Principal's Report

Nana korobi ya oki - Fall down seven times, stand up eight times

This image above is of one of the posters on the wall of my office that provides me with daily inspiration and is also something I often refer students to when they are in my office.  This Japanese proverb (nana korobi ya oki - fall down seven times, stand up eight times) rings true for so many of our lives and reminds us that instilling a sense of resilience in our children is vital for their future success and well-being.

Proverbs, by definition, must express a common truth or wisdom and this one certainly does. It is not just that we must teach our children how to bounce back after a setback or failure. It is that life, by its very nature will be full of failures, setbacks and challenging times for all of us. 

To build resilience and an ability to bounce back there are lots of strategies we use at school:

• reinforcing the concept that failures are a crucial part of learning and are integral to the process of finding a solution to problems. Student led, investigative work in the STEAM lab provides the perfect context for this
• provide strategies to build relationships and develop a sense of empathy; having the support of others is very important to our sense of resilience
• enable our students to discover their own strengths and a positive sense of self, empowering them to known that they can face the obstacles in front of them
• supporting, encouraging and celebrating acts of resilience shown by our students both within and outside of school

As educators, we are constantly committed to giving every student the opportunity to succeed in life. Alongside the very important role of developing literacy and numeracy skills, developing resilience will play a huge role in achieving this goal.

School Review

This year we are undertaking a thorough review of everything we do at Marlborough Primary School. Every school goes through the review process every 4 years, and from the review we develop our School Strategic Plan to drive improvement in teaching, learning and well-being for the next 4 years.

Our Review will take place in Term 2, and at the moment we are going through the pre-review process of undergoing a thorough Self Evaluation. Part of this evaluation involves forums with staff, students and parents in order to get feedback from various members of our community.  In the next few weeks we will send out more information about how these forums will be conducted.

Family Fun Night

Thank you very much to the Parents Association and staff members for organising a great Family Fun Night a few weeks ago. It was a great event that provided the opportunity for our students to have a fun time at school and for parents to build new relationships and strengthen our Marlborough community.