From Our School Leaders
Kindness
The Resilience Project came to Scoresby Primary School last week to speak with our students. Martin presented a fun-filled hour of stories and learnings all based around Kindness, Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness.
Kindness is the sincere and voluntary use of one's time, talent, and resources to better the lives of others, one's own life, and the world through genuine acts of love, compassion, generosity, and service. Moreover, kindness involves choice.
Kindness is defined as the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Affection, gentleness, warmth, concern and care are words that are associated with kindness.
At school, I see and hear random acts of kindness each and every day. Children are kind with each other. Staff are kind to each other. Children are kind to staff and staff are kind to children. Parents are kind to their children and take great care of them. Kindness is everywhere; sometimes we just have to look around and listen to notice, but we can also practise being kinder to everyone.
Martin explained to the students last week that showing kindness to others is good for us. When we show kindness, it releases dopamine in our nervous system. This increases feelings of pleasure and reward. Dopamine is sometimes called the “Happy Hormone”.
I am encouraging ALL members of our school community to practice KINDNESS. Focussing on kindness will bring a good feeling to individuals, and will create an even more fantastic feel in our school and classrooms.
School Council Elections
We recently called for nominations for membership for our 2021 School Council. Thank you to those parents who nominated and are keen to be involved in our school.
Congratulations to our new and returning members:
- Lisa Ross
- Wendi Emmerson
- Sarah Rogers
- Rodolfo Soria
- Leanne Davey
- Sophie Lyon
- Kate Matthews
We look forward to working with you in 2021.
Tutoring Is Staring This Week
After much planning and consultation, Kate Matthews has begun tutoring children this week at SPS. Our first tranche of 20 students in the Tutoring Program are focussing on the area of Writing. Some tutoring will be delivered to students in their classroom during the daily class Writing session, while other students will be withdrawn from their class and the tutoring will be conducted in our Tutoring Room (BER).
Every student receiving tutoring will have specific learning goals to be met and measured as part of the program. These goals have been collaboratively formed with the class teacher and the tutor.
We are very excited to be beginning this work and I would like to thank Kate Matthews and staff for their efforts to get this up and going so efficiently and purposefully.
If you have any questions or concerns about the Tutor Learning Initiative, please make a time to speak with Kate; she is tutoring Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays each week.
Foundation Students Go Full-time
Our Foundation students will be attending school full-time as of this week. Thank you to all of our Foundation parents for your support throughout the first four ‘Prep–free Wednesday’ weeks. This has enabled the teachers to perform some valuable testing, and assess each child’s entry level.
Our annual Induction to School ceremony for our Foundation students will be this Friday 5th March at 12.30pm. I look forward to presenting the certificates to the newest members of our Scoresby community.
Leadership Breakfast
Our Student Leaders met for breakfast on Tuesday morning. Fruit, croissants and toast were on the menu and it was a good opportunity to sit and discuss Student Leadership at Scoresby PS. We set out our expectations of our School Leaders and then opened up the conversation to the possibilities and opportunities that we would be happy for our Student Leaders to participate in.
It is always delightful to watch young people develop their confidence and skills as they mature in their final year of primary school. We are looking forward to working with this group of leaders in 2021. Thank you Mrs Rheumer for getting the breakfast organised - it was a real hit!
Parent-Teacher Interviews
It was fantastic to see so many parents make time to attend the Parent-Teacher Interviews this week. The staff value the input from parents on their child, particularly after the previous 12 months, and the exchange establishes a working partnership which is vital to support the students throughout the year.
Parent engagement in learning is known to lead to improved outcomes for students of all ages. Parents play an essential role as the first educators of their children and ongoing, active engagement of parents, families and communities has a major impact on a child’s success at school.
SUE HARTLEY AND NICOLE RHEUMER
Scoresby Primary School Leaders