Principal's Message

Welcome back to school for Term 2. I hope your children are well and that your family are happy and healthy. Please note this is an abbreviated iNewsletter containing key dates and events for the term. I look forward to seeing all students walking through our gates on Monday at 8:45am.

Abraham Maslow was an America psychologist who seeded the idea of the hierarchy of needs. At the top of the pyramid was the apex goal of 'self actualisation'. This state could only be achieved once the base of the pyramid was solidified. The bottom of the pyramid contained physiological needs such as food and shelter. The layer above was the concept of safety, including psychological and physical. Clearly, a human struggles without food and water in the first instance. Then they struggle if they are at risk of danger.

The next layer deals with ideas of social security and connectedness - a sense of belonging in the world and the ability to cooperate and make/keep a friend. The next layer deals with esteem where one's sense of purpose and self-worth is generated. The apex deals with aesthetics and beauty and the ability to create something from scratch for oneself - to build a life worth living.

SMPS is a Primary School. The word 'Primary' is key, but it is a bit of a misnomer. Every child's 'Primary' teacher is the parent/caregiver. The first five years of life is key for any organism to thrive. A person once said to me, "I don't want my child to spend their adulthood trying to fix their childhood." Such a profound statement.

In my long career, I have been witness to many childhoods. Some of them are glorious and nurturing and some of them are tragic. And there is everything in between. The common denominator is the quality of the parenting and partnerships families decide they are going to have with their child's school. It is very difficult to undo dysfunction in these areas when they occur. The damage echoes through time for the child.

As you move into Term 2, ask yourself, "Who is it that I want to become as a parent?" We ask ourselves the corollary question of, "What is it that we want to become as a school?" If you are becoming what you want as a parent and we become what we want as a school (making reference to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs), then we will work in partnership so that your child can become what they want as an adult. Cooperation is king and I look forward to working together to make Term 2 successful for all.

Role of Principal

I sometimes get asked, "What does a principal do?" It actually varies from school to school so there is no single answer. I would run the school and my role quite differently than the principal down the road. At SMPS, I fundamentally run high level human resource, finance and systems/coaching to create a successful environment for staff, families and students to thrive. I am and will remain imperfect at that lofty goal - but the intention is clear.

My motivation in writing this piece is for clarity of my role. I don't want anyone disappointed when they ask me to case manage something and it gets redirected to the person who is actually charged to do the work. As an example, I received a phone call in Term 1 from a parent wanting me to chase up why their child's lunch order wasn't warm enough. I take cold lunches seriously, but this query was clearly misdirected.

One thing I don't do it case manage. We live in an era where everyone wants to see the boss when things go wrong. Unfortunately, this mentality is fallacious. With close to 500 students and 50 staff, I would be swamped if every problem everyone had landed on my doorstep for me to case manage. Nothing would get done. At SMPS, we have our Assistant Principal, Carmen Britnell, who supports high-level issues when they arrive. Again, her job is generally not to case manage, but to support staff in helping students and parents through situations. Jo May, our Learning Specialist for Student Wellbeing and Inclusion, is key in helping staff and families case manage tricky wellbeing situations.

For all daily issues, your best bet is to contact your child's classroom teacher and work directly with them on any issues that arise. They get to see your child each day so anything you identify can be closely monitored via that communication. In the very rare instance that student wellbeing issues reach my desk, I spend my time researching who can case manage the situation best. Earlier in my career, I made mistakes when trying to case manage and it backfired spectacularly as I rarely got to see students 1:1 on a day-to-day basis. Case management requires ongoing vigilance of the type that principals just cannot do given the complexity of their roles.

It is important for families to understand the structure of schools and how things work. Everyone in society has been a student at a school sometime in their lives - but as parents, we might lose sight of how things work. The goal of this passage was to clarify where to go when issues need to be addressed. And that is almost always via your child's classroom teacher.

Key Dates (also see last page)

The last page of this iNewsletter contains all of the dates you need to be aware of for Term 2 and the rest of the year. I want to remind parents that ANZAC Day is coming up next Thursday (April 25) and that is a public holiday.

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