27 February 2020

Newsletter Articles

PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

Hello Swan Reach,

What a lightning pace term 1 has set for our teaching and learning cycles – week five already! One of our core values and vision for our learners is SUCCESS. SRAS explicitly develops students’ success attainment through developing their life-long learning skills – Organisation, Persistence, Getting Along, Confidence and Resilience. In 2020, these skills, also known as keys for success, will be taught in fortnightly blocks so that all 5 are targeted and developed each term.

Underpinning these skills and the ability for students to apply them more often, is the development of their positive thinking patterns – Habits of the Mind. Too often, when something negative happens, students bypass their thinking and act or react negatively because they have negative feelings about what occurred. When this happens, often the outcome is not successful. By training and applying positive ‘Habits of the Mind,’ students develop understanding that their thinking controls their feelings. Then they are able to replace negative thoughts with more positive ones that help them to feel more positive – and then they are likely to act in a more positive manner that leads to more success, more often.

MUSIC EDUCATION STRATEGY

The year 4-6 class ventured to The Old Barn, in Sedan, last week to begin trialling the innovation section of the Music Education Strategy. Students engage in their usual Literacy and Numeracy program in a music studio that doubles as their classroom. The small group and individual music lessons are held on the stage at the Barn, with its superior sound system, staging effects and musical instruments.

They travel by school commuter bus that leaves at 8:50am, and returns at 12:40pm, in time for lunch. The trial will continue on Wednesdays of week 6, 8 and 10 this term. SRAS invites interested parents and carers to attend the upcoming open learning day at the Barn, in week 8, and see the innovation first hand.

Students’ comments from the first trial were:

• “It was awesome.” “Good… amazing.” “Great environment.”
• “I felt like a musician.” “Better sound.”
• “With the lights and stage, I could picture an audience or crowd.”
• “Can’t wait until next time… I’m looking forward to it.”

GOVERNING COUNCIL

Congratulations to our elected and reappointed Governing Councillors for 2020. The office bearers are:

They will be well supported by: Mrs Katie O’Shaughnessy, Mr Troy Haby, Mrs Claire Durant, Mrs Helen Crisp and community member, Mr Rod Taylor.

The Council is seeking nominations to fill a casual position for a second community member. If interested, you can self-nominate to one of the office bearers or the principal. If you wish to nominate a community member for this position, thank you for asking them if they are interested prior to nominating them.

The next GC meeting is on Monday, 23rd March at 5:30pm in the staff room.

ATTENDANCE MATTERS

Congratulations to the Reception class, who demonstrated a 100% attendance rate by ALL students, up until last Thursday. The 4-6s were next best attended with 60% of the class attending at 100% so far. Overall, SRAS has 26 students who have a 100% attendance rate – well done!

General information

CYBERSPACE INFORMATION

Cyberbullying disproportionately affects teens and young people - yet why is this the case? Leading cybersafety expert Susan McLean discusses the reasons why cyberbullying is so prevalent among this age group, the legal consequences and what can be done in schools to better prevent it. Follow the link below to watch and hear her succinct and informative message.

Can new Snapchat features help troubled teens?

Snapchat has announced a new feature called “Here For You” that promises to “provide proactive in-app support to Snapchatters who may be experiencing a mental health or emotional crisis”.

The popular youth-oriented app is the latest to join a wave of social media platforms setting out to monitor and improve the well-being of their users.

Details are scarce, but it appears the Snapchat feature will monitor searches for key terms related to anxiety, depression, stress, grief, suicidal thoughts, and bullying. When these are detected, it will return links to helpful resources which Snapchat says will come from local experts.

This could mean, for example, that when a Snapchat user in Melbourne searches for “eating disorder” in the app, they are directed to credible content from Eating Disorders Victoria or the National Butterfly Foundation.

