Week 4

Today our choir performed at the Armidale Eisteddfod and came second!!. Once again, Mrs Clendinning has created magic with our students. I am so proud of how our students represented themselves and their school. Your passion and dedication shone through! Congratulations! Photos to come.

We have had a very busy couple of weeks at Martin's Gully and that continued this week. If you haven't joined our Martin's Gully Official Facebook page jump on and have a look at the exciting learning and fun we have at school each week. https://www.facebook.com/MartinsGullyPS

On Monday, our Stage 3 students participated in the NSW CPR Program run by Royal Lifesaving. This is a great initiative that teaches our students the skills of CPR.

Last Wednesday we held our first disco for the year, along with our parent information night for PAX. It was so wonderful to see so many parents learning about PAX and how they can also use the same strategies at home, making those school to home links even tighter. It's great to all be on the same page!

Thank you to everybody who donated at the disco to the Save Our Sons Duchenne Foundation. We raised an amazing $708.00

P&C Meeting

The P&C meeting will be held in the MPC on Friday 23 May at 1pm. Come along and be part of something great!

NSW Public Schools Survey

In Term 2, we are offering our students the opportunity to participate in the NSW Public Schools Student Survey. The survey gives students the chance to share their thoughts and feelings about life at school, including questions about their engagement, learning experiences and wellbeing at school.

Hearing directly from our students will help us understand what’s working well and where improvements can be made to our school. The survey is confidential, takes around 10 to 15 minutes to complete, and will be conducted online during school hours.

Participation is voluntary. If you prefer your child not to participate, please request and complete the opt-out consent form, and return it to the school. Further information about the survey is available at https://education.nsw.gov.au/npss

School Bytes Reminder

MGPS moved to using the platform School Bytes for all communication and payments. This is because COMPASS is now School Bytes. If you haven't already, you will need to download the School Bytes Parent App.

Our PAX word of the fortnight continues to be considerate. We learn in our PAX lessons how we can use You Can Do It and Zones of Regulation with PAX to be the best we can be every day. It's great to chat to your child about what our PAX words are and what they mean so we can make those school and home links. Mrs Pennington and Mrs Polson always add great wellbeing and parent tips and information to help.

You Can Do It!

Social/Emotional Intelligence

Research has found a connection to emotional intelligence between the time parents spend with their children and the kinds of activities they engage in. This study suggests that parent-child informal joint activity (play, for instance) may be a significant factor in developing children’s trait emotional intelligence.

Children whose parents spend more time with them in joint activities are likely to have fewer emotional and behavioural problems, misbehave less at home, and enjoy higher academic achievement at school.
When parent and child play together, they establish and maintain shared attention on objects or games. Shared playtime means the child has to modulate their excitement or distress and therefore regulate their emotions and respond to the demands of the joint-play situation.
The study found that the time children spent with their parents watching TV was related to a greater difficulty to cope with stress. TV exposes children to multiple instances of factual and fictional, physical and emotional violence and stress. It is likely that after confronting continuous virtual emotional stressors, children exhaust their resources to cope with further stress, even in real life.
Time spent doing practical things such as homework and reminding kids to clean up or do their chores would not necessarily relate to emotional intelligence. These types of interactions have the potential for warm, loving exchanges but can also have high levels of negative conflict.
Educational activities facilitate the exploration of personal interests and therefore allow children to learn about their feelings and emotions in various situations.

What are you going to play this week with your kids?

Have a wonderful wet week!

Peta Deiderick

Community Information