Welcome to our Term 2 newsletter and I hope you find something in it that sparks your interest. The Federation has been busy as usual, with highlights being our parent engagement forum in April, our Annual General Meeting in May, a presentation to the South Australian Catholic Primary Principals Association in June and visits to schools across the term.

Below, I share with you the key points from our AGM.

The constitution has been changed to make it easier and fairer for regional and rural parents to join and participate in our governing council.

Auditor Tony Fogarty congratulated the council on its management of the Federation’s affairs and finances in the challenging circumstances that arose after Catholic Education SA's April 2017 directive for schools not to pay affiliation fees to us.

The full impact of the directive was felt in 2018, with income lost from CESA as well as schools, and two staff members resigning to take up other jobs. Finance Officer Teresa Matkovic and council members were praised for their tireless work and undaunted optimism.

The main income in 2018 was a $20,000 operating grant from the state government in the final year of an agreement which expired in June 2018. We applied for new funding and were ultimately successful in a lengthy process due to the change in government and revised funding arrangements.

The PIE grant funding agreement signed in March 2018 created lots of new energy and we put new processes in place to more efficiently manage and report on the grants. Our working relationship with the government is on excellent terms, and we deeply appreciate the support of previous Minister for Education Susan Close and current Minister John Gardner in making these small but significant grants available.

After the Weatherill Government committed to increase recurrent and capital funding for Catholic and Independent schools in November 2017, we pared back our advocacy interests to parent engagement policy and bus arrangements for Catholic students in country areas. As parents, we believe that funding is very important but that more funding is not the answer to everything. There are other issues that concern parents like declining results, parent - teacher relationships, behavior management, technology and 21^st century workforce requirements and we look forward to exploring these and other issues with parents across the state.

With school communities now free to make their own decisions about affiliating with us, we have introduced a new per student fee structure with four categories ($1.60, $1.90, $2.10, $2.40) plus the option for schools to pay what they are willing/able to pay. Our re-build will be slow because our reputation and resources have been diminished but there are seeds of hope and we are determined to work on for the benefit of parents, students and schools.

The Federation is keen to hear from people interested in the following roles:

• Parent Engagement Officer (Adelaide) (part-time contract; flexible hours)
• Parent Engagement Contact Officer (Regional - towards Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Whyalla, Yorke Peninsula) (casual)
• Parent Engagement Contact Officer (Regional - towards Jamestown, the Riverland) (casual)

Parent Engagement Officer (Adelaide)

This contract position is for the equivalent of 15 hours per week through to Friday 13th December (excluding school holidays) and with the possibility of a new contract in 2020. Work is office based for a minimum of 3 hours every second Thursday in order to team with the Federation's finance officer and volunteer council members, and may otherwise be undertaken in the office or at home. The job requires some evening work to attend school parent meetings and networking events. The initial purpose is to make contact with and meet school principals/assistant principals and parent leaders/committees, and to represent the Federation on several committees.  The successful candidate will be trained to facilitate presentations on parent engagement and the parent-to-parent program, Successful Learning. The position is classified under the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award (Part-time/Level 3.2) (av. $29.74 per hour) with superannuation additional to this. A mobile phone will be provided. A driver's licence and private vehicle is required and a travel allowance will be paid.

Regional Parent Engagement Officers

These casual positions are initially for the equivalent of 6 - 8 hours per week through to Friday 13th December (excluding school holidays), with flexible hours worked each week and total hours allocated to the position once the start date has been set. The initial purpose of the positions is to make contact with and meet school principals/ assistant principals and parent leaders/committees. A second purpose is to look at ways the Federation could support school communties in the respective regions and develop some plans. The positions are classified under the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award (Casual/Level 3.1) (av. $36.14 per hour). A driver's licence and private vehicle is required. Travel costs and phone calls will be reimbursed.

Skills and Values

• Parent and family focused
• Passionate and balanced about the role of parents and teachers in children's learning and schooling; genuinely open to other people's views even when they are very different
• Some understanding of the Catholic school sector e.g. because have/had children in a Catholic school or have worked or volunteered in one
• Good telephone skills and confidence
• Good self-organising and organising skills
• Familiar with computers and emails, and able to word process and write reasonably well
• Not too shy; not afraid to speak up; not afraid to network
• Preferably, some experience in making presentations or speaking in public.

