Principal's Report

Jells Park Primary School

Principal:                         Kevin Oakey

                                           k.oakey@jpps.vic.edu.au 

Assistant Principal:     Kellie Stewart

                                          k.stewart@jpps.vic.edu.au

Communication and Feedback

Jells Park PS is aware that communication and feedback to parents is vitally important, particularly with respect to student learning. We have a number of formal processes that give parents opportunity to see their child's progress and speak to the teachers. For some parents this is enough, for others they want more regular contact.

If you feel the need to have more regular updates and contact with your child's teacher, please do not hesitate to contact them. Every staff member has a dedicated email address for simple communications, and there is availability to chat to teachers before or after school, either casually or in a more formal sit down. We can even do online meetings, now that we are all capable of using Webex or Zoom!!

Education of your child is a partnership and I encourage you to freely approach your child's teacher if you feel the need - don't be shy!!

Education Week & Open Night

Please look later in the newsletter for details of Education Week (24-28 May) and Open Night (Wednesday 26 May). The theme is BUILDING Connections and we are focusing on our local community.

We encourage all families to engage with the activities, in particular come to the school on Open Night. We have food vans, class activities, school choir singing and stalls from many of our local community businesses that connect with us.

Environment and Recycling

A reminder of a couple of new initiatives:

Bread Bags and Tags - please collect as many of these as possible up until 25 June. The bread bags can be placed in the boxes around the school and the tags taken to the office. This is an initiative of our Environment Captains.

RedCycling - because of the overwhelming number of soft plastic packets being collected in the school, we are asking parents to support the disposal of these items in the RedCycle bins at the supermarket. If you child comes home with a bag full of soft plastic, please support them in getting to the supermarket to dispose of it.

Nude Food - better still, let's reduce the amount of soft plastic being used!! We will be driving more Nude Food initiatives. There will be more information from our Environment Captains coming shortly.

Parking in 2min Zone

I need to caution parents again about the correct use of the 2min parking zone at the front of the school. This zone is STRICTLY for drop off and pick up. You cannot leave your car for any length of time or sit and wait in that zone for any reason. This zone should move freely in and out as children get in or out.

If you need clarification please look at the council website :  https://www.monash.vic.gov.au/About-Us/Parking-Transport/Restrictions

This is a courtesy that we should be modelling to our children and a safety requirement for all that use the roads.

Kevin Oakey

Principal

National Sorry Day

National Sorry Day, on 26 May, is a day to acknowledge the strength of Stolen Generations Survivors and reflect on how we can all play a part in the healing process for our people and nation. While this date carries great significance for the Stolen Generations and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is also commemorated by Australians right around the country.

If your family is celebrating a significant cultural event please let me know so I can include it in our newsletter.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

It's become very clear to me in my role that everyone, children and adults, are dealing with the 2020 lockdown in different ways. Psychologists refer to mental health as being on a continuum from Flourishing to Depressed. An interesting article I read recently described people post lockdown as being in a state of languishing, neither depressed nor flourishing but somewhere in the middle. The article can be found here - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/well/mind/covid-mental-health-languishing.html

A reminder if your child seems unusually unhappy or struggling from a social and emotional perspective please don't hesitate to contact their class teacher or myself. We have access to many resources as well as a counselling placement student who is available to do some short term counselling with JPPS students on Fridays.

Gratitude and Kindness

Research shows that practicing gratitude and kindness can have a positive effect on mental health.  I think children model this well but in our busy adult lives we forget to give thanks where thanks is deserved. When is the last time you thanked someone and explained to them the impact of their actions? I'd like to begin by thanking the Level 6 staff and parents who took 95 students to Canberra. The work the teachers put in before, during and after the camp to ensure the students were safe, entertained and educated is enormous and it is obvious from listening to the students they had a great time and the camp will be a lasting memory of their Primary School years.

Have a lovely weekend.

Kellie Stewart

Assistant Principal