From the Head of Junior School

Junior School Update

Last year, I was given a set of playing cards by one of our students after a trip overseas. The cards contained quotes by Irish writers and have been a great source of reflection for me throughout the year. One of the quotes resonated with me this week after some conversations with students about their weekend activities. 

The quote is by WB Yeats: 

"The World is full of magic. Patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”  

My cause for reflection was the excitement in the eyes of the students as they described their activities to me. 

One was a student who competed in a State level sporting competition, another was with some students who had been part of a group who organised a fundraiser and another was a student who was proudly explaining how she had taught her puppy some new tricks. Each were very different activities, but the excitement and energy were the same. I felt privileged that they wanted to share their excitement with me. I was given an insight into the magic of their weekends. 

It made me reflect on how open children are to seeing the magic that is around them and, perhaps it is not that our senses grow sharper as we get older but perhaps the reverse, that, perhaps the busyness of daily life or the burden of adult responsibilities dull our ability to share the moments of magic that our children still see. One of the students asked me if I did anything exciting on the weekend. My first response was to say that I had a quiet weekend at home as I had a friend visiting who I had not seen for a long time. Being children, they asked more questions: Where was your friend from? What did you do with them?  Was it fun? 

By the time I had finished the conversation, I had described how we had walked down the road to do some prospecting and had seen a mob of kangaroos, an echidna and a wallaby and that my friend had found some gold coloured metal. I explained that the metal was just brass bullet casings but that he was happy to have found something metal as he hadn’t been prospecting before and that, because he lived in Germany, he was happy to see such a range of Australian wildlife so close to where I lived. The reaction of the students was also that of excitement. “That’s so cool!” was the response. I had viewed the weekend as quiet and uneventful but the children I had spoken with helped me to see the magic that had been right there in front of me. 

As our children grow older our lives tend to get busier. How often do we put aside time to sit with them and just talk about what exciting things they have done and share with them what magic we have seen recently? How can we make space in our day that is uninterrupted “listen and talk” time where they explain what has excited or interested them and we do the same? We all lead busy lives, but it is important to make the time. The investment in time now will pay dividends as our children grow older. It will help them continue to see the magic and, perhaps for those of us who have lost it, help us see the magic again too.

Mr Donald Thompson

Head of Junior School