Principal's News

Dear Parents and Carers,

At last Friday’s assembly, Mrs O’Shea’s Grade 5 class taught us all lots of things they had been learning about the brain. They used some interesting and amusing Optical Illusions to explain some of their insights, helping them to demonstrate their understanding of what the different parts of our brain are responsible for. Afterwards I thanked them for teaching us all so much and joked with all of the kids about going home and answering their parents' questions about what they had learned at school with the very common response “nothin”.

Everyone above the age of about nine was in on the joke. As parents we can feel a bit in the dark about just what is going on in our children’s day when the common responses to questions such as “How was school?” and “What did you learn at school today?” are often a non committal like “Good” and “Nothing”.

In my experience this is usually perfectly normal and no cause for concern, particularly if our child is eating, sleeping, and happy to keep coming to school (grumpy Mondays aside). 

The Foundation Booklet that is distributed to families at our Foundation BBQ has an excellent quote from an American Child Psychologist, Jim Taylor: 

 “One of your most important goals as a parent is to raise children who become independent and self-reliant people. Certainly, in early development, your children count on you. As infants, they rely on you for nourishment, cleaning, and mobility. As your children grow, they become more independent in these basic areas of living, but still depend on you for love, protection, guidance, and support. As your children reach adolescence and move toward adulthood, they become less reliant on you and gain greater independence in all aspects of their lives. This process of separation prepares your children for the demands of adulthood.”   Jim Taylor PhD 

….“School is a fun and safe place where there are lots of exciting things to learn and lots of friends to make” (Repeat as necessary) – Remember we all went to school, your children can too!

Children are less anxious and more confident when they learn that they can do things for themselves, WE need to learn not to deny them these opportunities. One of the very important roles that a parent has, is to protect our children and this is especially so when they are younger. But as they begin school we want them to learn that we, as parents, have confidence in them. We want them to know that we trust them and we want them to know that we understand that while they will inevitably make mistakes, we love them and are proud of their efforts.

 When we endeavour to solve every problem that our child encounters or do everything for them we are denying them the chance to learn and we are keeping them dependent upon us as parents or teachers. – Is this really what we want?

 We all learn by making mistakes. Kids are no different. Our school endeavours to provide an environment where children can safely make mistakes and learn from them. These mistakes will be made in the academic, sporting, artistic, SOCIAL, and behavioural spheres (we hope!) As the “Wise Elders” (Parents and Teachers) of our community we need to let our children make these mistakes and face the consequences of them so that they learn from them. Remember we are a safe environment where the safety and welfare of all students is our first priority.

END OF DAY ROUTINES From this week our Foundation students are being dismissed at 3:15pm with the rest of the school. Only families with a student in Foundation may park in Hart Street in front of our school. Parents of Foundation students should observe the No Standing restrictions between 3:00pm and 4:00pm across the road from school, along Hart Street. 

SCHOOL CLOSURE Could all parents please note that our school will be closed on the following two days this term: Friday, February 17th and on Thursday March 2nd.  Our staff will be undertaking professional development on these days in accordance with recommendations from last year’s School Review. My apologies for any inconvenience that this will cause for parents, however it is vital that our school continue to keep working to improve ourselves as professionals so that we might be the very best school we can be.