Coffee & Conversation

Our last Coffee & Conversation for the year will be on Wednesday 2nd December 2015 at 9:00am.
Hope to see you there!

Jo Betti
HCC Social Worker

Christmas in Ellenbrook!

Aveley Christmas - Carols by Candlelight (plus a visit from Santa!)      
Saturday 5th December, opens at 5pm, carols from 6pm - 8:30pm.
Aveley Playing Fields
Limited parking available nearby at Aveley Primary School, Swan Valley Anglican Community School and Vale Shopping Centre
Smoke, alcohol and pet free event

Ellenbrook Christmas Festival (Markets, Pageant & Carols)
Saturday 12th December 2015
Mega Christmas Markets- 10am to 4pm, Christmas Pageant 5pm - 6pm
Take a leisurely stroll on Main Street through the market, mingle with the locals and entertain the children.  Followed by a pageant from the Library to the Town Square.  The parade is sure to dazzle with the talent of local dance, performance and community groups.
Enjoy carols and entertainment under the stars at Charlie Gregorini Memorial Park from 8 - 9:30pm.
For further details visit: ellenbrook.com.au or www.facebook.com/christmasinellenbrook

Twilight Family Festival
City of Swan are supporting the Swan Valley Community Centre to host their very first Christmas Concert event – the Twilight Family Festival on 13th December at Baskerville Oval.
   
A Big Bug Christmas- Children’s Christmas Party
Ellenbrook Community Library- Wednesday 9th December, 10:30-11:30am.
A fully interactive storytelling session adventure for children aged 2-8 years. This is a FREE event and places are limited. Bookings essential on 9207 8787.

Self talk

An excerpt from ParentingIdeas:

"Self-talk is the foundation strategy to teach kids to shift their thinking about a negative event." A negative event happens such as a child’s sibling won’t share a much-loved toy. The child immediately feels anger. He thinks, “Not again! I hate her! She never shares and it’s not fair.” This thinking feeds his anger, which starts to spiral. In a heartbeat he’s lashed out at his sister for inflicting such an injustice on him. Here’s what happens…… Our thoughts, often reflected through self-talk, change when we experience an emotion. We tend to focus on the event that caused the emotion. Anger shifts our attention outward to the thing, person or event that caused it. Sadness shifts our attention inwards toward the loss. Our emotions change how we see the world. We are usually more optimistic when we are happy and more pessimistic when we’re sad. The key is to change your self-talk. By changing the chatter in your brain from something negative, catastrophic or unhelpful to something more realistic, positive and helpful can help get you through a challenging situation. Positive self-talk examples include: “Stuff happens. I can cope.” “It’s no big deal.” “I’ve put up with worse than this.” “I may want it but I don’t need it.” Help children develop age-appropriate self-talk scripts for a variety of common situations they meet so they can avoid an escalation of their emotions. Then encourage them to change the monkey-brain tape in their heads when they catch themselves saying negative, catastrophic or down-right regretful things.

Ellenbrook Community Posts

Jaxx Espresso Bar and Century 21 are proudly supporting breast cancer research by holding a Pink Ribbon Long Table Morning Tea on 30th October from 10 - 11:30am.   RSVP's to Mandy 0412 850 431 or in person at Jaxx.

Youth Mental Health First Aid
3-day workshop at Aveley Community Centre coordinated by ClanWA.  
Friday 30th Oct, 6th Nov & 13th Nov from 9:30 - 2:30pm  RSVP workshops@clanwa.com.au 

Free First Aid Course for Parents with Young Children

CLAN Midland and RLSWA are providing a FREE workshop for Parents and Carers at the Aveley Community Centre.  

Tuesday 3rd November 2015 from 9.30am - 12.30pm.

