From the Principal's Desk

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Lapathon 2021
Last Friday saw the return of the P&F organised Lapathon.  The oval was abuzz with colour and smiles as our runners and walkers gathered stamps per lap to raise precious money for our school.  A big thank you to our families, friends and neighbours who supported the event by sponsoring our students with the funds going directly back to the needs of our students and wider Liwara community.  A very special thank you go to Lyndal Marron and her team from the P&F  for the fantastic organisation and running of yet another highly successful event.

Every Child Counts - Catholic Education WA                                                     

For more than 175 years, Catholic Schools in Western Australia have helped prepare, educate and shape our leaders and citizens.  As a vital partner for the State Government, we provide education for 77,000 WA students, in more than 160 schools, representing one in six primary students and one in four secondary students……..  It is a priority of Catholic Education WA to educate the whole child – intellectually, spiritually, physically, morally and emotionally – and we are proud of our record in educating young people who contribute throughout their lives to the betterment of our world. – A priority of Catholic Education WA is to make representation for families who choose a Catholic education, ensuring there is an accurate understanding of the significant contribution our families make to their children’s education.

It is equally important that parents, caregivers and staff understand how funding for Catholic schools varies from funding for Government schools.  Please take a moment to click onto The Every Child Counts website https://www.everychildcounts.net.au/ developed to facilitate this understanding so that all in our community are aware of this valuable resource.

Borromeo’s Way
Each term our regional Catholic School Leadership Teams and Parish Priests gather for faith formation events and to grow relationships between schools and parishes by sharing professional learning opportunities.  The Archdiocese driven initiative began in 2019 when a few schools gathered together with members from the Perth Archdiocesan Office who had Bishop Don’s support and approval to engage with school and parish hubs. In 2021 we have been engaged in a unique spiritual and Christian formation program, Borromeo’s Way. The program is designed to promote the spirituality of the Heart, Head, Hands and Feet with a Christ-centred focus. A particular focus of Borromeo’s Way in 2021 is to celebrate the 175^th anniversary of the arrivals of Mother Ursula Frayne and the Sisters of Mercy, as well as the Benedictine monks led by Fr Joseph Benedict Serra (later Bishop of Perth) and Fr Rosendo Salvado (later Bishop of Perth). The program offers the opportunities to hear about the early history of the Catholic Church in Western Australia and the initial beginnings of Catholic education by the Mercy sisters at Mercedes College, Perth.

Italian Festival Primary School Students’ Competition 2021
On behalf of the ITALO-AUSTRALIAN WELFARE & CULTURAL CENTRE INC, I wish to congratulate the following students from Liwara who are winners of their respective year group level in the IAWCC Italian Festival Primary School Students’ Competition 2021 for students of Italian (K-6).

Kindergarten: Charlie Fraser          Year 3: Sienna Burrell                                                                                   

As the overall winner of their respective year group level, Charlie and Sienna were invited to a special presentation on Saturday 29 May. A list of all Merit winners from Liwara will be sent to us soon and they will receive their special Merit Certificates  at a School Assembly. Congratulations are also extended to Lola McClelland and Phoebe Leong (Kindy), Madeline Marron (PP), Vivienne Byrne, Shay Howlett and Heidi Anderson (Year 1), Mitchell Marlow, Chelsea Maciel Wakefield and Elvira Conroy (Year 2), Ellena Byrne (Year 3), Sophia Le Blanc (Year 4) and Chloe Pires (Year 6) who have all been awarded Merit Certificates for submitting entries which reflect a very high standard of achievement, great personal effort and creativity.

“ We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Liwara Catholic Primary School on achieving such an excellent result this year. Your Italian teacher, Signora Rosaria Greenhill, also needs to be congratulated     for her effort, her enthusiasm for the Italian Language and her support of this competition each year.  We extend our gratitude to all those at the school who assisted in promoting this annual event.

I thank you for your continued support in promoting the Italian Festival 2021.

Yours sincerely

SARINA SIRNA
MANAGING DIRECTOR
ITALO-AUSTRALIAN WELFARE & CULTURAL CENTRE INC

Five forgotten skill sets that contribute to student success  by Michael Grose                                               

At a time when we hear a great deal about growth mindsets, good mental health habits and creating digitally savvy students, we can easily overlook the skill sets that form the building blocks of long-term school success.

