Thrive Newsletter Term 2 Week 4

Understanding and Addressing Anxiety in Australian School Students

Anxiety among school students across Australia is a significant concern, with statistics revealing a troubling prevalence of this mental health issue. According to recent studies, approximately 7-10% of Australian children and adolescents experience anxiety-related disorders, with numbers seemingly on the rise in recent years. This trend is alarming, as anxiety not only impacts academic performance but also interferes with overall well-being and development.

One common manifestation of anxiety in school students is the “anxiety cycle.” This cycle typically begins with a trigger, such as academic pressure, social interactions, or performance expectations. This trigger leads to feelings of worry, fear, and apprehension. As anxiety escalates, it often manifests physically through symptoms like headaches, nausea and “sore tummies” or difficulty sleeping.

The physiological response to anxiety can exacerbate the emotional distress, creating a feedback loop that reinforces anxious thoughts and behaviours. Consequently, students may adopt avoidance strategies to cope with their anxiety. For instance, they may skip school, procrastinate on assignments, or withdraw from social activities to alleviate their discomfort temporarily. While these avoidance tactics provide short-term relief, they perpetuate the cycle by reinforcing the belief that the feared situation is intolerable.

School avoidance is a concerning consequence of anxiety, as it not only hampers academic progress but also isolates students from important social and developmental experiences. Moreover, chronic absenteeism due to anxiety can lead to academic underachievement, strained relationships with peers and teachers, and long-term consequences for mental health.

Breaking the anxiety cycle and addressing school avoidance requires us to all work together as a team and early intervention is key to preventing the escalation of anxiety disorders and minimizing the impact on academic and social functioning.

Last week as part of our commitment to continual improvement some of our Executive Team attended a training event at the Australian Independent Schools NSW Head Offices in Sydney. One of the wonderful resources we came away with was a short lesson on this anxiety cycle created for students, along with two short videos. We wanted to share these with you below. I encourage you as parents to watch these short videos. They explain this clearly and succinctly, and we have shared and discussed these videos this week in our Wellbeing Classes. Our students identified, discussed and engaged with this content encouragingly and we have had rich and supportive conversations because of it.

Please take the time to talk to your child about this and please reach out for any support at all; either for yourself, or your child. We know it takes a village and we are grateful for the privilege of being part of yours.

Above all, we serve a wonderfully good and great God, who can do immeasurably more than we could ever even think to ask for. He promises in Romans 8:28 that “All things” work towards the good of those who love him and he tells us that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without his knowledge in Matthew 10:29. He controls every atom of our universe and loves us with an unfathomably deep love. When we walk through the shadows, he never leaves us and walks with us. To struggle is human but we have a Saviour who walked, talked, suffered and experienced these human things. Trust Him today and cast all your cares upon Him, for he cares for you!

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

The animation in the video links below is designed to assist in supporting students and parents in understanding the anxiety cycle and the best approaches for support. It includes Part 1: The Anxiety Cycle and Part 2: Challenging the Anxiety Cycle.

Part 1: The Anxiety Cycle – https://vimeo.com/853559371/1b2d74ea63?share=copy

Part 2: Challenging the Anxiety Cycle – https://vimeo.com/853560063/8102b408da?share=copy

School Updates

Did you know??

We have set up a dedicated email address where you can send your compliments or concerns. If you want to express your appreciation or acknowledge the outstanding performance of one of our staff members, feel free to send us an email. You can also provide us with feedback about what you like about our school and what we are doing well. In case you have any suggestions for improvement, please let us know, so we can take the necessary steps to enhance our school. Email: feedback@ccs.nsw.edu.au

Early Departures or Late Arrivals

We appreciate that there may be times when students may need to leave early or arrive late to school. If a parent or guardian cannot come to the office to sign them in or out of school please send a signed written note, email, phone the office or use the School Stream app to inform us via the Absentee Form. This helps us keep our child safe obligations and identify truancy behaviours.

Students will not be permitted to leave the school grounds if a parent/guardian is unable to be contacted or a if note has not been provided.

School Safety

We have implemented some measures in our school for the safety of students, parents and visitors. These are specifically for anyone entering the school grounds either as a visitor or if a student is being picked up.

As per our policy, all parents and visitors who come to the school for any reason are required to report to the office and sign the Visitor register. The only exemption to this is school assemblies which we do not require sign in.

If you need to collect your child early, please report to the office directly. One of our office staff members will either call your child to the office if it is appropriate, or they will go and collect your child from their classroom. Parents are NOT permitted to go to the class to collect students, staff MUST do this. This is specifically for child protective reasons.

If you know in advance that you will need to collect your child early on a particular day, please inform our office staff in the morning. This will help us make arrangements with your child’s teacher to have your child ready at the desired time for you to collect from the office.

If you require any further information on this please don’t hesitate to contact the school. We thank you for your cooperation in helping keep our children and school community safe.

Meeting Teachers and Support Staff

At CCS, we place great importance on maintaining open communication with our students and their families. We encourage regular contact throughout the academic year, in various ways, and want to be available to meet with you as necessary.

However, please note, that we generally require all visitors to schedule an appointment ahead of time to meet with any of our school staff members unless it is an emergency, as they are usually very busy during the day caring for our wonderful and important students.

Usually, Teachers, Executive Team Members or Support Staff are not available during school hours to chat, so making an appointment in advance means we can more fully understand, or attend to any concerns or queries. Please contact the office via email admin@ccs.nsw.edu.au or phone 6662 5599 to arrange a mutually convenient time.

Bus Safety & Travel

Dear Parents and Carers

We have had some reports that some students (from all of the schools in the area, including ours) are engaging in some unsafe behaviours when waiting at bus stops or interchanges. Some of the reports include not wearing seatbelts, students throwing rocks at traffic, or daring each other to run out onto the road. Some of these students are quite young and this is quite worrying.

We will be looking into this in more detail for individual concerns, but we respectfully ask everyone to have serious conversations with their child/ren if they catch the public buses around safety and appropriate behaviour when on the buses, or waiting for buses.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Camp Payments

STAGE 2 (YEAR 3 & 4) CAMP OUT! – CYC @ Casino Christian School 6th to 7th June 2024 |

(Thurs-Friday Week 6, Term 2)

The total cost of the camp per student will be $170, made in two instalments:

$100 deposit – due by Friday 3rd May (Wk 1, Term 2) with a completed note (non-refundable)
$70 second payment – due by Friday 17th May (Wk 3, Term 2)
Please contact the school office if you need to discuss a modified payment plan.

SNOW CAMP – STAGE 4 (YEAR 9 & 10) 18th to 22nd August

Instalment plan payments due:

12th April $400
31st May $400
5th July $500

How School Funding Works

The AIS has made it easier for parents to understand how our school funding is allocated. Take a look at the video link and brochure below.

Parent Talk

Term 2 ‘Parent Talk’ is now open for registrations. This talk will be held on Tuesday 28th May from 7.30 – 8.30pm.

Elizabeth Singhi (Speech Pathologist) will present on:

“Executive Functioning: How you can support your child/teen to get it together!”

Please see the attached flyer or our website (www.ldc.org.au) for further information and to register.

Wellbeing

Responding to School Reluctance or Refusal

Who are these guidelines for?

These guidelines are a general set of recommendations on how you (as a parent or caregiver) can reduce your child’s risk of school refusal and support their mental health and school engagement if they are having problems with school attendance. The strategies included in these guidelines are intended to apply to parents of both primary and secondary school-aged children.
The guidelines may be useful for parents who are worried about their child’s engagement with school and those whose child is already experiencing school reluctance or refusal. Each family is unique, so you may need to adapt these strategies to your specific situation.
The guidelines are not intended for parents whose child is experiencing truancy (i.e., ‘wagging’ or skipping school) or those who are unable to attend school due to other circumstances that prevent them from attending.

Below are some warning signs of school refusal, to take a look at the full guide click on this link Responding To School Refusal Booklet

Raising Healthy Minds

Do you have a question about your child’s
emotions, behaviours and wellbeing?

The Raising Healthy Minds app is a FREE, personalised pocket resource to help you raise confident, resilient children. Co-designed with parents and experts and funded by the Australian Government, the app offers a mix of quick-read articles, videos and animations designed to support your child’s social and emotional wellbeing from birth to age 12.

Download from Google Play or the App Store or go to raisingchildren.net.au/rhm to learn more and raise a healthy mind

Primary News

Dress Like a Pirate Day

On Friday the 17th of May Primary dressed in their best Pirate attire to raise money towards medical research for Children’s Brain Cancer. Primary had a wonderful parade during their assembly.

National Simultaneous Story Time

On Wednesday 22nd of May Primary participated in National Simultaneous Story Time. National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Now in its 24th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children’s book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6. This year the book was ‘Bowerbird Blues” by Aura Parker.

AEDC Fact Sheet

Secondary News

NSW School Vaccination Program

Tuesday 4th June – Year 7 Vaccinations – Consent Needed

In 2024 the following vaccines will be offered:

If your child is in Year 7 or Year 10 this year, you can now provide online consent for their routine school vaccinations.

In Year 7, students are offered free vaccines for diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (dTpa) and human papillomavirus (HPV). In Year 10, students are offered the meningococcal ACWY vaccine.

Vaccination will only be provided at school if consent has been received.

To complete online consent for your child’s school vaccinations, visit: https://engage.health.nsw.gov.au/engage

Follow the steps to log in to your existing Service NSW account. This is the same account you may already use to renew your driver’s If you don’t have a Service NSW account, refer to Service NSW to create one.
Update or confirm your personal details in Service NSW
Complete the School Vaccination Consent Form for your child/ren. You will need to:
1. Enter your child’s personal details
2. Provide the Medicare card details for you and your child
3. Read the linked Parent Information Sheet and privacy statement. Translations available in 27 languages
4. Provide consent

If you or your child do not have a Medicare card, consent can still be provided by requesting a paper based consent form directly from your child’s school.

