An Update from Mr Vines

Remembrance Day

On the 11th of the 11th we honoured the fallen with a minute of silence. All the students and the school stopped learning time just prior recess to hold a minute of silence.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Parent Opinion Survey

At South Melbourne Park Primary School we care about what our community thinks and we value your input into how we are going as a school. One way that we measure this is via the Parent Opinion Survey which goes out each year. The results from this survey are looked at carefully by the leadership team, the whole school staff, the Engagement and Wellbeing subcommittee and School Council. It is very important to us that you understand that we not only value your feedback but that we act on it – the more voices that we hear from, the more information we have to ensure that the school experience we are providing is meeting your needs.

This year we had 25 respondents to the survey, which is an encouragingly high number. Some highlights from the results of the data are the overall positivity of our school community, particularly in the areas of "effective teaching", "stimulating learning", and especially "general school satisfaction".

The results were very carefully looked over in our Wellbeing and Engagement Subcommittee. In the charts below the green/blue represents a positive response, the grey is either a neutral or invalid response while the black is any responses that are not positive.

In this section we can see that 72% of the parents responded positively to how we manage bullying, 26% responded neutrally (or have had no experience of bullying to judge the school on) and 2% have had a not positive experience. While the results here are very encouraging, and demonstrate that our school is an inclusive and safe environment for our students, this is an area that is very close to my heart. We are dedicated to ensuring that all students feel safe and that South Melbourne Park Primary School is place "where children love to be". To that end we have a number of measures that we will be working on:

– We will continue to work on developing strategies for students to build relationships and manage relationship breakdowns, using Zones of Regulation to help students self-manage

– All teachers have now been trained in Circle Solutions, a method of building relationships between students. This is being embedded into the weekly practice by the teachers

– Continue to build a culture of teamwork and trust, particularly with how our school will be growing in size, and promoting the use of the friendship tree to connect our students.

There are three areas in particular that I would like to draw your attention to, "Positive transitions", "student connectedness" and "general school satisfaction".

These have all been rated very positively, and are significantly high compared with the state averages. This tells us that our students and families are feeling connected to the school. The most important element here is that general school satisfaction is so high. This, to me, is one of the questions in the Parent Opinion Survey that is a "pulse check" that encompasses a lot of the other responses.

There will always be areas for us to improve as a school, and it is important that we use the information that you provide to help us to focus on the areas of need. We need to celebrate how fantastic our school is and we need to acknowledge the amazing work that is happening from both the teachers and the parents in our community. Whenever we send out surveys we do encourage you to take the time to complete them as we want to reassure you that we do value this input, and it does get looked at and actioned.

If you do ever have any concerns and wish to discuss them, please book in a time to come in and see me. I am always happy to talk through what we are doing as a school and to answer any questions you may have.

The Importance of Language

Children are mirrors of what they see and hear at home, at school, and in the outer community. That is why it is so important that we are aware of, and intentional with, the language that we use with them. At South Melbourne Park Primary School we are working to embed a culture of gratitude, where we are continually looking for those things to be thankful for and to build a mindset of positivity. One of the ways we do this is to always start our meetings by asking everyone to share one thing that they are grateful for.

This is important because our use of language shapes the mindset and perspective of children as they grow and develop. This is particularly true when we consider areas like gender and children’s perspective on the roles of men and women. We want all of our students to understand that girls can grow up to be anything they want to be, whether it is a doctor, an engineer, a computer programmer or a professional sportsperson. This all starts with language and respect. If we make sure we always talk about the amazing and powerful women in our lives and respect their astounding contribution to society; if we emphasize and model the importance of treating men and women the same, we are going to see this perspective reflected back to us through the children.

DR Cranky’s Bike Hospital

Dr Cranky’s Bike Hospital is an amazing initiative aimed at ensuring that all students have access to a bike. Our aim is to set up a parent-run bike hospital that would be open before and after school one day a week or once a fortnight.

Dr Cranky’s has three aims:

- Get more children and families riding. Its proven to do this with recipients riding 3 extra times a week

- Improve the environment by stopping bikes rusting unused in backyards and sheds or being dumped

- Making connections at schools with a simple regular and inclusive activity that allow people to meet and share resources.

