Things to Know

Positive Behaviours for Learning (PBL)

Our Positive Behaviours for Learning Team work collaboratively with the community to build and enhance our positive school culture. We invite parents to contact the school directly if they have any questions or concerns about our school initiatives or specific incidents. It is not appropriate for parents to address matters directly with students or other parents. Instead, please arrange a meeting with your child’s classroom teacher or book in a time with the school executive team to address more serious or ongoing issues.

Today we achieved our whole school mystery target of 7000 W@K tokens! To celebrate, the PBL leaders have decided that Week 3 will become ‘Games Week’, where each class will receive 60 minutes of game time. Classes will have the opportunity to play their favourite sports, set physical challenges or even play board games. Congratulations to all members of our school community for their part in building our very positive school culture.

Super Staff

We had some feedback from families that they would like to know more about our amazing Kaleen Primary School staff. This week, I sat down with our wonderful Japanese teacher Mari Kitasaka.

When you think, are the words (in your mind) in Japanese or English?

When I am in the Japanese environment, words that come to my mind are all in Japanese and when I am operating in the English environment, I think in English. In other words, there is never a process of “translation” between the two languages in my head.

What do you love about Kaleen Primary School?

Absolutely everything. This is by far the best place I have ever worked.

When you sleep, do the Australian people in your dreams speak in Japanese or English?

The Australians in my dream speak in English, I think….but I am just guessing as I don’t remember my dreams very well!

Where is a place that you love and why?

I love Kyoto. Kyoto is an ancient capital city of Japan. It is only an hour’s train ride from Hikone so I have visited there many times since my youth. Indeed, when my kids were growing up, I took them to stay in Kyoto for a couple of months each year and stayed near the Golden Pavilion Temple (“Kinkaku-ji”) so that they could go to a local school and absorb wonderful traditional culture. There are 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Kyoto and countless sites and gardens that are historically significant and beautiful. You could stay in Kyoto and never get bored if you love history and arts. I also love Kyoto cuisine as they taste more delicate and subtle than food you eat in Tokyo. My close second favourite place is Paris.

What makes you laugh?

Innocent acts of young children.

Do you have any special talents?

I don’t have any particular talents other than a good capacity for hard work.

If you had three wishes, what would they be?

My first wish would be for a world without conflict or misery. The second wish, which is more immediate, is for my children's health, happiness, and independence. My third wish relates to my work and that is to see my students have an opportunity to use Japanese someday by studying, working, travelling, or living in Japan. And if I could have the fourth wish, I would like to see one of my students play for the Wallabies and invite me to a test match at Eden Park to see the Wallabies beat the All Blacks!

Supporting Children with Specific Phobias & Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

Children may experience specific phobias, which are intense, irrational fears of certain things or situations. Some common phobias are about dogs, bees, injections, the dark, escalators, or flying. Children may not realise that fear of such objects is unreasonable. Typically, children or adolescents will become extremely distressed when confronted with the feared object or situations. Fears are diagnosed as phobias when the child’s avoidance or distress about the feared object results in significant disruption in his or her routine, school functioning, family functioning, or social relationships. In children, the anxiety may be expressed by crying, tantrums, freezing, or clinging. In addition, children may experience rapid heart rate, dizziness, or sweaty palms when confronted with the feared object or situation.

Treatment in cognitive-behavioural therapy might involve learning both in the sessions and at home or school. Cognitive behavioural treatment has been successfully used in treating specific phobias in adults and in children. Usually learning that occurs in sessions will be followed by one or more exercises or “homework assignments”. Learning goals for specific phobias are:

Education for the parents: Educating the parents about the nature and treatment of anxiety in children, including information about the cognitive-behavioural model, so that parents can understand the aims of therapy and continue them in the home. In children, especially young children, the parents will be in charge of managing the majority of the treatment in the form of behavioural management at home.

Education for the child: Information about the nature of the problems with an emphasis on developing some basic ‘psychological’ understanding of the problem and encouraging the ability to self-monitor - that is, the ability to step back and understand their feelings and thoughts as separate from them as a person.

Cognitive restructuring: Once the child is able to understand his or her thoughts, the therapist teaches the ability to evaluate those thoughts in terms of their helpfulness and, if required, to have more helpful thoughts.

Self-soothing: Often in anxiety disorders the child seeks all calming or soothing of their thoughts and feelings from the parent, instead of being able to self-soothe. This is an important skill to learn as the child becomes more independent in life. Simple techniques such as relaxation, imagery, and distraction skills are taught.