It’s a welcome move from Snapchat, because existing evidence suggests that conversations about mental health (including help seeking) are common online and that searching for such content is associated with lower well-being. Will it work? This likely depends on whether users actually click on the resources, and whether the resources are credible and lead people to seek treatment.

How have other social media platforms approached the issue?

On Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, users can block or report material, and Facebook also provides resources for users to engage directly with other users about their posts. These platforms, along with Pinterest, also deploy artificial intelligence to identify and ban content that may be viewed as harmful.

Facebook and Pinterest have also introduced more proactive measures, attempting to provide resources to users they view as being at risk for mental health concerns.

Perhaps prompted by a number of suicides broadcast via the platform, Facebook has launched a suicide prevention initiative, which uses AI capabilities to flag users who may be at risk of self-harm or suicide. Pinterest prompts users to undertake mood altering in-app activities based on their searches.

Details are often hidden from sight

The exact details of these social media features are often hidden from view, with press releases speaking only in vague terms. The science that may (or may not) motivate the design of the features is seldom mentioned.

There is also an absence of peer-reviewed literature evaluating how successfully these features achieve their stated goals. Such information is essential to know whether these changes are having any effect, or whether further measures are needed to keep social media users safe and well.

Potential benefits of these initiatives should also be weighed against privacy concerns. Privacy experts are concerned that information on Facebook is not covered by traditional data protection and security laws. What’s more, Facebook has not shared details of privacy protection protocols that are in place for the initiative.

We need to know more about social media and mental health

Even if software gets better at monitoring and restricting harmful content, there are plenty of other ways in which social media platforms may lead to emotional crisis. While some of these issues are well known (such as unfavourably comparing oneself to others), some are newer and users need a certain level of online literacy to become less vulnerable to them.

New users need support to avoid falling prey to traps for the unwary, such as catfishing, false accounts and impersonation, or being misled by inaccurate or dangerous health recommendations.

We still don’t know much about what kind of interventions are more effective than others, and for whom. We know that simplistic solutions, such as putting warning labels on digitally manipulated images or temporarily banning users who post offensive content, have not been found to be effective.

Blunt instruments like these may not be sufficiently sophisticated to respond to different levels of need and may only provide a short-term fix to long-term issues. We clearly need a more nuanced, multi-targeted approach.

A holistic approach may be the answer

Media literacy, anti-bullying, and resilience-building programs can reduce exposure to harmful content and equip people with the right skills to help them better manage their social media environment. This more holistic approach to social media-enabled intervention forms the focus of our team’s WIRED project.

One important factor in steering users towards appropriate care is to increase awareness of the importance and availability of health-care services. However, mental illnesses are complex, and having information alone is no guarantee that someone will seek treatment.

A host of barriers, both individual and systemic, can also prevent people from seeking help. These include the cost of treatment, lack of local treatment options, and the stigma attached to mental illness.

These barriers and complexities make it imperative that Snapchat and other platforms recommend the right resources. The decisions about these resources must be undergirded by a rigorous base of scientific evidence.

Most of all, Snapchat and its social media siblings must be transparent and accountable. If we can’t see exactly what they’re doing, we have no way to tell if it’s working.

Article by: Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Associate Professor, Psychology, Deakin University; Siân McLean, Research fellow, La Trobe University; Suku Sukunesan, Senior Lecturer in Business Systems and Design, Swinburne University of Technology, and Zali Yager, Associate Professor in Health and Physical Education, Victoria University

Mr John Robertson
Principal

EARLY CHILDHOOD IMMUNISATION REQUIREMENTS

From January 2020, early childhood services are required to keep immunisation records for children. Parents and guardians with children enrolled in a government early childhood service (eg Preschool, rural care, occasional care, family day care or respite care service) will be asked to provide approved immunisation records for their child. Please contact the school if you have questions or concerns.

Meningococcal Vaccination

Important information for parents and students re Meningococcal Vaccination

The free Meningococcal B catch-up program has been extended until 29th February 2020 for young adults, who were aged 17 to less than 21 years when the program started on 1 February 2019.