This requires a parental volunteer commitment of about two hours either a week or a fortnight. The toolkit is provided and there is no cost to anyone involved. It is a fantastic way to connect with the community and to meet people you may not otherwise have the opportunity to meet.

Please get in touch if this is an area that you would be able to contribute to.

Healthy Tracks - Presentation of Findings

As you may know we have had the City of Port Phillip working with the school to put together an action plan to make it safer and more accessible for families to walk, ride or scoot to school. Many of you have been involved in our feedback and consultation process so far, either by participating in the after school workshop, completing the survey, or participating in the one-on-one interviews. We now wish to present the findings and the action plan to you all, which is very exciting!

It will be on Wednesday 20 November from 3:30-5pm in the Staff Room. You can register your interest by RSVPing using this link: https://tinyurl.com/yxomq2sf

We look forward to seeing you and your family there!

Jump Rope for Heart

On Friday 1 November our students participated in the hugely worthwhile Jump Rope for Heart event. We had student teachers from RMIT come out and work with our students to teach them how to skip and to promote healthy lifestyles. It was a fantastic morning and we have seen so much skipping from our students since!

Parents Victoria 2019 Conference

The Parents Victoria conference is a fantastic way to learn more about research-based parenting strategies. The conference is free for Parents Victoria members, and is quite cheap for non-members. Even if this is not something you can attend this year, Parents Victoria is a group that might be worth keeping in mind.

The Parents Victoria conference will be held on 18 and 19 November 2019, with a focus on mental health and wellbeing. This year’s Parents Victoria conference will be held at Pullman Melbourne on the Park. The conference will be opened by the Hon. James Merlino, Minister for Education and Deputy Premier of Victoria.

This year’s keynote speaker is Andrew Fuller, a clinical psychologist and developer of the concept "The Resilient Mindset". Over the two days, he will discuss a range of contemporary educational wellbeing issues, including:

– Identifying and building learning strengths

– Promoting mental health in young people

– Reducing violence and bullying in schools.

The conference follows last year’s successful event, which received strong positive feedback from attendees, who said they appreciated "the opportunity for parents, teachers and people in the Department to come together" at a "wonderful, connecting conference" where "the speakers get better and better every year".

Guest speakers

This year, sessions will focus on the ways parents and schools can support mental health and wellbeing in schools. The 2019 speakers include:

– Sue Karzis, CEO of State Schools Relief, a Victorian charity that supports underprivileged children in attending school

– John Hendry OAM, an educational consultant

– Monique Toohey, a psychologist and lecturer at ACU in Multicultural Counselling

– Wayne Bradshaw, CEO of the Fathering Project, a program that promotes engagement between children and their fathers

– Jac Van Velsen, founder of national non-profit Wellbeing in Schools Australia that works with schools to promote good health and wellbeing

– Justin McDonnell, acting Executive Director of the Wellbeing Health and Engagement Division at the Department of Education and Training.

Registration is essential. View the Parents Victoria conference brochure to register.

Wordpress and the Website

We have had our beautiful website up for a while now, but it will soon undergo some refinements and improvements. The website is intended for external use and to be the first port of call for families who are looking to become part of our community, while Compass, SeeSaw and our Newsletter are intended to be our primary forms of communication for parents that are currently at the school. If you have any experience with Wordpress and would like to be involved in the website improvements please get in touch with the school, I would love to have the support of anyone with further expertise in this area.

Thunderstorm Asthma

Just a reminder that the beautiful weather we are now experiencing is also the perfect weather for Thunderstorm Asthma attacks to occur. During grass pollen season people may notice an increase in asthma and hay fever. Grass pollen season (October through December) also brings the chance of thunderstorm asthma.

Thunderstorm asthma is thought to be triggered by a unique combination of high amounts of grass pollen in the air and a certain type of thunderstorm. For people who have asthma or hay fever this can trigger severe asthma symptoms. For more information please go to the Thunderstorm Asthma Website and make sure that you know what to do if you or your children are experiencing symptoms.

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