementation in 2025. It was great to see the level of engagement and thought going into planning for student success across our school as we begin this new work.

P&C

I would like to congratulate Stacey Anderson who is our new P&C President. Stacey is taking over from Deb Beasley, who has done an amazing job over the past few years. This also means we have a vacant P&C Vice President position and this will be voted on at our next meeting.

Speaking of P&C, if you are keen to help in anyway as we prepare to celebrate 150yrs in 2025, please let them know. You may not be able ot be an active member of the working party, but feel you have a skillset and can help, even if only in a small way. They would love to hear from you.

Prep 2025

This week we conducted the first round of interviews for our Prep 2025 cohort. It is always an ecitign time and I look forarwd to welcoming our new families and suporting our new Preps into school in the new year.

Thank You

To our amazing P&C. This week on our Pupil Free Day the P&C put on an amazing thank you lunch for our staff. We are fortunate to have an amazing team of skilled educators here at BCSS who are ably supported by a team of support staff and allied health professionals that all work hard everyday to with the sole aim of making a positive difference for all of our leaners.

We would like to thank our P&C volunteers, Alicia, Tino, Jana and Diana who set up and organised the lunch today. It was greatly appreciated and a wonderful opportunity for our staff to pause, connect and reflect together.

Deputy Principal - Nik Taufatofua

Dear Families,

I am excited to share some wonderful activities and achievements happening in our school community.

Congratulations to our Year 6 Team who represented our school at the Maths Tournament held at Fig Tree Pocket State School. Aaradhya, Aniya, Dalton, Amber and Noah placed 5^th amongst teams from around Brisbane. Their dedication and teamwork were commendable, and they showcased impressive problem-solving abilities. We are incredibly proud of their achievements and the positive spirit they brought to the event. Thank you to Mrs Hansen for your work in preparing the team.

Year 1 Excursion to Roma Street Parklands

Our Year 1 students recently embarked on an enriching excursion to Roma Street Parklands. This adventure offered them a unique opportunity to explore the natural beauty and diverse flora of the parklands. The hands-on experiences and engaging activities provided a fantastic way for our young learners to connect with their learning and enhance their understanding of the environment. We extend our gratitude to the teachers who made this excursion a memorable and educational experience for our students.

Year 2 Father’s Day Celebration

In celebration of Father’s Day, our Year 2 students had a special Thursday afternoon. They invited their fathers and special people into the classroom for various engaging activities and crafts. It was heartwarming to see the strong bonds and shared moments between the students and their special guests. A big thank you to all the fathers and father figures who joined us and made the day so memorable.

As we celebrate these wonderful events, we would also like to take a moment to wish all fathers and special people in our school community a very Happy Father’s Day. Your love, support, and guidance make a significant difference in the lives of your children, and on Sunday we celebrate you!

Warm regards,

Nikolas Taufatofua
Deputy Principal

Junior Choir Singing on Assembly

Junior Choir will be singing on Assembly on Friday Sept. 6th.

Our Junior Choir students will meet in the Assembly area on the oval for a warm-up and sound check at 8.30am on Friday 6th and will then move to classrooms for roll call.

The Choir will then reassemble on the Choir risers in the Assembly area when classes gather at 9.15am.

Our students are greatly looking forward to singing for family and friends and hope to see many smiling faces on the day.     -Mrs Shephard

Trash Monster Competition

Hand in to Sustainability Captains, Thursday the 5th of August (Week 9).

P&C News

REMINDER: Absence Exemptions

Dear Parents and Carers,

If you are anticipating that your child will be absent from school for over 10 school days (this is not inclusive of weekends and the school holidays), you will require an "Absence Exemption Form" to be filled out, submitted to the school office and approved by our principal before the absence commences. 

If your child will be absent from school for over 10 school days, please inform their class teacher and school office of the dates they will be away, and the reason. You will be given an "Absence Exemption Form" to fill out by the school office. This can be submitted via email or in person to the school administration staff.

You will also need to provide any proof of travel. For students who are travelling overseas, this will always be their outgoing and return flight tickets to Australia. For students who are travelling domestically or require an absence exemption for medical or family reasons, the office staff will advise the evidence you will need to provide. 

Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the school office at: admin@brisbanecentralss.eq.edu.au 

Children's Emotional Awareness & The Role of Parents

Although small in stature, a lot like adults, children can experience big feelings. For children, surges of emotion can sometimes be overwhelming—and not just for them but for the people around them. It’s here that understanding emotions can have a great impact, especially when it comes to emotional regulation.

As a parent, you play a central role in your child’s emotional development. You’re often their first point of call when trying to navigate their emotions. By developing the skills to identify, understand and regulate emotions, your child can start to feel more resilient to stress, more confident in their social connections and able to better manage and regulate emotional responses.

The importance of starting young

Emotionally aware children are more socially adaptable, resilient¹ and, according to some studies—happier ². 

Developing the ability to recognise, understand and regulate emotions from early childhood is key to building stronger emotional regulation in children. It also helps support your child’s mental health into adolescence and beyond. Kids and teens who are able to harness these skills early can:

• React more calmly and appropriately to challenging situations
• Return to a state of calm more quickly after experiencing strong emotions
• Regulate impulsive behaviour
• Avoid harmful and reactive behaviours, language and reactions
• Be more empathetic in their interactions with others³

The important role of the parent

As a parent, you wear many hats in caring for and nurturing your child. You may feel you have to 'be strong' for them by concealing your own emotions during times of stress. However, you're one of the most influential role models your child has, and speaking openly about emotions is a great way to help them develop their own emotional literacy. 