If you are interested, please contact us for further details about the positions and the application process: fedadmin@cesa.catholic.edu.au

Sue Saltmarsh from the University of Southern Queensland has done quite a lot of work on teacher - parent relationships and parent engagement.

In this particular project, she is looking for parents of school-aged children who have experienced separation or divorce in the last 12 months and would like to participate in a 60 minute phone interview.

The aim of the research is to learn more about parents' views on how shools can maintain positive relationships with parents during family separations and divorce, and the role of schools in working with parents to support children's learning and wellbeing in these situations.

Please note the Federation is not involved in this research and has not given a 'stamp of approval'. We have simply agreed to communicate the opportunity to participate.

Catholic schools are an incredibly important part of Australia's education system. In 2018, there were 1,750 schools employing close to 96,000 staff and educating 765,000 students. With 20% of all Australian school students receiving a Catholic education, the Catholic sector is unquestionably a key player and partner in the delivery of affordable, quality schooling. 

Following the re-election of the coalition government led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) welcomed the reappointment of the Hon. Dan Tehan as the Minister for Education saying:

'Catholic Education is pleased Mr Tehan is able to continue in this role. His understanding of the portfolio and his constructive approach bodes well for the future.

A full parliamentary terms will enable him to work with non-government school sectors [Catholic and Independent] to bed down many aspects of the fairer funding arrangements that are due to commence in 2020.

We look forward to working with a Minister who understands the complex nature of funding issues and their impact on Australian families. Another priority will be meeting the Prime Minister's commitment to ensure faith-based schools maintain their freedom to employ staff who will support their values and teachings.'

The NCEC says the key issues for Catholic Education nationally are:

• finalising the detail of federal government's school funding model for 2020
• affordable school choice
• increased capital funding
• prioritising early childhood education
• religious freedom in schools. 

Capital funding for upgrading schools and building new schools and preschools is a huge issue for the Catholic school sector. Just think about this: in 2017, Catholic school parents funded about 90% of the capital works in their schools ($1.3 billion) while funding from the federal and state governments combined was $152.2 million. The NCEC rightly says:

'With the rising cost of land, construction and classroom technology, Catholic schools cannot continue to rely on parents and the rest of the school community to shoulder the burden of increased capital costs to the same extent in the future.'

The Morrison Government's plan for a stronger economy is guaranteeing essential education services through the delivery of yet another year of record funding for child care, preeschools, schools and universities.

This year's Budget includes a record $21.4 billion provided for State schools, Catholic schools and Independent schools for the 2020 school year- an increase in funding of $8.5 billion since 2013.

In this, the Government is establishing a Local School Community Fund, where $200,000 will be provided to each federal electorate to support priority projects in local schools that benefit students and their communities. A total of $30.2 million in 2019-20 has been put in to establish this fund. 

From The Hon. Dan Tehan MP, Ministers for the Department of Education Media Centre. 

World Environment Day on June 5 was celebrated in many different ways, one highlight being the launch of St Catherine's Parish School's nature play environment.

The refurbishment to the play areas includes climbing logs, water play, rope climbs, garden beds and wooden seating areas, and the school says the next step is to integrate nature play into the students' daily learning and development experiences. An exciting initiative is the nature-based outdoor Forest Friends Playgroup which runs every Monday morning for children aged 0 - 5.

Mrs Krystina Dawe, the school's Assistant Principal of Religious Identity and Mission (APRIM), told the Southern Cross newspaper that the Pope's encyclical letter Laudato Si (calling for 'care of our common home, Mother Earth) and his insistence that 'our relationship with the environment can never be isolated from our relationship with others and with God', was one of the 'greatest motivations' for the school to keep building on its environmental work.

St Catherine's received a small PIE grant through the Federation in 2017 to find out what the students' interests were for their playground and activity spaces, and educate parents and school staff about the principles of nature play and how children could learn through it. 

In Catholic Education Week earlier this month, students and staff from eight Catholic primary schools in the south west region made history as they gathered for a liturgy at Sacred Heart College in Somerton Park. 

