Principal's Desk

Maths Anxiety and Low Confidence

Unfortunately, despite maths being such a crucial tool in how we describe and understand our world, it is such a fear and source of anxiety for so many people. Even people who were relatively successful in their schooling will still declare that they 'always hated maths'. 

Of course, this can lead to humorous conversations about awkward teachers and confusing algorithms, which are fun, but after we have children it can also lead to some awkward conversations. 

'Just get through it' is a very common attitude expressed by parents to students. Often, parents have already told stories about how they hated maths or were no good at, and so they feel hypocritical placing higher expectations on their own child. It's a self-defeating cycle where our lack of confidence, leads to lower confidence and achievement by our children. 

If I can give one direct piece of parenting advice, please consider how you speak about maths to your child: What message are you sending? What message is your child taking? There is no doubt that many children suffer from maths anxiety or low confidence in maths and quite often parents can link this to things they say regularly or stories they've told. 

Many people will have a fixed mindset in relation to maths (i.e. "I am just bad at maths." "Our family are not numbers people"), which means that children will feel destined to repeat the achievements of their family. There is no doubt that many people will have had bad experiences but that does not mean you are bad at maths, it means you were not taught well. If your lessons were anything like my primary school, you pulled out a book, finished 2 or 3 pages and then went off with reading a book or creative writing. I loved writing stories, so I would always finish the next few pages in my book while people were setting up and then spend all of maths writing a story. I'm not sure my Year 6 teacher ever once worked with me on a maths concept. She pressed start and stop on the stopwatch when we did times table races. 

I managed but anyone who didn't understand was, to put it bluntly, stuffed. They sat quietly in the corner waiting for it all to be over. 

This is bad teaching, NOT an inability to learn and we need to differentiate between the two. Even people who did well in maths at school often express low confidence in helping their children because it looks different from how we were taught, in fact in one study 38% of parents reported not understanding their child's school work (Goodall et al, 2010).  I would like to work on improving that, so that parents have a better understanding of 'how we do things now' because it is a big change from 30 or 40 years ago. 

Fathers’ Day Stall

Our PCA, as expected, conducted a fantastic Fathers’ Day stall on Wednesday in our Wentworth Building. There were heaps of volunteers on hand to service our students who were keen to find a bargain. Catherine and her team are wonderful examples of giving back to the community.  Well done to all who helped out! Happy Father's Day to all the special father-figures in our community :)

Parent Opinion Survey

Please complete the Parent Opinion Survey, it is an important measure of how we are going and is more valuable the more people we have complete it. Delighted, Happy, Sad, Mad, Indifferent - however you feel, please let us know through the survey. 

https://www.orima.com.au/parent

PIN:      957490

Being Cybersafe

Over the past few weeks, we have seen a dramatic increase in cyberattacks as well as instances in which our students may have not been the best digital citizens. This is a timely opportunity for families to discuss the importance of being safe online. Listed below are 10 tips from the Alannah and Madeline Foundation to help start the conversation. I am amazed by the number of students in Year 6 who have access to Snapchat, Instagram etc that have age restrictions in place. These age restrictions are in place for a reason - this was even explained this week when we had Olivia from the Knox Proactive Police Unit out to talk with our Year 5 and 6 students. Students should be having lots of face to face interactions with peers and adults. It is through these conversations that we develop our emotional intelligence.

1. Care about the Share
   Social media wants you to share as much as you can bear! But the share should be rare. NEVER share: passwords, private/personal information, your location.
2. Privacy Matters
   If you care about the share, you’ll protect your privacy, no matter what. Regularly check your privacy settings on social media, and always think before you post. It’s amazing where data ends up – usually all over the internet.
3. Respect the Privacy of Others
   Treat others’ privacy as you would your own. Ask for your friends’ permission before uploading photos and videos of them. It’s not all about you.
4. Keep Everything Updated
   Any idea what causes the most security breaches on the internet? Software that isn’t up-to-date. Seems crazy simple, but it’s true! Be vigilant about updating software, including apps, anti-virus and even the humble browser.
5. Spam 
   Even with the best anti-spam and malware software – that’s up-to-date – spam is the modern version of junk mail. It’s everywhere! Learn how to tell the difference between real emails and messages, and dodgy things with dodgy links. Sometimes they don’t look so dodgy...always be suspicious of hyperlinks in emails.
6. Control the Troll Within
   There be trolls out there – beware! Don’t feed them, don’t give them what they want: an angry response. Block/Report the trolls. But also: resist the inner troll. If you’re not adding something to the debate online, don’t bother. Don’t be part of the problem.
7. Cyberbullying and Harassment
   If you’re being targeted by this kind of behaviour, know what you can do, and where you can get help. Visit the National Centre Against Bullying website and the Office of the eSafety Commissioner's website.
8. Keep Your Friends Close and Strangers at Arm’s Length
   Do you know how many true friends most people have? Three. Yup, those four thousand and fifty-two Facebook ‘friends’ are a combination of acquaintances, people-you-met-once, people-you-can’t-remember-meeting-once, and probably, some ‘randoms’. They don’t need to know what you had for breakfast, or what concert you went to last night, do they?
9. Feel the Flow – Keep Your Life in Balance
   Technology is incredible. Gaming, networking, apps…online shopping! But make sure you take time out and find the right balance for you. Too long on tech can put the world out of whack.
10. Have Fun, Friend
    Always remember to chill out and keep things in perspective. There’s too much information online to take it all in! Focus on each moment, and enjoy.

(Alannah and Madeline Foundation)

Curriculum and Professional Practice Days (Repeat)

Every year, schools, in conjunction with School Council, are in a position to provide four curriculum days per year to support staff professional development. We also have a fifth day for staff (called a Professional Practice Day) to focus on specific aspects of their work for a day - all with no students on-site. Each of these days are invaluable for the ongoing development of our knowledge of contemporary educational practices. At our previous School Council meeting in June, School Council approved the following dates for the remainder of 2023 as student-free days. They are:

• Wednesday, 8 November - Professional Practice Day (Report Writing)
• Wednesday, 15 November – Curriculum Day 4 (Berry Street Educational Model Day 2)

Every effort is made to spread the days out where possible however with reference to our curriculum days, we were dictated due to availability of presenters. Furthermore, our decision to hold our Professional Practice Day after Melbourne Cup public holiday is to support our teachers to write accurate December reports through analysis of key data sets measuring student achievement and growth as well as to support those families who wish to have an extended mini-term holiday before Christmas.

Understandably some people will welcome these dates and recognise the importance to our ongoing commitment to provide the most up-to-date learning for all our staff here at Park Ridge Primary School. I also recognise that some people may find these dates difficult, especially two Wednesdays in a row however we have done the best we can to minimise the impact to as many families as possible. To support families, TeamKids will be providing care facilities on these days as well.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Please feel free to pop in for a chat with either Carrie, Brendan or I, should you wish to discuss anything. 

Our doors are always open! 

Take care,

Mr. Dale Blythman