From the
Assistant
Principal

BE INVOLVED, BE CONNECTED

This week I am grateful for…

Our staff! I know I say this a lot, but we really do have an amazing cohort of dedicated, hardworking, and extremely compassionate educators here at South Melbourne Park Primary School. I cannot imagine how much more challenging this time could have been without the people we are so lucky to have on board, and I am continually grateful for their tirelessness in their work.

On this note, if you share my feelings about any of our staff, you may wish to nominate them for the possibility of receiving a teaching fellowship that includes professional development via the Commonwealth Bank Teaching Awards (https://teachingawards.com.au/).

School Holidays and ISO Bucket List

As we approach the school holidays we know there are going to be very mixed feelings about the coming break. For some of you this is exactly what you need and you cannot wait to have a holiday and recharge. For others this will be a more challenging time, where you are contemplating juggling work and your children without the supports you might normally have access to.

The main thing we really want to emphasise with all of you is the importance of having a mental break. This does not necessarily mean having a screen free day, we know that for some families this would not be considered a break, but it is really important that you find a way that works for you to mentally have a small break however you can. One parent recently spoke to me about how they arranged with work to have a 'Zoom Free Day' - they did all their work as normal, but they just did not have any virtual meetings on that day. These are the small things that you can consider to try and create that space for you to relax your cognitive load slightly.

When we do return to onsite learning for the Prep - Year 2 students it will be normal for them to be very tired. There will be an enormous change in routine for them to move back to a normal school day on site. If you know that during the remote learning period you have all been getting up a lot later than 'normal', or that your sleeping routines have changed a lot, it would be really worth starting to get used to your old routine again prior to returning to school. We have really valued the level of communication that we have had with you all over the remote learning period, and we really encourage you to reach out and let us know how you and your child are going when we return. The more we know the more we are able to support you.

During our Family Check Ins we have been asking you for your ideas for an ISO bucket list. Please find the bucket list of your Ideas in the Holiday Fun section of the newsletter. Hopefully this gives you some things to try if you do run out of ideas for activities over the holiday period. Also do not forget about the choice boards, or other activities, that have been provided over the remote learning period, you can always go back to these to reuse them. Thank you everyone for sharing your ideas!

Family Check Ins

Our Weekly Family Check In goes out each week, and we spend quite a lot of time going through the results and considering how we might need to refine our processes. You can find the write ups of the results so far below:

Old smart phones for Term 4

Ms Vu, our amazing STEM teacher, is looking to collect any old smartphones that families may no longer need for use in the STEM classes. If you have any that you no longer need we will be calling for donations early In Term 4.

Resource List from Michael Carr-Gregg Seminar

I know many of you attended the Michael Carr-Gregg seminar for parents. I just wanted to share the resources list that he mentioned in his seminar for you to all access in case you are interested.

Resource and link

Description

Looking after your child’s wellbeing

Tips and advice about wellbeing and how to build it through:

Praise, encouragement and positive attention
Being mindful, and practicing kindness and gratitude
Setting rules and boundaries
Includes a range of easy, fun wellbeing activities and conversation starters for parents/carers and children to do together

Looking after your child’s mental health

Tips and advice about mental health including:

Noticing changes in your child
Talking to your child
Getting support, accessing services and some helpful tools for parents and carers

Keeping your child active and healthy

Tips and advice on ways to keep your child physically active and eating well with links to:

FUSE – physical activity resources for remote learning - Links to a number of sites to encourage physical activity during remote and flexible learning
FUSE – Fun with food activities - Links to a range of activities that encourage healthy eating

Taking care of yourself

Includes information on:

Tips to take care for yourself
Services and supports for parents and carers

Talking to your child about coronavirus (COVID-19)

Tips on having a safe and reassuring conversation with your child including:

Adapting information depending on your child’s age
Being guided by your child
Things to look out for in your child
Advice in a range of languages

Learning from home information for parents

A range of information for parents and carers including:

Supporting your child’s learning
Supporting your child with additional needs

Parentline (13 22 89)

A phone service for parents and carers of children from birth to 18 years old. It offers confidential and anonymous counselling and support on parenting issues.

Bully Stoppers

An online bullying prevention toolkit with advice and information for parents, carers and students about:

Bullying, cyber bullying and upstander behaviour
Wellbeing with Melbourne Football Club – a series of videos featuring AFL and AFLW players talking about a range of topics including keeping active, resilience and gratitude

Raising Learners podcast series

Developed in partnership with the Parenting Research Centre, the Raising Children Network (RCN) and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Raising Learners will provide parents with practical advice, tips and ideas for supporting children’s health, wellbeing and engagement at school. The topics include how to connect with your child’s school and community, how to best support your child’s learning, what to expect for VCE and VCAL students and how to keep your child safe online.

Release date: September 1st and available on the RCN website

Family Yoga and Fundraising for the School Playground

Over the school holidays it is Ragnar from 1KBs birthday. To celebrate but also to give back to the community they are hosting a family yoga session that includes raising funds for the school’s playground project this year. They are more than happy for anyone to join whether they are making a donation or not.

Please email Kjetil your email address if you are interested to join the family yoga class. (keelin24@gmail.com)

Here’s the link to the fundraising page with more details.

Healthy Tracks Logo Vote

We have had our students design a logo that we will be getting made and installed on the footpaths leading to the school as part of our Healthy Tracks Project. We would love it if you could vote on the short listed designs. The winner will be the logo that we leading along the main walking paths to our school along the footpath within our community. Below are the shortlisted logos, and we would love to hear from you which is your favourite logo.

Please use this link to vote for your favourite logo

House Names Preference

We have done quite a lot of consultation concerning the names we would like for our school houses. Every student in the school, and their family, is assigned a school house. This is a point of pride, and the house system is used for sports days and other celebrations. We have run student sessions and have collated some fantastic ideas for the house names below. We would love to hear your opinion on our short list, and we invite you to vote on the names that you would prefer.

Please use this link to vote on your preference for the School House Names

From the Assistant Principal