St John the Baptist, St Teresa's Brighton, Stella Maris, St Martin de Porres, Our Lady of Grace, St Anthony's, St Bernadette's Nativity and Christ the King schools participated in the celebration. During the liturgy led by Administrator Delegate, Fr. Phillip Marshall, student representatives brought school candles to the altar as a symbol of lighting the way and being the Good News for all. A combined choir, led by acclaimed Christian musician Andrew Chinn sang during the liturgy and also performed on the school oval after lunch. 

American psychologist Lisa Damour says hardly a week goes by without a girl coming to her saying she has anxiety issues. Pointing to scarey figures showing 31% of girls compared to 13% of boys are experiencing anxiety syptoms, she says social media is often blamed but is not the main reason for teenagers' unhappiness. 

There's no doubt that many teenagers are dealing with very serious mental health issues but in her new book, Under Pressure, Lisa says we need to focus on the fact that a certain level of stress and anxiety is normal and good.

Lisa says stress and anxiety often feature in our conversations because we've come to believe that any negative emotion is bad.

'We are the first generation to think that the answer to feeling stressed is to feel as peaceful as possible,' she says. 'I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. It's not possible, and aiming for it is going to lead to disappointment and stress.'

She also says our increased use of medical-style language is not always helpful because it can too easily transforms perfectly normal emotions into abnormal ones:

'Where we used to talk about nervousness we now talk about anxiety, and where we used to talk about sadness we talk about depression. We even describe children as having "social anxiety" when they are shy in a culture that celebrates easygoing extroverts. 

Lisa says it's important to explain to teenagers that there is good anxiety and bad anxiety, there is healthy stress and unhealthy stress. Recognising the difference helps us to know when we will actually be fine and when we may not be.

'Somewhere along the line we got the idea that emotional discomfort is always a bad thing. Although people don't always enjoy being stretched to new limits, common sense and scientific research tell us that the stress of operating beyond our comfort zones helps us to grow. In the same way, physical excercise often doesn't necessarily feel good, yet we fully accept it's healthy for us.'

Lisa says we need to remember that anxiety is the body's natural alarm system, and understand that stress and anxiety are only harmful when they are lasting.

'Unhealthy stress is when it becomes chronic and there's no possibility of taking a break from it, and unhealthy anxiety is when the alarm goes off all the time for no reason, or it's out of proportion to events.'

How do we work out what's normal? She says, 'If the child feels they can't recover, get enough sleep to feel restored and never really feel their resources are equal to the demands placed on them, that's not healthy.'

She also encourages parents to see that the way we deal with our children's stress and anxiety makes a huge difference:

'If the parent becomes just as upset as the child, that cues the child to feel they are facing a crisis. But if the parent can maintain a sense of calm, we can help children to feel that whatever the problem is, it can be managed.'

While Lisa's book is about girls, her parenting advice will also help boys

Empathy is better than reassurance

Telling stressed children not to worry sounds like you are dismissing their issues and emotions. They will feel like you're not taking their issues seriously and will probably become more upset because to them - right now - it is a big deal. Changing 'Don't worry it will be fine' to 'This is a big deal, but I think you are going to be OK!' can make a huge difference.

Play a game of worst-case scenario

Taking time to strategise with children seriously, even about concerns you think overblown. This will help them to feel more in control. Ask 'What's the worst that could happen?' and follow it up with "OK, what would you do then?'. This helps chiuldren begin to handle the anxiety instead of just awful-ise it.

Don't let them avoid the stressful situation

As parents, our instinct is to protect our children from things that cause anxiety and so allow them to skip them over them - whether it is a test, homework, a sleepover or a play. Avoiding threats (fears) that set off anxiety alarm bells solves our children's immediate issues but doesn't allow them to experience the positive feelings that come from working situations through. Helping children to move towards threats rather than run away from them means these fears are less likely to become entrenched and affect their everyday lives and wellbeing.

Teach them to decode social media

Sometimes girls (and boys) need to be reminded that social media is not real life and not the be-all-and-end-all. By offering support instead of judging, we are more able to encourage them to step back and get some perspective. This also involves supporting them to critique the online contributions and behaviours of their 'friends'.

Frame school stress as a positive

It has been shown that if you tell people stress is beneficial because it enhances creativity and helps them to succeed, their mood and self-esteem is higher for days afterwards. Telling young girls (and boys) that their school work schedules and tests will help them to build endurance for life after school might just help them to perform better and go through it with less stress.

