Principal's Report 

 Dear Parents, 

This week we are all very excited to dress in our House Colours for athletics day on Wednesday May 8th.  With lower enrolments this year, we are able to hold our event here at school on our wonderful athletics track.  Parents are most welcome to attend from 9:15am. 

Please also put the 16th of May in your diary for our next Fathering Project event linked to our Education Week Expo which will run from 4:30 - 6:30pm.  Food and drinks are available for sale on the night, and we would love to see you all there. This year's theme is on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), with loads of interactive and fun activities planned.

Recently there have been reports  suggesting schools need to teach behaviour to bring back long lost norms. Whilst not speaking for other schools, I can quite happily state through our School Wide Positive Behaviour Supports (SWPBS) framework, we have never stopped teaching students appropriate behaviours, and we do a very good job at it. 

Building on the great work parents do, we focus on acknowledging and rewarding positive behaviours, whilst simultaneously addressing behaviours that do not meet expectations. Through our SWPBS matrix, located on our school's website, teachers use Buzz Awards in the classroom and the yard to acknowledge and reward appropriate behaviour. When behaviour is not appropriate students are spoken to about this to rectify it. 

Theory suggests 80% of students will need one reminder to address inappropriate behaviour. 15% will need two reminders and 5% of students will need three or more to address inappropriate behaviour.  Our data from term one indicates our students do better than the theory as can be seen below. This indicates our approach is working as all in our school are aligned in its implementation. 

With over 300 children at school, things don't always go to plan.  Social skills need to be taught and practised.  And from time to time we all get them wrong. And as with academic skills, when things don't go as planned, we re-teach, we remind and we practise to get better at it.  And as with academic skills, some students pick up these skills faster than others, and that's okay. Children are not little adults. Their brains have not yet fully developed nor have their social skills. 

They'll each get there with support, care and kindness which they certainly get from home, and we hope at school too! 

Kind Regards, 

Simon McGlade

Principal