Dear Parents and Carers

This week we have had a range of activities at school in addition to our usual classroom learning to engage and motivate learners. Some of these include the birth of chickens in Kindergarten, the Todd Woodbridge Cup at the Batemans Bay tennis courts, the Eucharistic Retreat Day at Carroll College and tomorrow we will have the Father's Day Breakfast, Assembly and stalls. We know that special events such as these can be very memorable for students and really contribute in a positive way to the whole educational development and experience for students at our school. We are fortunate that we have a wonderful team of teachers and support staff who make these activities possible.

Dhurga Play- And It Was Good

This term students in Year 5 and 6 have worked with Trish in their Dhurga lessons on the task of writing and performing a play titled And It Was Good. The idea of the play is to retell the Dreaming story of Creation and the biblical story of Creation in English and Dhurga. Trish and her sister, Kerry Boyenga have been working on preparing the play translation. There are six parts to the play. The Creation Story, Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark will be portrayed by the students using acting, dance, visual arts and digital technology with Dreaming stories Biaami and Marmoo, Toonkoo and Nardhi and The Creation of the Diving Birds spoken in English and Dhurga. This is an exciting project for the students of Stage 3 to be a part of and we look forward to sharing this in Term 4 with our school community.

Safer Online Gaming

If gaming is a past time that your children are involved in at home you might be interested in some information from the eSafety Commissioner about ways to make gaming a safe and enjoyable part of family life. Tips include how to:

• set up games so they are safe 
• make friends in games 
• report issues in games. 

Use the settings on your child’s device and on the game to block unsuitable content and stop children buying things in the game. They should also make up a screen name to keep their real name private and use a password that is hard to guess.

Positive gaming experiences can be achieved by learning about the games your child likes by playing with them. It will also help you identify possible risks. You can also:
• talk to your children about who they are gaming with and what games they play.
• gaming can be very rewarding, try to find other ways for them to have positive
experiences.
• talk to your child if you are concerned about their gaming. You can also get help from a counsellor at Kids Helpline or Parents Helpline.

If you would like more information on this topic, view the video from the link below on the eSafety Commissioner website: