Cumberland
Ms Karen McArdle
It is hard to believe that we are at the end of the first term – it feels like we just started! However, in saying that, as I look back over this term, I know that much has been achieved. The children have settled well into their class and the learning experience. Units of work have been undertaken and completed, students have progressed with their learning and skill development, new friends have been made and teachers are busy with plans for the next term!
Thank You
I would like to thank the children for all of their hard work this term, whether it be in the classroom, on the stage or sporting arena, or in the playground, as they learn to play together, compromise, negotiate and show respect, care and compassion. I would also like to thank our wonderful Cumberland parents. Your continued support of the school and its staff as they strive to provide and care for the children, and work to improving the educational outcomes for them is truly appreciated.
Parent Teacher Meetings
The first round of meetings was held and were well attended. The next round is on Wednesday 28 March. We hope that parents found the meetings informative and they now have a good understanding of their child’s strengths and areas for improvement. The teachers have a wealth of information, so make sure you seek their advice if problems arise with your child’s learning.
Helping with Homework Evening
This night saw many parents hearing from the curriculum coordinators for Years P-6 talk about:
- the ways in which learning can be supported at home
- how to help their child with their reading
- the curriculum areas and what will be covered in each year level.
A number of parents that I spoke to are interested in attending sessions targeted towards their specific area in which they are struggling to assist their children. If you have an area of learning you would like staff to create a session for and think other parents would be interested, please email me your ideas.
Assemblies
For those who cannot make it to our assemblies, I thought I would let you know of some changes we have made this year. Our goal is to have the assemblies run by the Year 6 Captains, providing them the opportunity to develop and practise their leadership skills.
The Cumberland Captains host the assemblies, while the students sit in their house groups, under the leadership of the House Captains. The Sports Captains speak on the upcoming sporting activities and events taking place, as well as report the results from last Friday’s contest. The Arts Captains will be arranging for students to perform, while the Community and Environmental Captains will be running special events to raise both awareness and funds for various causes.
ACE Card
The House Competition for ACE card points is hotly contested, and reinforces the values we hold dearly at this school: respect, kindness, team-work and cooperation, effort and perseverance, and excellence. House flags are held proudly at assembly and positioned according to each week’s points tally, helping students to set goals for achieving ACE cards.
Theme - 'To Be the Best Version of Ourselves'
Our theme for the year is ‘To Be the Best Version of Ourselves’. This theme enables us to introduce a number of sub-themes such as being respectful to everyone and accepting the differences amongst us. At last week’s assembly, Mrs Crisara showed the film-clip from The Greatest Showman, featuring the song, ‘This is Me’. The song reinforces the need to embrace our differences.
Early Predictors of School Success
Dr Rebecca Collins, a leading Australian educational psychology researcher, recently wrote in the Australian Teacher Magazine that ‘students with well-developed and adaptive social and emotional behaviours are more likely to excel in school’. The University of New South Wales, in partnership with the University of Sydney, undertook a two-part study of over 150,000 NSW kindergarten students and found that adaptive social and emotional behaviours correlate with better results in school years later. The children’s cooperative, socially responsible, helpful, anxious and aggressive-disruptive behaviours were assessed. They found that:
- Children who were higher in cooperative, socially responsible and helpful were more likely to achieve better results in Years 3 and 5.
- Children with high levels of aggressive-disruptive behaviours tended to achieve lower results.
- Children who were anxious had less obvious outcomes but often achieved slightly lower school results - possibly because their anxiety makes socialisation more difficult.
This research adds to a growing body of evidence that children’s social and emotional behaviours are ‘powerful predictors’ of later outcomes; making it essential that social and emotional skills and behaviours be taught from a very early age.
Happy Easter
I wish Cumberland families a happy, healthy and safe Easter.