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St. Martin de Porres Primary School
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Principal's Message

I found this article in the Herald Sun newspaper by Lucie Morris-Marr on helpful hints for parents to start the new school year. As we head towards the end of our first term together, I thought that I would share them with you and give you my thoughts too. 

 

We can spend some time reflecting on how we have started the year together. My thoughts are in italics.

 

Don’t be a helicopter parent! Let your children learn to fly for themselves. They learn best by making mistakes, reflecting on what went wrong and changing themselves so it doesn’t happen again. That is their job, not yours, your job is to help them do it independently. 

 

Don’t let lunch-boxes get the better of you. If you are spending all day worrying about the lunchbox contents, you will be shattered when you find out your child is putting all the fancy stuff in the bin. If your child is not eating it all, maybe you have given him/her too much. It is not the teacher’s job to force-feed children!

 

Your child WILL be tired and moody. School is exhausting for everyone that is there. It’s especially tiring for Prep students because everything is new and everything needs their full concentration in case something gets missed or messed. It will settle down eventually. Be understanding, listen and soothe, then enjoy a great bedtime story and let them sleep. 

 

Don’t judge other families. Every parent I know tries to do their best for their child. You don’t know their story, so use smiles not frowns to encourage them to feel part of the community. Not everyone can stay home and help with fundraising etc. Some have to work very hard and then come home and manage a family without a partner. Everyone is trying their best.

 

Don’t get stressed by readers and reading. You reading to your child every night in a shared moment is priceless. Give your child a love of reading. If they are tired, you read their reader to them and just ask them questions about the picture. If reading is a battle, you have lost the love of books forever. Make it a shared experience, not a scaring experience. 

 

Be a friend to make a friend! You want your child to make new friends so you show them how it is done. Smile and talk. Ask other people questions, listen to their stories. Offer help and encouragement if you have done all this before.

 

Create sanity savers. Get a routine going. The children put their uniforms out ready the night before with home tasks completed and a hat on top of the bag. Make sure children put their shoes on before breakfast and no TV or iPad until everyone is ready for school. Better still, no TV or iPad in the morning. Set the alarm and if you are late for school, change the alarm time so you get here on time!

 

Don’t feel guilty about not being here to help. Help in other ways by ringing the teacher if you have a question, using emails to communicate with us as well as Seesaw. Read the newsletter, check Flexi Buzz and send things in on time. Do the best that you can. No one can ask more of you than that.

 

Slow down the school year. It feels like school time will last forever and when school is in, things rush by at a frantic pace. My eldest son has started university and my baby is now in Year Eleven and I can tell you that watching your children grow over the school years is a blessing. Stop every now and then, go for a drive or the beach for a picnic but don’t forget to enjoy the school years. They only come once for every child.

 

So how are you going this term?

 

We welcome Phil Poursanidis and Elyse Whitfield to our staff this week. Phil is our new Physical Education teacher, working on Wednesday and Thursdays. Elyse is taking Year 5LM on a Tuesday while Lucas focuses on his E-learning Leader role.

OUR CHILDREN ARE AT RISK

Oh, dear!! These are the following poor driving/parking behaviours by parents, I have observed in our school car park this week:

  • Parents exiting their cars while in the “Drop Off Zone”
  • Parent parking on the left-hand side of the car park which is for STAFF ONLY.
  • Cars parked in our carpark in non allocated parking areas - if the car park is full please park in Pearce or Campbell Streets.
  • Cars parked on the opposite side of Bellin Street as this stops traffic flow, especially for our bus service.
  • Parents walking IN and OUT with their children through the driveway, not our safe pedestrian gate exits.

SMDP is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all our students. It is everyone's responsibility to follow our traffic management rules. 

 

Enjoy the long weekend. 

 

God Bless.

 

Dan Ryan

Principal

 

St Martin de Porres Primary School is committed to creating an environment where the safety, wellbeing, and participation of all children within our care is paramount.

2021 School Closure Days

Listed below are our school closure days for 2021. These are student-free days. Staff use these days to further develop their learning and keep informed with current practice and procedures. 

  • Friday 11th June - Literacy Professional Learning - Focus: Reading
  • Thursday 16th & Friday 17th September - Catholic Identity
  • Monday 1st November - Report  Writing
  • Friday 3rd December - Planning 2022

NOTE: These dates may be subject to change that may be out of our control.