Principal Report
Principal’s Message Week 5 Term 4 2019
Our children learn important lessons from us and acquire important habits with our help. This term the focus of Social Emotional Learning is courage.
Courage is sometimes difficult for children to understand, as it is not something magical that happens inside us to make us ‘not feel scared’ in fact it is the opposite. It is the thing that helps us to push through our fears, self-doubt and anxiety to actually do the things that feel hard, risky or scary. If there were no fear, there would be no need for courage.
Courage does not mean that you're not afraid.
It means that you're afraid and you do it anyway,
- Tony Robbins
Courage is taking a position and doing what is right, even at the risk of some loss. It means facing up to our duties. It includes physical courage, intellectual courage to make decisions on the basis of evidence, and moral courage to stand up for our principles. Courage does not mean never being afraid, because it is important for children to learn that sometimes it is all right to be afraid.
At St Columba’s we want our children to appreciate the importance of being able to ‘face your fears’ and we want to help our children to develop the habits and strength to be able to do so in their everyday lives by being able to:
- work their way through new situations and experiences
- try something new
- use their intuition
- understand you don’t need to be ‘perfect’ and not everything has to be ‘perfect’
- develop ‘grit’ and resilience
- understand that the outcome does not matter as much as the process
- have a sense of adventure
- do what’s right
It is easy to think that courage is something that we read about in books and can be associated with super heroes, dragon slayers and the like and that it should be grand in nature or exhibit an amazing feat of heroism. The key to developing courage in our children is to help them understand what courage is so they can use it to push through when they feel insignificant, scared, confused, or small.
“One of the most important parts of being brave is knowing that somewhere inside of you, ‘brave’ will be there when you need it, whether you feel it or not.
Grandparents Day 2020
Last Friday’s Grandparent’s and Special Person’s Day was a wonderful morning and occasion at our school. We had an enormous turn out and every person there was so positive about the school. There were so many lovely comments about the children, the school, the welcoming atmosphere and the deep sense of school spirit and pride on display. The children were so proud and thrilled to be able to share this precious time with their family and friends.
A very big thank you to Natalie Cromie and staff for all the work that went into preparing Friday’s liturgy. The children certainly rose to the occasion and it was a wonderful and moving tribute to all the special people in our lives.
I would also like to thank the amazing Prep team of helpers for providing our guests with a sumptuous morning tea. It disappeared in no time!
Occasions such as these are a testimony to the wonderful contribution that you all make to our school and we thank you for your support and generosity.
Parish Education Board
There are many ways to be involved in the life of a school and the Parish Education Board is one way such way. The School Board is an advisory body to the Parish Priest and Principal. The key functions of the St Columba’s Board are to provide advice on education matters relating to whole of parish including the school.
Parents are nominated to the Board for a term of two years with the option of a second term. The Board meets seven to eight times a year – usually twice a term. There is an AGM at the end of each year. When positions become available parents are called upon to nominate.
At the end of this year we will have three vacancies on our Parish Education Board. If you would like to contribute to the school as a member of the Board I invite you to nominate yourself in writing to me before the AGM which will be held on Tuesday 26 November 7:00pm in the staffroom. Please send your nomination to dmaddalena@scelwood.catholic.edu.au
Attendance
Just a reminder that if your child is away you need to inform the school. You can do this either by phoning the office, emailing or FlexiBuzz.
If you are going away on holidays parents are required to inform the school in advance.