A very big welcome back to all of our Gawura families. I hope you all had some kind of break although it was difficult for us to get out side during this lockdown period. I hope you and your family had a chance to rest up.

Last Friday you would have received an email from Dr Collier and another one from myself outlining our school’s plans to have students come back. It will be in a phased or staggered approach. During phase one, Gawura will return to school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, beginning next Monday, May 11. The school day will be shortened at either end with hours being 9.30am to 2.30pm. The Gawura bus will operate on these days. Thursday and Friday will still be remote learning. I will let everyone know when we move to phase two, which will be four days a week. However, that will be depending on how successful phase one is. In all of these decisions we take on the advice of the NSW Premier and the NSW Department of Health.

Due to the coronavirus restrictions and in particular the lockdown of remote Indigenous communities I have had to postpone our planned On Country Tour to Cape York in July this year. We do not want to put the health of the local Indigenous elders who deliver the program in Cape York at risk (as they are also classed as vulnerable), so I have made the decision to move it to the July holidays in 2021. No students will miss out on this amazing opportunity and it also allows our current students in Year 4 to attend next year when they are in Year 5.

One of Gawura’s major donors is the Bank of America (they have been for some time now). They recently donated a number of laptops that they are no longer using and wish them to go to our Gawura families. Our IT Department have been installing some essential software on these over the holiday break. When students return next Monday, May 11, every family will receive one laptop each. Although these laptops are not the newest ones on the market they are still operational and will allow you to access the internet, write Word documents and complete a number of other worthy functions. They will also come with a charger. Our sincere thanks to Bank of America for making this kind and thoughtful donation.

Please see a message from our Head of Middle School, Mr John Partington in relation to a Year 7 Information Night coming up and also the Gawura Scholarship Brochure for enrolment applications for 2021.

Our teachers have missed their students and we look forward to the gradual return to school. All Gawura students will commence back at school next Monday, May 11 for just three days to begin with and then moving to four days a week for phase two at a later date.

Have a wonderful and safe week ahead.

Mr John Ralph
Head of Gawura

Enrolments process for Gawura Kindy 2021 will start in June.

Please ensure you have applications in for any of your younger children, and also please spread the word to anyone you know who has Kindy 2021 age children.

Application forms are available from our school website www.gawura.nsw.edu.au or from Mr John Ralph jralph@sacs.nsw.edu.au or Mr Bruce Perry bperry@sacs.nsw.edu.au

Please take a look at the Scholarship Brochure at the end of this newsletter

Dear Year 6 SACS & Gawura parents,

We are looking forward to having you all in the Middle School in 2021.  No doubt you have some questions about the who, what , when, where and why of Year 7.  Given the current restrictions we cannot hold our regular transition evening on site, so we decided to create an electronic evening instead.  This will mean that you can hear from some of the key staff from Middle School. This will include the Head of School (Dr Collier), the Director of Learning – Middle School (Mrs Kate Layhe), the Year 7 Coordinator 2021 (Mrs Jessica Gardiner) and myself. 

Further details will be sent regarding the platform and timing of the evening.  At this stage we are planning on holding the event on Tuesday May 19, 4:00pm.  We are in the process of finalising the program but I thought you would like plenty of notice. 

I look forward to speaking with you through the internet.  As current SACS & Gawura parents you are a very important part of the community and we value your support as we welcome new families in Year 7, 2021.

John Partington
Head of Middle School

Dealing with Disappointment

The Coronavirus is impacting families around the world and changing how we do things on a daily basis. In many cases, it has resulted in the indefinite postponement of many special, and often long-awaited events, such as milestone birthdays, sporting competitions, school trips and family holidays.

Disappointment can be a tricky emotion to deal with at any age, but particularly for young people whose world has been turned upside down in a matter of weeks. Although disappointment is a normal part of growing up, adults need to remember that kids have a lot of choice regarding how they respond to it. Their response will determine the impact on their future happiness. Disappointment is considered a healthy and positive emotion that is essential to a child’s emotional, intellectual and social development.

It is important to help kids manage their disappointment in order to avoid stronger emotions such as anxiety and depression. Although your first reaction may be to fix the problem, it is better to encourage them to find the words to express how they feel.

In this Special Report, parents and caregivers will be provided with some tips on how to help a child process disappointment and look at the problem objectively. We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this Special Report, and as always, we welcome your feedback.

If you do have any concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please contact the school for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to your special report https://junior-sacs.nsw.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-dealing-disappointment

SchoolTV is a SACS P&F funded initiative to support the parents and caregivers of our students.