Help girls to get more sleep

Teenage girls tend to get less sleep than boys (including because they like to do more homework and get things right) and Lisa says this is probably one of the simplest explanations for girls' high anxiety levels.  When we get enough sleep, we tend to handle most things better. When we don't, we get frazzled and brittle.

Teach perfectionist girls to make less effort

Warning: This last point is controversial! Lisa says that the more nervous girls are about their schoolwork, the harder they work and the more parents then praise their efforts. This pattern of student-parent behaviour gives girls confidence in their own work ethic but not in their ability. So her advice is for parents to encourage girls to be more tactical - to figure out how much work is needed to learn the content/get the grade and then stop there. 'It is better to tell a perfectionist girl to work more like the stereotypical boy, exerting minimum effort to keep adults off their back.'

Adapted from the article 'Girls, it's OK to be anxious' by Rachel Carlyle in The Weekend Australian, 17 June 2019.

'Furious Facebook posts, abusive emails, school sit-ins, menacing behaviour. The new bullies in the schoolyard aren't children - they're mums and dads.'

In an article called Parents Behaving Badly, The Age newspaper recently covered some confronting stuff about principals and teachers being bullied, teachers being tailgated, teachers reporting post-traumatic stress disorder and parents being sued.

Are more parents behaving badly and is their bad behaviour getting worse? 

Cyber safety expert Susan McLean says, yes, there's been a big increase in parents behaving badly over the past five years.

'Parents posting gripes on the school Facebook page can be easy to deal with, because at least the school knows, More difficult is parents talking down teachers and principals on their own Facebook account, or bombarding the school with abusive emails. For every decent parent, I would suggest there are two that are not'.

The Australian Parents Council's President Shelley Hill disagrees:

'In schools, in childcare and in business, you always get those people who potentially make it more difficult than it should be and their expectation is higher and more unreasonable than normal ... but the majority of parents do the right thing.'

Philip Riley (Australian Catholic University) sees the issue as being bigger than just school parents:

'Our nation builders are under attack. Nurses, police officers, and social workers are all reporting the same sorts of increases in offensive behaviour'.

He links the rise in bad behaviour to our loss of trust in the institutions we used to believe in (think the church, banks, politics) and which held society together.

The Sydney principal who told his parent community last year that paying fees didn't entitle them to be aggressive, has a similar view:

'People have become shriller in their interactions, less inclined to listen and more self-focused. I think people are following the bad example set by people in the public eye, such as politicians shouting at each other in Question Time, and sporting superstars sledging and taunting each other.

He encouraged parents to avoid getting all worked up about incidents involving their children - natural as it is to want to react when we think they are under threat.

He wonderfully reminded - 'As our children would say to us: chill.'

Michael Hawton, the author of Talk Less Listen More and Engaging Adolescents will be Adelaide in October to provide training in his new course No Scaredy Cats which foucses on helping parents to better understand and deal with children's increasing levels of anxiety. In this article, he shares some thoughts on how children of all ages can be helped to understand that 'it's not all about them', that setbacks are a fact of life, and that a bit of mental toughness can see you through.

Currently, three members of our family or close friends have young adult children who are facing significant mental health problems. Anxiety, depression and a general sense of young people and children not being able to cope is widespread throughout the community. How can resilience be built in children and youth?

The big question then becomes, why are these trends occuring? Is there something that can be done as a society, or as parents, to help young people cope better with the challenges life throws at them? How can resilience be developed in children?

The comfortable life we live in can sometimes lull us into thinking that things will always be easy and we won't have to face frustration, hardship and pain. Perhaps we could be doing more to help our children and young people learn to cope with the inevitable setbacks they will face in life.

In order to do this, the following things can be done;

1. Teach kids to be tolerant of difference and realise that someone holding a different opinion to us is not an attack on our way of life. Help them to be strong in themselves and in their own values, but also to tolerate others with different views and values.

2. Empower children to problem solve and work to resolve differences and disagreements in a constructive, diplomatic way. 

3. Help kids to take the focus off themselves occasionally and be aware of how other people live. Contributing to a community event or volunterring are great ways for young people to recognise the bigger picture. Narcissism is on the rise and it leads to mental fragility. 