To book please phone Fiona on 0449 717 623

BOOST- Help your child to read and spell

A two-part workshop providing information to parents of children in K - Yr 1/ 2 about how literacy skills develop. Held 9:30 - 12:30 at Aveley Community Centre on Thursdays 5th Nov and 12th Nov. All parents will received a “Literacy Pack” valued at over $60! Morning tea and crèche are provided, BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL. To register please phone Caroline 0450 252 784 or Julie 0451 152 781 or email caroline.morrisbrown@clanmidland.org or Julie.cooper@clanmidland.org.

Pram Walk Event
Show your support for antenatal and postnatal depression or anxiety.  Goodie bags and giveaways for all participants, info stalls, face painting and activities for the kids.

Date: Wednesday 18 November, 9:30am, meet at 84 Egerton Drive Aveley

Bring: Shade for your pram, sunscreen, hat and water

Wear: PURPLE and good walking shoes

RSVP: by Wed 11 November to 9250 2221 or info@mwhcp.org.au

Aboriginal Parenting Support Service

Meerilinga has an Aboriginal Parenting Support Service who work with families with children from birth to five years of age.   Ph. 9377 4749 for more info.

Brockman House - Community Support, Child Care & Outside School Hours Care

The Brockman House timetable for Term 4 is available at http://www.brockmanhouse.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Term-4-Program1.pdf

Helpingminds (formerly Arafmi) Carers Support Group - Midland

10am - 12pm at St Vincent de Paul Society, 2 Bayley Street, Woodbridge on the 4th Thursday every month.

RSVP by calling HelpingMinds on 9427 7100, go to http://helpingminds.org.au/ for more information.

Mental Health Services, 360 Health and Community

Two new Mental Health services are operating from the Counselling Room in the Ellenbrook Place Office. 360 Health & Community (formerly Medicare Local) provides free/ low-cost counselling for local residents with a GP referral. There are two clinicians delivering different programs, rotating weekly on Thursdays to deliver an adult’s counselling service and children’s counselling service. For more information see http://www.360.org.au/programs/north/mental-health

Wellness Day Yr. 10

Our Yr. 10's (now officially Yr. 11!) participated in a Wellness Day last week as part of their Transition Week.  Students really embraced the sessions with our guest speaker Claire Eaton from ROC Teen, and enthusiastically joined in activities including a personal training session, learning some relaxation techniques and also making stress balls.  I hope each student enjoyed the day and took away some ideas on how to make the most of the new academic year.  

Coffee & Conversation

Our next Coffee & Conversation will be held on Wednesday 28th October in the College Cafe at 9am.  Hope to see you there.

Yr 9 Wellness Day

During Wednesday’s Wellness Day our terrific Yr 9's were treated to some very special activities and presentations as part of transition week. In addition to making stress balls, doing an energetic fitness work-out with professional personal trainer Sarah and learning some relaxation exercises (for some it was hard not to fall asleep!) the students were privileged to have Claire Eaton from "ROC Teen" provide a range of tips and ideas on how to make the most of a new academic year.  Claire helped empower our young men and women by talking about the importance of facing those inevitable challenges that arise through adolescence, about the big (yes BIG!) changes going on in their brains and about accepting responsibility for their actions. She used a great visual metaphor about ‘above and below the line’ when it comes to the way we think/feel/respond to all the stuff happening in our lives – a great way of visualising positive and negative thought patterns to help stay more resilient, optimistic and confident.  Our students showed Claire much respect and honesty during the sessions.  We are certainly looking forward to having Claire speak next week to the Yr. 10's as part of their transition week.

Claire then returned in the evening to present to parents and caregivers.  We had a terrific turnout of around 35 people attending to hear Claire explain some of the concepts she'd shared with the students earlier in the day.  Throughout her insightful presentation Claire displayed a warm touch of humour and shared some of her personal parenting experiences which many parents acknowledged were very similar to their own.  We hope that parents took away some important messages about coping with the challenges that adolescence brings both at school and at home.   

Thank to you all the parents and caregivers who came along - I think it really shows the level of dedication and commitment to our school community and our young people as they make their journey towards adulthood.  

Warm regards, Ms Betti, HCC Social Worker