Principal's Desk

Dear Families,

It’s time for Park Ridge Primary School to celebrate children’s literature with the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book Week! The CBCA Book Week is a fantastic event that promotes the joy that reading can bring to young minds! The theme for 2024 is “Reading is Magic“. Primary schools and libraries across Australia join in the fun celebrating literature with Book Week activities and a Book Character Parade.

As mentioned in last week's Important Dates, and as part of the fun planned in Book Week, Park Ridge Primary School will be having a whole school Book Week Dress-Up Day on Thursday 22nd August. We would love to see all students coming dressed up as a character from their favourite book. It would be great if they can also bring in the book their character is from to share with their class. Costumes don’t have to be elaborate; we just want to celebrate our love of reading!

We are all really looking forward to celebrating reading and enjoying our fun Book Week activities with the students!

Parent Teacher Conferences 

This week, families have had the opportunity to celebrate their child's learning and social development over the past six months. 

Parent-Teacher Conferences allow us to share insights about students' interests, provide specific feedback on their achievements and progress, and discuss their reports in greater detail.

These conferences offer a chance to understand how best to support each student's learning and set goals for their future improvement and success. If you have any questions regarding your child's achievement and learning, please feel free to schedule a meeting with your child's teacher outside of the conference schedule - you can contact them directly through Compass.

Congratulations to our Australian Olympic Team!

It was fantastic to see and celebrate the fantastic achievements of the Australian Olympic Team throughout their Summer Olympic journey. Every night during the Olympics, there was an inspiring reminder about what can be achieved when dedication and persistence pays off.    

It is also a timely reminder regarding the massive, proven effects that exercise and physical activity have on children's wellbeing.  This doesn't mean that we should all join a soccer club or netball team. It simply means finding as many opportunities as possible for our children to be active.  It may well mean that they spend less time on their devices too.  The following tips are from the Raising Children Group which are a great resource for all things children, parenting and education.   

Getting children to be physically active

The keys to getting children to be active are:

• making sure they have everyday opportunities for physical activity
• helping them find physical activities that they like
• role-modelling a positive attitude to physical activity.

Dancing around the house, skipping and running around the backyard, playing with balls or flying a kite – it doesn’t matter how children move, as long as they have plenty of opportunities to move in ways they enjoy. 

Physical activity is vital for children’s health and wellbeing, now and in the future. As children grow and develop, they need different types and amounts of physical activity. They also need time and space for free play.

Space for physical activity and play

Whatever space you have for physical activity and play is fine, so long as your child can move around and have fun.

If you feel that you don’t have a lot of play space at home, you could take your child to a park, sports field, beach, friend’s or family member’s house, library, school, community centre or other place with space to play.

You could also talk to neighbours with other young children about taking turns supervising your children’s play outside or at the local park.

Time for physical activity and play

When your child has plenty of time for play, they can explore and use spaces in their own way.

You might need to adjust your family schedule to help your child be more active. For example, you might schedule in active play with your child when you’re not working. This could be activities like kicking a ball or playing in the park.

You can also fit in more time for your child’s active play if you include it in everyday activities. For example, you could time how fast your child can pack away their toys or games. And the next time your child is packing up, see whether they can beat their record.

Variety in physical activity and play

Plenty of variety in your child’s mix of play, sports, games and activities will keep them excited about moving. And when your child tries out different activities, they can pick up new skills, stay interested and challenged, and get enough physical activity into their day. They’re also more likely to find something they enjoy.

You can help your child find and try different activities.

For example, children who like balancing might enjoy climbing, cycling, playgrounds, dance or gymnastics. Others who like hand-eye coordination tasks might enjoy ball games in the park, ten-pin bowling, Frisbee or sports like cricket or tennis.

Education Victoria- Supporting learning at home

Education Victoria has a fantastic website that contains lots of helpful information for parents. https://www.vic.gov.au/education-information-parents

Often, teachers get questions about how to help at home.  As teachers at Park Ridge Primary School, we want to build genuine partnerships with families to support students learning at home. We want learning to be seamless and develop a love for learning. We always welcome conversations about your child’s progress and what can be done to support them - just like the majority of conversations had this week at Parent / Teacher conferences. If you are wondering about or want to learn a little more to help your child at home the tab ‘supporting your child’s education: (https://www.vic.gov.au/supporting-your-childs-education)’ is a great place to start.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Please feel free to pop in for a chat with either Carrie, Brendan or I, should you wish to discuss anything. 

Our doors are always open! 

Take care,

Mr. Dale Blythman