From the Executive

The Importance of Communication

For my entire secondary education, my lovely mother picked me up from school. Each and every time, she asked me how school was and for six years my answer was “good”. This was my answer irrespective of whether I smashed a Maths test, forgot my PE gear or had to spend another lunchtime in a band rehearsal (who am I kidding, I loved band rehearsals!) I think subconsciously, or maybe intentionally, I knew that by answering “good” there wouldn’t be much follow-up conversation. I assumed that if I said “bad” then I’d be asked why it was bad, if I said “excellent” I’d be asked why it was so great. Luckily I had a patient mother who persisted until I eventually grew out of that weird adolescent phase. Unluckily for me, I now have a four-year-old daughter who seems to do “nothing” each day at kinder…

While communicating with teenagers can be challenging, it is certainly worth persisting with. In John Marsden’s latest book, The Art of Growing Up, he discusses the link between language, education and wellbeing:

    The relationship between language and thinking is complex, but profoundly important. People with a      limited vocabulary are limited in their intellectual functioning. And teenagers who have inadequate          language skills are at risk of becoming locked in, left alone with strong emotions they are unable to            manage. To help improve language fluency, parents (and teachers) should try to ask open-ended                questions, not ones requiring a yes/no or other monosyllabic answers. (Marsden, 2019)

Marsden recommends that you don’t simply ask ‘how was school?’ Instead he suggests that you ask questions that will spark discussion such as:

• How is your Maths teacher this year different to the one you had last year?
• Which events are you going to participate in for Mission Action Day this year?
• What are you building in Design and Technology this term?

While it’s difficult to predict what the response will be from this kind of dialogue, I do hope that it is positive. Students, if you’re reading this, please be nice to your parents! However, if you are answered with a monosyllabic grunt, luckily you are now able to at least keep track of your son’s academic progress using MazCom, our new Learning Management System. MazCom allows you to access your son’s grades and feedback throughout the semester. While many of our staff are still learning how to use this software, we hope that in the coming weeks you will start to see many grades, comments, annotations, audio files and even videos appearing. While this feedback is directed towards our students we hope that these features will help you to encourage and support your sons.

Mr  Adrian De Fanti

Dean of Staff - Learning & Innovation