Emotional literacy is the ability to be aware of, understand and effectively express emotions through communication.

Children mirror what they see around them. So, how you respond to your emotions in front of your child can directly influence how they develop their own individual emotional habits.

Furthermore, how you respond to your child’s emotions, also greatly impacts how they learn to self-manage their emotional responses.

By being more responsive, engaged and empathetic to both yours and your child’s emotions, your child will begin to engage in similar behaviours. Children who are more attuned, patient and understanding not only emotionally regulate more effectively, but also experience healthier social relationships.

How to tackle emotional awareness at home 

Teaching your child about emotions can be challenging. However, remember that you know your child best. Identifying what your child responds to is the first step to learning how to identify and name emotions—AKA, emotional literacy.

Emotional literacy can be broken down into three parts:

• The ability to name what you’re feeling
• Self-regulating difficult emotions
• Managing the impact of other peoples’ emotions

It’s important to remember here that these skills will continue to build over time as your child grows older and develops emotionally, socially and cognitively. This means that what works for your child will continue to change too. Remember to:

• Be patient
• Go slowly
• Show empathy
• Be flexible in your approach

One of the most important steps to promoting emotional awareness at home is starting conversations—both about your child’s emotions and your own. Encourage discussions around anger, sadness and disappointment rather than avoiding those big emotions and trying to make yourself or your child just feel happy again.  

Look for opportunities to start conversations about emotions naturally, in everyday moments where they arise. You could consider:

• How do you self-regulate your own emotions?
  
  Next time you find yourself feeling angry in front of your child, verbalise to them what you are thinking, how you are feeling and the steps you can take to calm down.
  
  
• How do you cheer yourself up?
  
  When you’re sad or disappointed, express these feelings with your child using language that shows acceptance and self-compassion. You may like to invite them to participate in what you do to help you feel better, e.g. a comforting hug, going for a walk, painting, listening to music, watching a movie.
  
  
• Invite your child to explore the mind-body connection with you
  
  If your child is becoming frustrated while playing a game, relate to their experience by explaining how our bodies can feel when we experience frustration, such as feeling hot and bothered, or wriggly and agitated, or ‘funny in the tummy’. Then, ask them how they feel at that moment. Together, you can discuss ideas to cope and calm the mind and body frustration.

How to know your child needs extra help

Emotional regulation comes in peaks and troughs—it takes skill and practice to be able to consistently handle these fluctuations.

Some children may need more focused assistance when learning to understand their emotions. This could be for a number of reasons, including a range of external factors or situations, like moving and changing schools through to having difficulties making friends or experiencing bullying.

To tell if your child might need some extra support, some signs to look out for include:

• Struggling to express or recognise their emotions
• Demonstrating inappropriate or disproportionate reactions to a given situation
• Often seem overwhelmed by their emotions
• Strong emotions linger long after the event that caused them 
• Intense emotions can switch instantaneously, or frequently 
• Social withdrawal—especially when overwhelmed

To help parents navigate these tricky behaviours, the Smiling Mind Resilient Families Program has research-led emotion and mental fitness modules for families to better recognise, understand and respond effectively to emotions.

“I have started using this with my child who is struggling with emotions. We have gone through the emotions modules together. This has helped us as a family to understand our emotions. It has helped him understand how he is feeling and we discuss what we should do when we feel emotions.”

— Parent using the Smiling Mind Resilient Families Program 

The bite-sized activities in the program can help children learn about emotions in a practical and engaging way. The activities in each module are also great conversation prompts for you and your child to discuss, which can work to strengthen their emotional awareness.

In Smiling Mind’s evaluation of the Resilient Families Program, children were asked what they found to be the most helpful part, and over three in five (63%) said that it helped them name their emotions. And as it's often said, naming emotions is the first step to taming them.

Emotional awareness is healthy. It leads to happier, more empathetic kids and teens, while also building resilience from the safety of home. As a parent, you can help your child navigate their emotions and develop core EQ skills right from the start.

For more information and guidance on how to embed emotional awareness development into your family's everyday life, explore the Smiling Mind Resilient Families Program. A program dedicated to building resilient, empathetic kids, you’ll equip yourself with the strategies you need to emotionally support your child, every step of the way.

To learn more about the references in this article and to download the "Smiling Mind App" for the Resilient Families Program, please follow this link:

https://blog.smilingmind.com.au/childrens-emotional-awareness-and-the-role-of-parents 

RUOK Day

Library

It was a "Magical" Book Week!!

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Queensland Academies - Brilliant Futures Brisbane

QACI (Queensland Academies Creative Industries) is a selective-entry state high school for highly capable students in Years 10 - 12.

We are excited to launch a new two-year extra curricular preparation program for students to particpate when they are in Year 7 and Year 8. Students currently in Year 6 are welcome to apply now for entry into the 2-year program commencing in 2025.

Brilliant Futures Brisbane provides impactful, collaborative extra-curricular learning experiences aligned with the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile, including inquiry, critical thinking and reflection.

To assist us to promote this new initiative to your community we have attached an A5 Flyer and an/or an image for your community/school newsletter.

If you have and online newsletter, may we ask that the image and/or flyer be linked to the following page for more information about the program: https://qaci.eq.edu.au/enrolments/brilliant-futures-brisbane-program.

We can provide adjusted sizes of images to suit your newsletter, social media platforms or digital school notice boards - email admissions@qaci.eq.edu.au with your required specifications and we can create something to suit your needs.

Thank you for assisting us to promote state education in Queensland and these valuable enrichment activities for your community.

With regards

Queensland Academies Creative Industries

Crazy Coco Morning