These are skill sets that are also easily forgotten when we narrow our focus onto numeracy, literacy, performing arts, STEM and other academic areas.  While all these other mental skills and academic areas are important, the skills to focus on are ones that can be taught, or at the very least drawn out, alongside every other skill when we as parents and teachers know what to look for.

Following are five skill sets that contribute massively to overall student success and contentedness at school.

1.Friendship skills   The ability to get along with others is hugely important for children and teenagers. Those students with a strong set of friendship skills are easy to like, easy to relate to and easy to play with. The skills they possess include knowing how to win and lose well, how to approach others to join in a group and how to lead rather than boss.

2.Organisational skills   The ability to organise your time, your space, your items and other aspects of your life is a massive plus for any student. The best way to help children who are organisationally challenged is to introduce them to systems and processes to help them organise themselves. These processes include the use of visual reminders, anchoring (i.e. linking new behaviours to habitual behaviours) and the mapping out of activities.

3. Optimism skills   It may seem strange to see optimism as skill set, but as leading psychologist Professor Martin Seligman discovered through his research, optimism can be taught. Seligman found that while some children are more inclined by nature to see a glass as half empty than half full, all children are capable of developing an optimistic explanatory style through exposure and direct teaching. The skills of optimism    include being aware of self-talk, re-framing negative events into positive events and the practice of perspective-taking.

4. Coping skills    Children will generally face a number of challenges during the course of their school lives including overcoming the disappointment of not being picked on a team, working their way through difficult learning situations and dealing with rejection. The impact of these challenges will depend on each child's own spirit, the support they receive and their coping skills. The good news is that coping skills can be taught or, at the very least, encouraged if adults know what to focus on. Coping strategies include, parking problems for a while, normalising difficult situations and accepting and moving on. Some children will use coping strategies quite naturally, while others need parental and teacher input to help them cope with even seemingly minor challenges.

5. Relaxation skills   The ability to relax and get away from it all is vital for the maintenance of mental health, which in turn affects a student’s ability to perform. Many of today’s children live with pressure. That pressure needs to be released through relaxation and play, otherwise it can lead to anxiety and other mental illnesses. The ability to relax and unwind is paramount to your child’s school success. Relaxation techniques include mindfulness and meditation, participating in hobbies and enjoying creative pursuits.

These skills are part developmental and part environmental. That is, children will naturally develop many of them as they mature but the skills also need to be nurtured environmentally. They need to be recognised, encouraged, taught and modelled by adults who children and teenagers respect and admire. That makes parents and teachers ‘Very Important People’ in the process of acquiring them.

Mitchell Freeway Southbound Upgrade – Hester Avenue to Warwick Road
Mitchell Freeway southbound is getting an upgrade to help ‘bust’ congestion and improve safety… The Transforming Perth’s Freeways strategic program has been created to improve freeway capacity and enable better use of existing infrastructure.  Freeway widening – A third southbound land is being added from Hodges Drive to Hepburn Avenue.  An extra lane will be built from Hepburn Avenue entry ramp to Warwick Road.  I have attached a project update below with links for more information.

Works are set to start on the Smart Freeway Mitchell Southbound Project

You may be aware that this suite of works has been combined with the Mitchell Freeway Southbound Upgrade: Hodges Drive to Hepburn Avenue project.  A key benefit, is the expected completion of all works on the Mitchell Freeway southbound, by late 2023.

Among many other items, the project will include:

• A third southbound lane from Hodges Drive to Hepburn Avenue (along the freeway median).
• Introduction of Smart Technologies at freeway entry ramps from Hester Avenue to Warwick Road.
• An extra lane from Hepburn Avenue entry ramp to Warwick Road exit ramp.
• New and upgraded shared paths between Ocean Reef Road and Warwick Station.

You can read more here in the latest Project Update.

You can also visit our project webpage for more information.  Whilst you're there, please subscribe for updates so that you receive the latest information on a regular basis - and encourage your neighbours to do the same!

If your property is adjacent to an area receiving a noise wall, you will be contacted by the project team soon.

Liwara Facebook Page:
If you aren’t yet following our Liwara Facebook page please do.  The more ‘likes’ the greater our reach to the community, showcasing and advertising our wonderful community and sharing the exciting learning happening in our school.  Please share with your family members!  It’s a great way to keep grandparents and extended family members up to date with what is happening at school.