4. Give children the message that although some parts of life are uncomfortable, sad, painful of challenging, this is normal and it is possible to get through this. Teach them to draw on their internal strength and the support of their family and community to survive these challenges. 

We need to build and develop resilience thinking skills in children so that they might feel courage when faced with challenges and hold on to self-belief when they feel attacked. As parents, educators and mentors, we can teach children how to weather the inevitable storms, which will come their way and also to stand up for themselves in appropriate ways.

Developing the ability to stand up for yourself when appropriate includes knowing how to summon up some mental toughness. It can be having a stern word to yourself or as simple as shaking yourself out of complacency or even taking definite steps to deal with the normal sadness or frustration that befalls us all, at times.

Please find the link to more information below, including registration details. 

People came from far and wide to The Federation's engagement forum held at The Monastery in April. It was wonderful to have Robyn Clasohm, Kathleen Slade and their two young sons come over from Yorketown, and we are always grateful for the tremendous commitment of our President Kylie Ind who comes from Mount Gambier.

• What did your parents and other people in your family say was important in life? What were their hopes and dreams for you?
• What did you want to be when you grew up? How did you end up where you are today?
• Who was one of the best teachers you ever had? Why? What would you say if you met this teacher today?
• What messages do you tell your children (or students)?
• What role do teenagers think parents should play in their schooling? In their lives generally?

There was a lot of noise in the room as people who had never met each other happily chatted away sharing inspirational and tough stories. How different from coming into a room, sitting down and taking turns to say who you are and where you come from. A gold star to Kylie and everyone!

Next came presentations from the five schools who had been invited to speak on their parent engagement projects which the Federation has funded through the state government’s PIE grant program.

P&F Chair Lisa Mahoney from St John the Baptist Catholic School in Plympton spoke about sharing knowledge and resource packs with families so they can better support their children’s numeracy development at home.

Robyn and Kathleen, current and past P&F Presidents at St Columba’s Memorial School, shared their project to publish a ‘part coffee table, part recipe book’ to celebrate the stories of local producers and entrepreneurs and strengthen family-school-community connections.

Sue Werts, Chair of the Parent Community Group at St Francis de Sales College in Mount Barker, talked about why and how the PCG had been created, where it fitted with the college’s strategic plan, and how parent teams were working to support projects and events, bring forward new ideas and make more connections between families and the school.

Deputy Principal Gennaro Mannella from St Brigid’s Catholic School in Evanston wrapped up the school presentations with an outline of how his school is helping parents to understand why teaching and learning is changing and how they can participate in their children’s ‘21^st century learning’.

Federation Vice President Caz Bosch then gave presented insights into parent engagement research and good practice, and the forum ended with lunch.

National parent organisations have expressed their concerns about recent media statements portraying parents as aggressive, violent and the cause of principal and teacher stress, saying these have increased tension between parents and teachers.

The Australian Council of State School Organisations, the Australian Parents Council and Catholic School Parents Australia are asking for more time and resources to be invested in positively engaging familes, and the cooperation of principal and teacher organisations, education departments and non-government schooling authorities to improve family engagement.

The July holidays are always a tricky time. The weather really isn't warm enough to go to the beach and it's sometimes too cold to even think about going out. Besides, lots of families just love to relax at home and maybe wear pyjamas all day. This makes it a great time to find some books and magazines and just READ FOR FUN.

Reading over the holidays doesn't just fill in time, it helps us to relax, get away from our screens, get lost in other worlds and have different family conversations.

Families, including grandparents, aunties, uncles and older cousins, can help children of all ages take an interest in reading and stretch their imaginations as well as their literacy skills. 

And it's not all that hard to be an awesome reading role-model even if reading isn't your thing or you're not very good at. Just read something, anything. Make a family visit to the local library and explore what's there - they've changed a lot and are much more interesting places now. Choose some books and read the cover to see what they are about. Even if you don't take any home, you will have role-modelled an interest in books and reading, and connected to your community.

If you like reading, dip into the books your kids are reading at school or home. You might be surprised to find that the things they're reading are pretty good!

Some of us at the Federation remember times when we enjoyed the first book of a children's series so much that we read the whole lot and got impatient when we had to wait our turn for the next book.

Happy reading! And if you have some ideas or stories to share about great books or library experiences please email us at fedadmin@cesa.com.au