Principal News
Welcome back.
This short newsletter acts as a reminder of a few key messages. Please find the important dates in a following page.
The building is progressing. It has been slow process initially with many surprises in behind walls, which happens with older building. This term, the progress will speed up and there will be more trades on site. We are aiming to keep any disruption to students and families to a minimum.
Over the holidays, the major works we completed was to fix a trip hazard, which meant significant work near the Year 2/3 classroom. Maintaining a safe environment is critical, and despite it meaning that we lost a tree, we will focus on replanting as part of our building project.
Monday is a staff professional learning. Staff will focus on Motivation, looking at Self Determination Theory and the ARC framework. In short, this means that motivation for all of us is best when we have Autonomy, Relatedness and Competence. That competence piece is key, and where we see many students start to struggle. They will say, "its boring", but generally it is a code for "I'm struggling". Autonomy is not free for all, as all students need boundaries, it is just an opportunity to give some choice, or ask how they are going with it and what they believe could be better. Finally, relatedness is about us all showing a sense of empathy that we move away from 'just do it' , to 'learning can be tough', or 'that sucks you got it wrong', but the next part is critical. "How about we work on it together". This doesn't change motivation over night, but it can drive significant improvements when we understand this framework, and even better, if we relate it to our own lives.
Our students will start with a special event, with Melbourne Storm players visiting Tuesday. If any parents would like to come in an meet the payers, please come along to the hall at 10am Tuesday.
Welcome back, and may this be a great term.
I will be on Long Service Leave this week, on a family holiday to celebrate my wife's Birthday.