The Meningococcal ACWY is offered through the school program to 14 -16 year olds in year 10 however students aged 15 to less than 20 years of age who have not received the vaccine are able to access this vaccine through an ongoing GP and council clinic program.

The Meningococcal ACWY and Meningococcal B vaccines are available from GPs or your local council immunisation service for students who missed the opportunity at school to access these free vaccines.

From January to November 2019 there were 26 cases of invasive meningococcal disease reported in South Australia, compared to 30 cases recorded at the same time last year. Of the 26 cases in 2019, 18 have been serogroup B, four serogroup Y, and four serogroup W.

Ref; SA Health Media release 21 November 219

Help put a stop to this devastating disease.

Students or parents may phone HAIMS 8152 0363 if they have any questions relating to this notice.

PARENTS & FRIENDS NEWS

Thanks to all parents and friends who attended the Governing Council AGM.

Our elected members are:

President – Hayley Griffiths
Secretary – Mardi Le Brun
Treasurer – Liz Woodgate.

Committee Members

Kate Howie, Tash Wightman, Somma Donald, Shona Haby, Holly Cowland, Claire Durant & Kristy Castle.

Parents and Friends are fired up and ready to go for Sports Day on Friday the 13th of March.

After a successful day at the Swimming Carnival we have fine-tuned how we will run the Sports Day catering. By now you should have all received the Pre Order Form. Thanks to Trena and Tracey for getting this out. This is going to help us run smoothly on the day and it’s a bargain so please return it by Tuesday the 3rd of March. Parents are more than welcome to order on this form as well.

Some hamburgers will be available on the day plus drinks and ice creams.

Prices will be:

Hamburgers $4
Soft drinks and water $2
Chocolate Paddle Pops $1.50

Keep an eye on our Facebook page to keep up to date (Swan Reach Area School Parents and Friends).

We will be looking for a couple of extra pairs of hands so if you want to get involved this is the perfect way. We look forward to seeing what sportsmanship the teachers bring to Sports Day!

Mardi Le Brun
Parents and Friends
Secretary

UPPER SOUTH EAST SWIMMING CARNIVAL

Last Tuesday, Cora O’Shaughnessy, Olivia Griffiths and Dalton Gribble represented SRAS at the Upper South East Swimming Carnival in Coonalpyn. SRAS combined with Karoonda and Tintanara Area Schools for the carnival. All swimmers did an incredible job competing for our school, with all three each finishing in the top two of at least one of their individual events. This is great achievement against seriously strong competition within the USE zone. A big thank you to Clinton Griffiths, who came along to help out and cheer on our competitors. It’s extremely important and highly valued to have parent support for these days. SRAS families are very fortunate that the school provides and offers access to sporting and extracurricular days, as many other schools do not provide transport to and from such events.

Mr Jayden Coleman
Sports Coordinator

PEDAL PRIX NEWS

Students have started training for our 3 race events this year. These include: Loxton 3rd May, Adelaide 26th July and the 24 hour at Murray Bridge on the 12th -13th September. This year the students have the opportunity to be involved at the Easter Fair, on 11th April with the slushy bike. They will also showcase the pedal prix bike at the Swan Reach River Run to the Reach and Street Party on April the 19th.

Mr Greg Griffiths
Teacher

SWAN REACH AREA SCHOOL SPORTS DAY

With term 1 being such an incredibly busy time of year for everyone, there is no surprise that our SRAS athletics carnival is almost upon us. Our sporting ventures will now shift from the swimming pool onto the oval. I must say, Mr Carter has the oval looking in the best condition that I’ve seen. Parents, carers, family members, are welcome to join in the excitement and cheer on your child/ren on Friday, 13th March (week 7). Better yet, if you would personally like to volunteer as an official marshal for this day, contact the school to let them know of your interest. Students will be commencing athletics practice sessions in the morning, starting next week.