Bronwyn Wake
Junior School Wellbeing Co-ordinator

If anyone would have told me this time last year that I would be teaching Music in a “remote” setting, I wouldn’t have believed a word of it. But here we are. I am heartened to see so many students having online tuition, and to see that the love of music remains strong. In fact, many people I have communicated with recently have said that music is more important than ever in this challenging time!

Our tutors are doing a wonderful job and from the many reports I have received, the process of online music lessons is going as well as can be expected. We are particularly grateful to our tutors for all they have done, and all they continue to do in order to facilitate online lessons. Many have commented on how delighted they are with the commitment from their SACS/Gawura students. Our students are responding wonderfully and a very special thank you must also go to the parents who have been supervising these lessons in such trying times.

In the last few weeks, I have witnessed students and teachers playing the Last Post in their driveways. I have seen videos of students who have learned new pieces, and through the amazing technology we have available to us, been willing to share them with our community.

I have been encouraged by the number of students keen to take up the SACS Perform With Pride competition https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=888681034936181 as well as those who have signed up to our virtual choir. Music is such an important part of our lives.

We have been missing our face to face contact with our ensembles and hope that these can resume in the near future. Some (but not all) ensembles will have work emailed to them so that students can work towards learning something new and I encourage students to engage with this material as it arrives.
Please feel free to contact krobertson@sacs.nsw.edu.au  if there are any matters pertaining to music learning at SACS or Gawura for K-6 which you would like to discuss, or even if you would just like to share a video of a performance. I would love to see footage of our students playing and will accept these willingly!

Kate Robertson
Head of Music (K-6)

Congratulations to all of the students who have been busily reading for the Premier’s Reading Challenge 2020! We have a number of students who have already completed the challenge. Well done!

As the weather starts to change, curling up with a good book sounds more and more enticing. For now, remember that our school has a well-stocked eBook library which your child can access from home on their school device, or the Wheelers ePlatform app can be downloaded from your usual app store onto any device. There are hundreds of Premier’s Reading Challenge titles available there.

To support families during the restrictions brought with COVID-19, the PRC have changed the rules for 2020. Children may now read 10 choice books as part of their total number – an increase from 5. If you would like to take advantage of that rule change, there are special codes that need to added in your child’s record. Please see this support article for more information.
https://prcsupport.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/24000054175

Nicole Cotter
Junior School and Gawura School Teacher Librarian

Co-curricular program

We’ve kicked off our Term 2 remote co-curricular program with exciting options available for students in K-6! Students have the opportunity to do art and craft, baking, movie making and many more. If you’d like to book please contact Mr Dunseath tdunseath@sacs.nsw.edu.au and you’ll begin receiving content which you can work through at your own pace at home.

Tony Dunseath
Coordinator of Sport and Cocurricular K-6, PDHPE Teacher

Anxious Kids?

In these recent times, it is most understandable for our children to be anxious. It is indeed quite understandable if we are too! It is certainly uncharted waters for many of us. I do see that we are becoming stronger though. I see our children learning new skills, new and important life lessons. Yesterday my class wrote some amazing things about connections they had made in the last week…calling grandma and chatting to friends, telling each other jokes, talking to you, their parents and each other much more than before the virus outbreak. These are good things. Dr Jodi Richardson, a mental health and wellbeing educator and author, has written this blog this month. It has some great thoughts along these lines. She has developed her expertise over two decades of professional work in teaching, wellbeing, clinical practice and elite sport, including working for Beyond Blue.

“When our minds wander to troubling thoughts, we end up experiencing pain and suffering at times when we’re often warm and dry, fed and watered, safe and secure. It’s the same with our kids. It’s often at the end of the day when they’re no longer engaged in activities that they begin to think and worry. Their minds are far away from the reality of being safe in their rooms with loving family close by but they are sick with worry about future events. It takes practice to notice a wandering mind, gently ‘unhook’ from the thought and return our attention to the present moment. Notice, unhook, return, repeat.”

Here are some of Dr Richardson’s ideas:

1. Put your head where your hands are meaning think about what it is you’re doing while you’re doing it.

2. Viewing the world through anxiety goggles
When our kids feel anxious, they look at what’s happening around them through ‘anxiety goggles’. It’s like when you look through a pair of glasses with red lenses and everything looks red. Take them off and all is clear again. What if we could help our kids to take off their anxiety goggles and learn to look at their thoughts rather than from them? It would bring them such relief.

3. Creating a lovely space between our kids and what they’re thinking
We can help our kids do this by developing their metacognition (thought-noticing) skills. That way, when their minds wander to their worries and troubles, they can notice they’re actually ‘lost in thought’ and not really experiencing the events they are thinking about. It would help them to ‘unhook’ from their daydreaming and importantly, bring their minds back to the present moment.

