Education Week 2023 - ‘Active Learners: Move, Make, Motivate’

Grandparents and Special Friends Morning

We started our Education Week celebrations wonderfully, opening our doors to the children’s grandparents and special people. This was a great chance for them to discuss ‘when I was at school…’ and have the proud children explain what school is like at Mitcham Primary School in 2023. Thank you to all our Grandparents and Special Friends for visiting!

The World of Robotics

This week and last week your children have been given a wonderful opportunity to be part of a fantastic enrichment activity happening at Mitcham Primary School. Kevin and Pauline Taylor from “The World of Robotics'' have been holding sessions for all our students from Prep to Grade Six. These sessions have run for between two and two-and-a-half hours and have been designed to immerse children in the world of robotics and extend the base knowledge that they have already acquired in this area of Science and Technology. Children have designed and created robots to support communities impacted by floods. The challenges and materials varied from year level to year level, for example our Prep students were challenged to design and build a robot that could deliver food to people in evacuation centres and those who are stranded on isolated properties. Our Cycle 2 Montessori students were challenged to design and create a robot that could relocate and feed animals that were stranded for example on farms and at Dubbo Zoo.

Open Day and Evening

Our working open morning and open evening yesterday where a wonderful success. It was lovely to have so many current families pop in to explore what their children have been getting up to in the classroom, and equally wonderful to welcome and share our school with well in excess of 60 other families hopeful to enrol their children at Mitcham Primary School in the next year or two. I have to extend a very big thank you to our Grade 5/6 tour guides, who confidently shared our our school and their experiences with our visitors. The feedback we received about the students was so positive!

THRASS Day

Today we have celebrated all things THRASS with a dress up day! There were amazing costumes from chefs to doctors, lights to kites, cows to hippos and everything in between. In classrooms we also had lots of fun competing in spelling challenges and showing off our incredible costumes. Thank you Ms Anderson for all your work in preparing us for a THRASS-tastic Day!

Some of our teachers who got into the spirit of the day:

Some of our fantastic students also went to lots of effort to make today so special.

National Sorry Day

Next Friday 26th May, is National Sorry Day, this day gives people the chance to come together and share the steps towards healing for the Stolen Generations, their families and communities. The first National Sorry Day was held on May 26, 1998, which was one year after the tabling of a report about the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families. The report, known as Bringing Them Home, acknowledged that Indigenous children were forcibly separated from their families and communities since the early days of European occupation in Australia. This year our school captains, house captains and our indigenous students will have the privilege of attending the official Flag Raising Ceremony at the Whitehorse Civic Centre for National Sorry Day. This ceremony is also open to the public and will be held Friday 26 May 2023 1.30pm – 2.30pm at Whitehorse City Council - Nangnak Garden (rear of the Council offices), 379 Whitehorse Road Nunawading.

Uniform Reminder

As a staff we have noticed several students not wearing correct school uniform of late. Please remember our school colours are bottle green and white, students should not be wearing other coloured or logo windsheaters, leggings or track pants. Students are permitted to wear warm jackets of any colour, over their uniform, all other items must be in our school colours.

School Council Update

On Tuesday 16th May we presented our Annual Report to the School Community during an Open School Council Meeting. If you were unable to attend and are interested in reading about and celebrating our 2022 highlights, you are able to access the annual report on Key Policies and Documents tab on our School Website or by clicking here.

Following the presentation on our Annual Report, our Wellbeing Coordinator, Laura Ellis, presented an overview of our Mitcham Primary School approach to Student Wellbeing. One area of Laura’s presentation that attracted significant interest from our parents was learning about ‘The Zones of Regulation’, as such we have included some information for all families.

Information About the ZONES of Regulation

Mitcham Primary School uses The Zones of Regulation as a school-wide Social and Emotional Learning initiative to support our Wellbeing approach and the Victorian Curriculum Personal and Social Capability Learning Continuum. As a school we recognise the importance of wellbeing and aim to create a culture that empowers our students to develop strong positive character traits and group dynamics.

What are the Zones of Regulation?

The Zones uses four colours to help students self-identify how they are functioning in the moment given their emotions and states of alertness. There are times where it is expected to be in each of the zones and times it would be unexpected.

Blue Zone is used to describe low states of alertness (e.g. sad, tired, sick or bored) when our body and/or brain is moving slowly or sluggishly.

Green Zone is used to describe a regulated state of alertness (e.g. calm, happy, focused or content). Being in the Green Zone shows control and is generally the zone we need to be in for schoolwork and being social.

Yellow Zone is used to describe a heightened state of alertness (e.g. stressed, frustrated, anxious, excited, silly, nervous or confused). The Yellow Zone is starting to lose some control.

Red Zone is used to describe extremely heightened states of alertness or very intense feelings (e.g. anger, rage, panic, terror or elation). Being in the Red Zone can best be explained by not being in control of one’s body.

What does using the Zones of Regulation look like at our school?

The use of the Zones in our classrooms is designed to help students understand their different internal emotions, sensory needs, and thinking patterns that result in each student shifting from one zone to another. Students explore a variety of tools that they can use to regulate what zone they are in and are taught when, why and how to use their tools.

The Zones of Regulation help students learn more about perspective taking to better understand how being in the different zones impacts others’ thoughts and feelings around them.

The important message is that there is no 'good or bad' zone, but that everyone experiences all 'Zones' at one time or another. The aim of the program is for students to be able to identify and problem solve when they are in a particular 'zone' and employ strategies to help manage their emotions and ultimately return to the 'Green Zone', which is optimal for learning.

As a parent or carer, we encourage you to talk to your child about which 'zone' you may be in at various times throughout the day and the strategies and techniques that help you manage your emotions. Perhaps you might even demonstrate some of the strategies that you use to help you get back to the 'green zone'. This could be things like, slow and controlled breathing, going for a walk, patting the dog, listening to music or singing, cooking or reading a book.

Thank you to those parents who attended on Tuesday evening and to Laura Ellis for her comprehensive presentation.

Wish all families a lovely weekend.

Warmly,

Erin

Helping Hands