Junior School, South Plympton

On this page: Swimming Week, Uniform, Friendship

Swimming Week

We were blessed with amazing weather for our week of swimming lessons at Marion Outdoor Pool (although I do understand there were some ‘blue lips’ in that first session of the day!).

To be able to swim and confidently take part in the many water activities available in this country is something we shouldn’t take for granted. Thank you to the many parent volunteers who travelled with the students and assisted with the change routine afterwards. Your support makes this program possible. Also thank you to our Physical Education (PE) staff who organised the week so it ran smoothly (quite a feat given it is a Week 2 event). 

While we all enjoy the opportunity that swimming week offers, I know that the teaching staff are keen to launch into all the classroom learning this week. 

Junior School Uniform 

Our students are representatives of our College. The Emmaus Christian College uniform is one of the many ways our students can feel a sense of belonging and pride in their school. However, to maintain this strong sense of pride it is important that we work together to ensure the integrity of our uniform which means that we need to adhere to all aspects of the Uniform Policy.  

Shoes

We are noticing that students are wearing incorrect shoes, and we wish to remind all families that plain, black, closed leather lace-up school shoes with black laces need to be worn on days when they children do not have PE (there is a velcro option for the F – 2 students).

Jewellery

Wearing of jewellery, and in particular incorrect earrings, are dangerous at school. Our policy states that single plain silver or gold studs/sleepers/discreet diamanté studs are the only option. Please ensure there are no other earrings being worn to school. 

We are grateful to our families for partnering with us to ensure our uniform is worn in the correct manner, aligned with the uniform policy and reflective of our College's brand. However, we will be carefully monitoring uniform and if children are repeatedly in incorrect uniform, they will take part in some community-building activity during a play time and you will be notified of this. 

If there are some extenuating circumstances which make it difficult for your child to be in correct uniform on a particular occasion, please communicate with your child’s class teacher.  

Visit the Uniform Policy on our website.

Friendship in the Junior School 

We are committed to developing a kind and caring community at Emmaus. The main program that we teach to effectively equip students with the strategies to develop healthy friendships and resolve conflicts is the URSTRONG program. 

URSTRONG’s whole-school friendship strategy has improved the social climate in schools around the world, connecting over a million children, parents, and teachers with a common language of friendship.  

You are invited and strongly encouraged to take advantage of the FREE Parent Membership. Using this membership means you have access hundreds of resources – including an eight-session video series. This enables you to learn the same language and strategies that are being taught in the classroom through the Friendology curriculum.  

As a next step, we would recommend: 

• Read an overview of URSTRONG here,
• Activate your FREE Parent Membership and 
• Explore all the resources available to your family. 

We believe that empowering our students with these skills will create a culture of kindness at our school. We hope that, together, we can support your children to have healthy, feel-good friendships. 

Liz Hinrichsen 

Head of Junior School South Plympton