Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Term 3.

We have had a happy and wonderfully busy start to the term with the commencement of the Footsteps program on Wednesday, the School Athletics Carnival yesterday, and the multiple learning activities and the liturgy celebration for NAIDOC week. 

Thank you to the families who brought their 0-5 year olds for the first morning of Storytime and Connection - Footsteps! Thank you to Mrs Collins for facilitating the fun. The focus of the morning was a story about monsters, making monster masks and other playtime fun.

Thanks Mrs Harnett for another great day on the athletics track and field yesterday. Congratulations to every student who participated and strove for their personal best in every event. Well done to the age champions and to the winning house on your well deserved success. More information in SPORT news.

At the end of Term 2 we farewelled Mrs Chantelle Dixon-Stewart from her 2 day per week role as Aboriginal Education Worker. We thank Chantelle for her dedication and service and thank her for remaining on the casual roster so that we may see her from time to time. We hope to recruit another AEW soon to join Mr George Aldridge in this important role in our school.

At our liturgy for NAIDOC on Wednesday, we unveiled a memorial sculpture in honour of Aunty Kim Aldridge and her dedication and service to St Patrick's school as our Aboriginal Education Worker from 2000 - 2017. The sculpture is a black duck, Umbarra, the totem of the Yuin Nation. Mr George Aldridge, Kim's son, and one of our current AEW's did the honour of unveiling.

We thank Mr Jordan Tarlinton for his artistic creation and installation.

Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. AMEN

Blessings,

Jo

Dates for your calendar

Week 2 Class Mass, in the Chapel- 5/6 R (Families Welcome)

Friday 30th August- Father's Day celebrations (Further details TBC)

It was a wonderful day of athletics on the Bega Valley athletics fields yesterday for our school carnival. Thanks to all the parent  helpers for your generosity, especially Jodie Clifton-Collins and Angus Johnston.

Congratulations to the Age Champions

12yr girls Arly Schrader

12yr boys Aidan Green

11yr girls Isabella Clifton-Collins

11yr boys Archie Sly

Jn girls Mia Gowing

Jn boys Micah Wood

Congratulations to the winning house - PENOLA!

Neurodiversity – What does it mean?

Welcome back to Term 3!

This term the school counsellor newsletters will focus on Neurodiversity.

Our understanding of how human brains work is changing rapidly and this impacts on how we as individuals, schools and society live, work and function.

Where the term Neurodiversity came from…

The term Neurodiversity was coined by Australian Sociologist Judy Singer in 1997 to refer to the infinite neurocognitive variability within the human population (Doyle, 2020).

Singer originally used the term Neurodiversity in relation to Autism, with the aim of shifting public perception that Autistic people are “disordered” or “defective”  (Doyle, 2020). In the early 2000s, many advocates within the Autistic community began to refer to themselves as being Neurodivergent, highlighting that autistic brains differ or “diverge” from the brains of non-autistic people. People whose brains were considered as being “average” or “normal” began to be referred to as “Neurotypical” within Autistic communities (Doyle, 2020). 

  – above is taken from the Divergent Futures website https://www.divergentfutures.com/resources

The term Neurodivergent is now commonly used to refer to a wide range of neurological differences including:

• Autism -  ADHD         - Dyspraxia          - Dyslexia           - Dyscalculia  … and more!

In understanding how our own brains, or those of our children, work, we can better support one another to be happy and healthy.

Accepting differences in brain functioning and working to better support these differences we can help to create an environment that meets the needs of everyone. We can help our young people to better understand and accept themselves and advocate for their own needs. We can start to see brain differences as just that, rather than ‘disorders’ or something that needs to be treated or fixed.

Thanks for reading, Sam, School Counsellor

The next newsletter article will focus on the language of Neurodiversity which has also changed significantly in recent years. Efforts have been made to ensure that this article uses Neurodiversity-affirming language, however, should any language be seen as problematic or unhelpful, please feel free to contact me: samantha.hessenthaler@mccg.org.au