How to support your child making a good start to the school year

A lot of our focus at CRC Melton has been on students making a good start to their school year. For Year 11 and 12 students the 2018 school year started last year with their ‘Jumpstart’ program, and on February 1st they heard all about motivation, goal setting and resilence.

Our Year 7s also started classes a day earlier to give them a chance to transition smoothly into secondary school. All Year Level Coordinators have held assemblies to gather their cohorts together to inspire them at the start of their 2018 school journey. How can families support their kids to make a great start to their school year? Many articles have been written over the years by authors such as Andrew Fuller (www.andrewfuller.com.au). Here are my five tips to parents:

1. Six weeks is a proven time frame! If you can get your kids into a routine for six weeks, they can do it for a year. In the adult world think of Quit campaign, fitness programs, learning new skills at work etc. If you can get into a healthy routine for six weeks, you are well on the way to a great year.
2. Children need quality sleep- eight hours minimum! - no computer screens or smart phones in bedrooms. See website- https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/growth-curve/ban-screens-bedrooms-may-save-kids-sleep. Your home internet can be turned off at a certain time each night which many families may find helpful. https://www.shieldyourbody.com/2017/02/turn-off-your-wifi-router-at-night/
3. Children need to eat breakfast each day- some kids skip breakfast which is not good at all, as a lack of protein can cause low energy, headaches and problems with concentration.
4. Physical movement, play and recreation are all very important for students of all ages- getting the blood flowing helps your motivation and your concentration when you get back to study. Certainly, going for a 30 minute walk this morning helped me when it came to sitting down to write this article!
5. Homework and revision will depend on the year level. As a general guide, Year 7s should be doing 15 minutes of Homework per subject per night. Overall guidelines:

• Year 7s-45 minutes (5 evenings per week)
• Year 8s–60 minutes (5 evenings per week)
• Year 9s -75 minutes (5 evenings per week)
• Year 10s - 90 minutes (6 evenings per week)
• Year 11s- 120 to 150 minutes (6 evenings per week)
• Year 12s - 150 to 180 minutes (6 evenings per week)

Information Evenings

We continue with information evenings for selected year levels. Year 12 Information evening will be held this Thursday in the PAC.

Year 9 – 12 Subject Changes

Year 9 - 12 students should have completed any necessary changes with their studies. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, there will be no more changes permitted. Year 9 & 10 students will be able to enquire about changes to their Semester 2 electives at the end of next term.

Camps

Year level camps begin on 26th February with the Year 8 Camp. All families would have received CareMonkey notifications of these events.

“Rise”, a Catholic youth festival will be held on Saturday 17th March 2018 at Mount St. Joseph Girls' College, Altona. This is one of the main events celebrating the Year of Youth on an Archdiocesan level and we celebrate it on the feast of St Patrick, our Archdiocesan patron saint.

“Rise” aims to empower young people to deepen their relationship with Jesus, discover and celebrate the life of Catholic faith, and be disciples in the world as vital members of the Catholic Church. It is for young people from year 9 to the age of 30.

“Rise” will gather an impressive line-up of inspiring speakers from all around Australia to break open a wide range of topics. There will also be live music, creative spaces, interactive exhibitions, sports and entertainment and prayer experiences.

This coming Saturday, February 24th and Sunday 25th February, a team of 70 senior school students will be representing the college by participating in the Cancer Council Melton Relay For Life at Tabcorp Park alongside 10 other passionate teams.

The 24-hour event, which requires at least one team member to always be walking laps of the Tabcorp Park race track with a baton, aims to raise much needed funds and awareness for cancer in the community.

Last year the school’s team raised just over $4000 with its team of 26 and we are pleased to announce that we have already raised in excess of $5300. Woohoo!!

Anyone who wishes to donate to this wonderful cause can click on the link below or type into their browser. Any donation is greatly appreciated.

http://fundraising.cancer.org.au/site/TR/RelayforLife/

Everyone is welcome to attend the event for any period of time across the weekend to support the college team and this important cause.

Important Event times

4pm Saturday- Event opening

8pm Saturday- Candlelight Ceremony

10:30pm-12:30am Saturday- CRCs 'DJ Mugga' Performing

10am Sunday- Closing Ceremony and presentations

We look forward to the event and hope to see you there.

Boden Mugridge

Sports Captain

Welcome back to all students in preparation for another year ahead in Mathematics.

Thankyou to all parents and students for your patience on the distribution of the pre ordered (and paid) Texas Instruments TI-nspire CX CAS calculators last week. The calculators were not able to be distributed at the beginning of the year since the delivery had not yet arrived. If your child still has not received their calculator please do not hesitate to contact me via email at snuspan@sfcc.vic.edu.au.

Silvana Nuspan

Mathematics Coordinator

Welcome to the new school year - BENTORNATI.

We have a new club which was launched last week at school known as MAD 4 Languages. This is an opportunity for students to engage in fun Italian and Indonesian activities and it is also where students are able to gain assistance in Languages beyond the classroom.

A big thank you to Louise Crocitti, our new Italian teacher, who is facilitating this new initiative along with the Languages Team. We look forward to seeing you every Day 4 on a Thursday at lunchtime. Students are also encouraged to use Education Perfect at home for at least half an hour a week. New parents to our school, please ask your Year 7 students to show you how this exciting Languages app works.

Claudia Russo

Head of Languages