The benefits of providing consent online:

easily update your child’s details
receive SMS and/or email notifications when vaccinations are given
faster upload of vaccination records to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR).

For more information on routine school vaccinations, please visit www.health.nsw.gov.au/schoolvaccination.

If you require information in your language, please visit www.health.nsw.gov.au/imrnunisation/Pages/school vaccination language.aspx

Sports News

Cross Country Carnival – Friday 10th May

Thank you to everyone involved in the Cross Country Carnival. Everyone did their bit to make sure the carnival ran smoothly. It was fantastic to see so many parents at school to watch their child run their event and the participation by students was excellent.

In particular, we would like to thank Kieran and Rick from our maintenance team who put a lot of work in on the track to make it really clear and enjoyable for the students.

State Cross Country Carnival will be on Friday 31st May 2023 at Sydney International Equestrian Centre. We have over sixty students selected to represent the school, this is a fantastic achievement!

House Results – Congratulations Taylor!

1st – Taylor on 159 points

2nd – Liddell on 141 points

3rd – Elliot on 125 points

Congratulations to our Age Champions

Junior Primary Girls: Tully Benn-van Beers

Junior Primary Boys: Ace Williams

Senior Primary Girls: Bella Mines-Salvat

Senior Primary Boys: Zavier Barton

Junior Secondary Girls: Makayla Kemsley

Junior Secondary Boys: Darcy Watson

Intermediate Secondary Girls: Jaime McCabe

Intermediate Secondary Boys: Patrick Murphy

Senior Secondary Girls: Bridie Chaffey

Senior Secondary Boys: Angus Gibson

Bill Turner Results

Our U15 Boys Soccer Team played against Lismore High on Thursday the 16th May. The boys played very well in some wet, muddy conditions and should be proud of their efforts! Unfortunately, they lost against Lismore and are now knocked out of the Bill Turner Cup.

Zone Soccer

On the 21st of May CCS participated in the Zone Soccer Carnival at Kingscliffe. We had five teams attend including Year 5/6, U15’s Girls, Open Girls, Under 15’s Boys and Open Boys. All the teams played very well.

PASS / SLR Elective Excursion

PLEASE NOTE THE DATE CHANGE

On Wednesday 5th June, 2024 the PASS elective group will be staying at school from 3.30pm to 8.30pm
to play wide games across the school, night games and to eat loaded hotdogs for dinner.

The aim of this activity is for students to participate in a number of high energy games that cannot normally be
experienced during regular school hours. Mr McPherson, Mrs Bryant and Mr Boland will be supervising the
students for this after school activity.

If you have not yet completed a permission note please download and complete the form in the link below.

1 Meal & Night Games Note

School Athletics Schedule 2024

~ TERM 2 ~

Friday 24th May – Week 4

• Secondary (1.40pm – 3.00pm): 1500m Track Event (Year 7 to 12).

• Primary may do this with Secondary or at a separate time.

Friday 31st May – Week 5

• Secondary (1.40pm – 3.00pm): Javelin (boys) and Discus (girls) Event (Year 7 to 12).

• Primary will do discus during their sport or class-time.

Friday 7th June – Week 6

• Secondary (1.40pm – 3.00pm): Javelin (girls) and Discus (boys) Event (Year 7 to 12).

• Primary will do discus during their sport or class-time.

Wednesday 12th June – Week 7

• 1.40pm – 2.05pm: House Meetings (Elliot to Library / Taylor to D9 / Liddell to A11).

Tuesday 18th June – Week 8

• Secondary Athletics Carnival at CCS (12 years and over in 2024).

Wednesday 19th June – Week 8

• Primary Athletics Carnival at CCS (8 years and over in 2024).

• Infants Athletics Novelty Events at CCS (7 years and under in 2024).

~ TERM 3 ~

Wednesday 7th August – Week 3

• Zone Athletics Carnival in Coffs Harbour.

Friday 23rd August – Week 5

• Primary State Athletics Carnival in Sydney.

Thursday 29th August – Week 6

• Secondary State Athletics Carnival in Sydney.

For more detailed information including the Carnival Schedule for Primary and Secondary take a look at the note in the link below.

Athletics Carnival Note

Uniform Shop

All uniform orders must be paid at the time of purchase either in person or over the phone, we are no longer able charge uniforms on family accounts. We appreciate your understanding.

Uniform shop hours are:

Mondays 8-11

Wednesdays 1-4

Uniform orders can be made at any time via the School Stream app or by filling out the uniform order form and returning it to school.

Uniform Order Form – February 2024

Library News

On Tuesday the 21st of May, we had author Gary Eck of the children’s book “The Day The Moon Came To Stay”. The students really enjoyed listening to Gary and some even knew some of his other books!