Thank You

Thank you students, parents/carers and our staff. You have put in a super-human effort to survive this roller-coaster year and the effort you have made to make the return to school successful has really been appreciated.

With almost six months of home learning and working from home, we have all needed time to readjust back into the routines and expectations of school. Students have been extra time to refresh their understanding of what high expectations, personal responsibility and our STARR Values mean at MSC and ensure that every student is equipped to succeed.

As a result, student attendance has now returned to the high levels of Term 1 and there has been a steady return to engagement in learning and students are progressing in their academic studies. A tutoring program has been running for the past two weeks in the Junior School to help students catch up with studies. Stay tuned for information about a larger scale tutoring program to run in 2021.

Our Year 12s have taken on extra challenges this year, and we are incredibly proud of the way that they have stayed the course and given everything to their work. Last week we celebrated the end of their classroom program. They responded with the typical MSC celebration ritual of crazy costumes, crazy string and some great live music all with a high level of respect and care for others. With the big year almost over, our VCAL students have been studying hard to finish their course work. It has been great to see their confidence lifting with each piece of assessment being completed. Fantastic to also see our Year 12 VCE English students at the end of their exam on Tuesday looking confident and with smiles on their faces. Last week the Year 12 Studio Arts class put on an exhibition that show-cased their final pieces revealing a high level of understanding of technique and material and wonderful imagination. It was a real joy to see their efforts produce such high quality work. This year's Year 12s have been truly outstanding and we wish them all the best for the final leg of their journey.

COVID Safety

Our main priority continues to be the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff. COVID Safe practices continue at the College including wearing masks and physical distancing where it is practical. As a Year 7 student told me recently, "wearing a mask shows how much you care for others. It's amazing that some countries have only just started doing it". The enormous efforts we have made as a school community over the past months have made a huge contribution to the suppression of the coronavirus and the current run of 'double donut' numbers. If we all continue to follow safe practices at school and in the community we will continue to see restrictions relax and a return to normal living.

Supporting your Child

Melton City Council has been running information sessions for parents and carers on how to support your child build resilience and happiness. Below is a summary of the last session.

Important facts

No such thing as a perfect parent. Parents try their best with what they know at the time.
It is essential to be kind especially after having experienced two lockdowns, and families experienced quite a few changes. Be kind to one another.
Adolescents years’ have changed. Research shows that adolescents years’ starts early as 10 years and finishes as old as 24 years.
Great parenting is a must! Principles of great parenting has never changed.
Vitamin ‘N’, explaining to a child that NO means NO. If things get hedgy, as an adult, walk away and ask to talk later.
Important to set boundaries and choose the hill you are going to die on. Parents need to choose their battle zone and it is important that the focus is around anything that impacts their health and wellbeing.
Children love routines and schedules as it provides them with an understanding of being part of a family unit, and a sense of belonging.
We need to recognise that their brains are not fully formed. Expect that they will have Speak less, listen more! Listening is powerful!
Do not give them everything they want.
Keep young people busy, allowing them to have thinking time however, not a lot of it!
Set boundaries. Your job is to look after their welfare which is the role of a parent. You are not their ‘best friend’!
Physical development has been out of sync with their psychological development. This has been impacted by a range of environmental factors for example, chemicals within products which has had a link on their puberty.
Resilience is the capacity for your son or daughter to be strengthened and formed by Build your child’s social and emotional competencies.
Encourage positive self-talk and participation in something that they enjoy doing example, sports, arts, drama, music, etc. It is important for young people to be part of something bigger than them.

The 10 most important things that we should share with our children:

Mindset. See life as it is and focus on the good bits/ positive feelings which should be re-experienced on a regular basis. At the end of the day encourage your family to reflect and nominate 3 good things that happened during the day. Research found that after 21 days, one rewires their outlook. Three Good Things – A Happiness Journal (available on the App Store or Google Play
If in life we cannot change something, we can always change the way we think about it. What is important is that we cannot choose what happens to us but we can choose how we respond to it, which has a massive impact on our wellbeing. One of the major findings is that resilience like anything else can be learnt. For example, speak loud your thoughts.
Recognise that your child’s body and mind is connected and being active makes the whole body works better. Encourage physical activity and proper sleeping patterns.
If you want to feel good, do good! Positive psychology tells us that helping others also improve the wellbeing of the person who is doing the act. Giving connects us to other people, and build stronger communities and a happier society. This doesn’t have to strictly involve money, it can also be time.
When we are together, everything is better. The greatest predictor of wellbeing is not good looking or money, but a rich repertoire of friends. Does your child have the skills to obtain, maintain and retain friends? When they make this transition to school, one of the key skills is the friendship skills and ability to make friends. The broader their networks, the better is their ability to build connections.
Mindfulness is about teaching children to push the pause button, learn to get in tune with their feelings and stop them dwelling on the past or future which they cannot manage. Take 10 to be Zen using Smiling Mind (https://www.smilingmind.com.au/)
A love for learning! Learning impacts the wellbeing of a Grade 6, exposes them crucially to new ideas, helps them to stay curious, gives them a sense of achievement and boost their self-confidence.
A sense of meaning and purpose. This leads to happier young people as they are in control and are able to get more out of what they do. Research shows that young people experience less stress, anxiety and depression especially when they feel connected to something than themselves, for example faith, having a role model, sporting club, etc.
Set achievable goals to keep them motivated, challenged and excited.
Comparisons! Social media has contributed to this and as a result young people compare their insides with other people’s outsides. Due to this Grade 6s, find it more difficult to be happy and kind to themselves especially when things go wrong. Slide images from: Action for Happiness (https://www.actionforhappiness.org/)

For further information about practical skills to overcome challenges around transition, please visit https://au.reachout.com/

You can also find more information about Dr Michael Carr-Gregg and other relevant resources on his website https://michaelcarrgregg.com/

Asthma Management

If your child has asthma it is especially important that you have got a management plan in place. Asthma Management Plans need to be reviewed by your child's GP annually. Health authorities have also announced that there is a higher risk of Asthma Thunderstorms. Please follow this link to further advice here.

Workability

Q and A Session