We kindly thank the efforts of our amazing Parents and Friends team for catering lunches for this event. Refer to their report in the Newsletter for more details.

Keep your ears open for any talk about a ‘mysterious new event’ – one that will capture the attention and encourage the participation of all students. I look forward to seeing everyone supporting this exciting day!

Go Murray Eagles and Mallee Kangaroos

Mr Jayden Coleman
Sports Coordinator

SKI FOR LIFE

Swan Reach Area School and community will again be actively supporting the Ski for Life event in 2020. ¬¬The charity group exists with the purpose and passion to make social change when it comes to mental health, wellbeing and suicide prevention. Skiing over 450km in 3 days, the Ski for Life teams will be heading through Swan Reach next Friday, March 6th. Arriving at approximately 1:45pm, teams will be skiing up to our local reserve for a catered lunch provided by the Swan Reach Progress Association. The school will also be attending this spectacular afternoon with a FREE BBQ lunch for students at 1pm. Teachers and SSOs will be supervising and running free outdoor activities including cricket, Jenga, connect 4 and checkers. For more information regarding this foundation, please visit the Ski for Life page on Facebook.

Miss Rohie Griffiths
Teacher

Crows Visits

On Monday 17th February Crows players spent time engaging the primary students in their “Growing with Gratitude” program. The program focuses on 5 habits of happiness and bringing people together. Students were involved in activities to promote positive mindset and develop mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. All students enjoyed the activities and the cameo appearance of Claude the Crow.

On Tuesday 25th February Crows players Andrew McPherson, Rory Laird and Ronin O’Connor spoke to both primary and secondary students. They reinforced the messages of healthy eating and being involved in sport to keep fit

SCHOOL LUNCH ORDERS

We thank the Swan Reach General Store for supplying lunch orders for the school. The menu and ordering details are below.

SRAS WEBSITE

The Swan Reach Area School website is where you can find all the school information including the newsletter, forms and polices. Please visit the link below.

NEWSLETTER INFORMATION

Due Date for the next Newsletter is 10:00am, Tuesday 25th February, 2020. The newsletter is distributed via the SZApp and school website. Printed copies are still available upon request.

Articles can be emailed to dl.0423.info@schools.sa.edu.au clearly marked in the subject box as Newsletter, faxed to 8570 2325 or delivered to the library/front office. Due to the way the Newsletter is now being set up, not all photos are included in the print copy, however there are several photo galleries included online and via the SZApp.

PLAYGROUP

Swan Reach Playgroup at SRAS Early Learning Centre. Every Tuesday during term time 10am-12pm. All children birth to school age are welcome for indoor and outdoor play. Please wear sun-smart clothing, bring a hat, water bottle and fruit/veg to share for healthy snack time. $2 per session, per family.

Contact Katie at the school on 8570 2053.

P-CMG

Parent Mother Goose sessions will return to Swan Reach in the Early Learning Centre on Tuesday Week 4, 18th February 2020; 10:30 – 11:30, then odd school weeks thereafter. PCMG is a chance to get out of the house for babies and toddlers and their carers. Bond with your children and have fun using the power of songs, rhymes and stories. Trained facilitators lead a relaxed session for parents and children with a play and coffee n chat after. Sessions are free and there is no booking involved!

CAFHS VISIT

Child and Family Health Service will visit the Early Learning Centre on Tuesday 10th March during the Playgroup and Parent Mother Goose sessions.

Coming Events 2020

Community Notice Board

Kids Club

3:15pm-4:30pm FRIDAY 6th & 27th March 2020, at the Swan Reach Lutheran Hall. For Reception to Year 7 students. Cost $1. Enquiries Phone Taryn 0427 702 377 or Kristy 0438 857 721.

Easter Fair

Swan Reach Christian Women’s Group

Meet at 11am, Tuesday 10th March at the Swan Reach Lutheran Hall. Devotion, bible study and pooled lunch. All Welcome.

River Run to the Reach and Street Party