From the 

Assistant Principal

Dear SMPPS families

We’ve gone from sunny days and blue skies to windy, cloudy afternoons but all students and staff are braving the weather with cheerful smiles. 

This fortnight for wellbeing I’d like to share some learning that I’ve been doing with students as part of our restorative processes. When things don’t go to plan and someone is feeling in the blue or yellow zone, things can go in two directions, they can escalate or de-escalate. Moreover, students can choose actions which assist themselves or others to escalate and de-escalate. Here’s some actions our students recognised escalate their arguments: involving other friends, bringing up the past (grudges), rubbing it in when your opponent has lost a game. We switch to then identify actions that could instead de-escalate people to the point where productive discussions can be had, here’s some we identified: encourage others e.g. ‘that’s ok, you got this,’, ‘giving people space when you can see they’re in the blue or yellow zone. Lastly we have been talking about assuming positive intent, sometimes we escalate quickly because we have jumped to the worst conclusion. A great exercise to go through with your child when they’ve experienced something upsetting is to deconstruct the actions and words of others and work out if perhaps they’d made some assumptions without all the facts. Practise finding the most generous interpretations or alternative meanings or motivations and over time, you will find your child builds automaticity with this skill and hopefully reduces outbursts of negative emotions!

Beginning next week we will have some Year 8 students from Albert Park College running daily sessions with students during lunchtime to support with refereeing skills and managing their emotions during soccer and football. How to be a good sport and manage conflict or disagreement and develop fair teams will be a key focus. We are very excited to have this opportunity to collaborate with a local school and make a difference for both sets of students!

Last little message is to remind people that the Family in Focus sessions are commencing next Tuesday in the staffroom, please register if you haven’t already! We still have a few spots and would love to prioritise SMPPS families. They are free and there’s no obligation to attend them all, although there is a little sweetener if you do! Sign up any time up until the last session using this Google Form.

Have a happy and safe weekend!

Trish Wan

Assistant Principal