Graduated exposure and response prevention: Once self-soothing is mastered, graduated exposure to the feared stimulus is attempted slowly and with parental support. A hierarchy of goals is established and parents are in charge of congratulating the child when a step is achieved.

In order to achieve this learning, behavioural management must be used at home. This consists of:

Rewards for brave behaviours. The hierarchy of goals that was introduced in therapy involves performing behaviours that the child will find anxiety-provoking to start with. As the child engages in the behaviour and uses some of his or her self-soothing techniques, you should reward them. Rewards are commonly things such as stickers or tokens, with an agreed-upon reward if the child reaches, say, ten stickers. We encourage rewards to be activities that the child enjoys doing with the family, but they can be any agreed reward between child and parents.

Extinguishment of fear behaviours. Cognitive-behavioural therapists do not suggest punishment of ‘wrong’ behaviours. Fear reactions to behaviours can be ‘extinguished’ or stopped through a lack of reward. This means that when the child engages in fear behaviours, such as crying or clinging, do not remove the feared object or remove the child from the feared object. This will reinforce his or her behaviour and it will happen with more intensity next time. Instead, re-state your belief that the child can handle the situation, remind the child of the self-soothing skills learned in therapy, tell them that they are safe, and ask them to remain in the situation for another five minutes. Remember, start with ‘baby steps’ – never start too far up the hierarchy of goals.

If you would like to learn more about the supports available, parents can access ACT Education Central Telehealth by calling 6205 1559 between 9:00am and 4:30pm. Or alternatively, use the ACT Education Central Telehealth online booking form link: https://forms.office.com/r/0zRwGpF3Hm

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Bye for now,

Chris Shaddock

Principal

Congratulations!

おめでとう！

This year 37 senior school students from 5 schools participated in the 49th ACT Primary School Japanese Speech Contest．

Here are the results!

Agatha (4JS) won the FIRST prize in the Year ¾ Division.

Zoe (3AP) won the SECOND prize in the Year ¾ Division.

Yohaan (6SD) won the FIRST prize in the Year 5/6 Division.

Pinipa (6BH) and Ziying (6SD) won the FIRST prize in the Open Division.

Ava (5KT) and Addy (5KT) won the Third prize in the Open Division.

Masaki (6BH), Rio (4JS), and Tomoki (4JS) who participated in the Heritage Division (demonstration Division) received very positive feedback from Dr. Toshiyuki Nakamura of ANU for their fluency and originality.

All of you are truly brilliant (すばらしい)! Kaleen Primary is very proud of you.

Kitasaka Sensei

Held on the last Friday in October, Bandanna Day is the flagship fundraising and awareness campaign for Canteen. Since Bandanna Day began it has raised more than $35 million to support young people affected by cancer.

With your support, funds raised from Bandanna Day will help young people impacted by cancer get access to programs, counselling and peer support.

By joining the movement YOU can stand up to cancer!

#BandannaDay

Bandannas are now available to be purchased from our front office for $5 each.

Consultation now open for two upgraded playgrounds in Kaleen and Lyons

The ACT Government is committed to delivering better spaces across Canberra and providing people of different ages and abilities with fun, creative and engaging play experiences.

Earlier this year we consulted on a significant playground in each of the suburbs of Aranda, Chisholm, Gordon and Ngunnawal. We’re now consulting for the suburbs of Kaleen and Lyons.

The community is invited to provide feedback on play elements and equipment and other amenities to inform the upgrades. This includes:

• equipment the community would like to see such as climbing, balancing and swinging equipment

• new amenities such as seating, plantings and shade

• a selection of play elements such as nature play, play for a range of ages and abilities, such as multi-use courts and accessible swings.

You can provide feedback via a survey on YourSay or by emailing the project team at communityengagement@act.gov.au. There’s also an opportunity to ask questions via a Q&A public forum on YourSay. Consultation closes 9 November 2022.

Feedback from the community will provide information on the most popular play space equipment and amenities within each suburb to inform the design process.

We look forward to your contribution and encourage you to share this information through your networks.

Kind regards

Emily

On Saturday 17 September, Angus Jaensch was awarded the Junior Player of the Year for Belnorth Football Club. Angus also received the Excellence award in his Division 2, Under 12's team, the Panthers. Receiving these two awards is a memory that Angus will carry with him forever. We are so proud of Angus and the effort he put into his 2022 soccer season, including attending training twice a week (even on the cold and wet evenings). Well done Angus!

Pictured - Angus with Belnorth Club President Kayannie Denigan and his two trophies.

If you would like to have your child's achievement acknowledged here, please email a short blurb to KaleenPSAdmin@ed.act.edu.au

Community