Let’s talk about lunchboxes……

Your child has a very full day of playing, learning and socialising at school. The lunchbox is a key part of setting up your child to get the most out of every part of every day. What happens in the Early Years of schooling sets the platform for your child’s future health and wellbeing. A nutritious lunchbox should provide foods that meet their energy needs, reduce the risk of diet-related conditions like obesity and minimise the risk of chronic diseases later in life.

Lunchboxes don’t need to be complicated! A simple lunchbox that contains a variety of foods from all five food groups is often the easiest to pack and the most welcomed by the children. If you are needing ideas on where to look for ideas, the Queensland Government Growing Good Habits site has excellent information.

As a Catholic school, we are committed to embedding the Catholic Social Teachings into our work with our students. One of these is Stewardship of Creation. We are called to respect the gift of Earth and all of life on it. In doing so, we are responsible – all of us – for taking care of the world we live in and for sharing the wonders and resources the earth gives us. Currently, our student lunchboxes generate an enormous amount of non-recyclable rubbish due to an increasing amount of pre-packaged food items. Many of these are small serves individually wrapped. The foods contained in these can often be purchased in larger quantities that simply require decanting into a reusable plastic container. Yoghurt is one example of this, and small packets of crackers or biscuits are another. I challenge you to stop and think about how we live – it is the world’s poorest communities who are affected by changes to our planet. Make a commitment to look for alternatives for these small packaged items and in doing so, help us to be more mindful stewards of our earth – and no doubt save money in the mean time as the cost is often halved when purchasing in larger quantities!

Attendance Data

The College has recently reviewed student attendance data across all classes and this has identified an issue with a significant, consistent number of late arrivals for some of our Early Years students. Please be advised that learning BEGINS and rolls are marked immediately at the 8:50am bell, so students need to have arrived, be unpacked and ready to begin learning by 8:45am. Failure to do so results not only in loss of learning for the late student, but significant disruption to the teaching and learning of the whole class. To avoid difficult conversations in the coming weeks, please ensure your child is at school on time every day. This also sets up students with the best chance for success. Parents are asked to notify the College office if they know their child will be late due to a valid reason (eg speech therapy).

Katrina Walton

Assistant Principal Early Years