4. Teaching thought-noticing to kids
There are many ways to teach thought noticing to kids. Look at these ideas like a ‘Choose your own adventure’.

      a. Do you hear what I hear?
Lay down comfortably side by side and spend 2 minutes listening for any sounds you can hear, near or far. When you’re finished, compare what you heard and open a discussion about how our minds often wander away with our thoughts.

      b. Tell me more
Day-to-day conversations are great for thought noticing. It’s about asking the right questions. Here are some examples to get the thought noticing conversation started: “Can you tell me more about why you think that? Why do you think you got so upset when we had to go straight home?

      c. Name your mind
If we get our kids to give their minds a name, we open up opportunities to ask them different questions. For instance, if your child's name is Sam then their mind is Sam. You can ask your child what Sam is thinking. This encourages your child to step back and take a helicopter view of him or herself.

      d. Post-meltdown reflection
In the aftermath of a meltdown or outburst, when calm has returned and your child or teen has moved on, take some time to ask why he/she got so upset over what happened? Ask questions like “what did your mind say to make you feel upset?” for younger children or “can you tell me what you were thinking that made you feel so angry, frustrated, disappointed etc.?”

"Developing metacognition or ‘thinking about thinking’ skills fosters self-regulation among children. As contributing to children’s mental health and happiness, metacognition helps kids be more successful, more resilient and be able to problem-solve because they are less likely to get caught up in their worries.”

I hope you found these thoughts helpful and I encourage you to have a think about trying some in the coming days ahead.

Joy Rohrlach
Year 5 Leader

We are proud to announce this year’s K-12 creative competition theme is – SYDNEY. Our school is located in the middle of the best city in the world. Sydney is part of SACS DNA and we are keen to see how students will creatively represent it. This year we have a NEW category - music composer of the year – can you compose a song/music about Sydney?

Thoughts to get you started:

• Explore Sydney’s past, present, or future
• Explore Sydney’s setting (eg city) for your story, artwork, music
• Explore Sydney’s culture – diversity, multicultural, aboriginal
• Explore Sydney’s vibe – positive, future focused, busy, modern
• Explore Sydney’s beautiful natural setting – harbour, parks, headlands, towns, architecture
• Explore Sydney’s people – homeless, business, students, shoppers

Click here for 2020 entry details and winners from past competitions.

Entries close Monday 19 October (Term 4 Week 2).

Strong pastoral care has long been an integral part of the student experience at SACS. In recent times, SACS has built on this by focusing on new Wellbeing and Character initiatives.

Students are encouraged to engage with this concept by seeing the value and purpose of having respectful relationships with others, knowing how to respond emotionally to situations in a helpful way and to engage thoughtfully in their work always with the aim to accomplish great things. This engagement is delivered via age and curriculum appropriate ways across the school.

P&F Presents Wellbeing and Character allows parents and carers the opportunity to hear from key members of staff about these initiatives, ask questions and have a conversation.

The panelists will be Mr Derek Champion, Leader of Wellbeing and Character; Ms Bronwyn Wake, Junior School and Gawura Wellbeing Coordinator; Mr Chris Kim, Head of Canterbury House; Miss Rebecca Leeds, Year 8 Coordinator and Mr Selwyn Wu, Deputy Head Junior School responsible for Student Welfare & Educational Admin.

Event details:

Date: Tuesday 12 May
Time: 6pm
Venue: Online.

As part of our SEW (Social & Emotional Wellbeing) program we are planning to launch the URSTRONG friendship program across the Junior School later in the year.  This program explicitly teaches children how to develop healthy friendships and how to manage conflict in a positive way, helping them flourish.  However, in these current challenging times we believe it is critical that children continue to feel safe and connected while parents are provided with all the support they need. Our partner, URSTRONG, is helping us achieve this by providing parents with free lifetime access to their URSTRONG Family membership. To access your complimentary membership, please visit https://urstrong.com/shop/parent-membership/ and use the coupon code URSTRONG.

Wednesday and Friday Appointments Available.

I would like to advise you that we have secured the services of a very generous doctor in the city who is willing to see our Gawura students and their families free of charge (he will bulk bill through Medicare) if the need arises. Dr Shuo (Shore) Zhao is located at Level 1, 70 Pitt St, Sydney. You can book an appointment with him on any Wednesday and Friday morning between 8am – 12pm. The number of the practice is 02 9233 3399.

We understand that many parents already have their own doctor that they use, possibly even through the Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) in Redfern but this is just another option for you to use if you choose to do so and one that is located in the city, near our school.