Engagement & Wellbeing
Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships:
Respectful Relationships at Spring Gully Primary School is a highly valued program where the students learn how to be ‘Respectful’, ‘Resilient’ and ‘Responsible’. This not only reflects our School Values but teaches our students how to ‘Be Awesome’, which is our school motto.
In this newsletter space, we will keep you up to date with what is going on with Respectful Relationships, in each classroom.
In 3/4 Lidgett this week, we talked about things in our day-to-day lives that might be difficult and make us feel stressed or worried. Students thought of ideas like: really hard classwork, pressure to win a sports game, being in loud places with lots of people, having a disagreement with a friend or family member, and having to participate in activities that you don't feel very confident about.
Students pair-shaired their own personal calming processes. These took many different forms, from patting a pet cat or dog, hugging a favourite toy, running or playing very physically, or just sitting quietly with someone who cares.
Students thought about things they could do at school to help calm themselves when they feel stressed or worried, as some of our calming 'tools' (like our pets) aren't always available to us.
Over the past few weeks, we have been working hard to establish positive routines and clear classroom expectations. Students have been learning about our School Values of Respect, Responsibility and Resilience, and exploring what these look like in both the classroom and the playground.
This week, we focused more closely on our value of Respect, discussing what respectful behaviour looks like when playing games and interacting with friends. Students shared ideas and practised taking turns, listening to others, and including everyone.
We have been practising showing Respect by listening carefully, Responsibility by taking care of our belongings and being accountable for our learning, and Resilience by having a go and persisting with challenges. Students have been earning Gugu stickers for demonstrating these values and are very excited as we work towards earning our first class reward.
We are proud of the positive start we have made and look forward to continuing to celebrate students who demonstrate our school values each day.
Over the coming weeks, classes will confirm their Student Representative Council (SRC).
Students in Grade 3/4 and 5/6 will confirm their class representatives at the beginning of Week 5, with the first SRC meeting taking place on Friday 27 February.
Students in Prep and Grade 1/2 will confirm their representatives during Week 6.
Our full SRC team will be formally introduced at assembly in Week 6, ahead of our first whole-group meeting (junior and senior representatives together) on Friday 13 March.
It is a wonderful time and opportunity to discuss what a leader looks like in a classroom, school and community. There are always more willing and capable students who apply for these positions than positions available. So, reminding your students that they can still be wonderful role models and leaders without an official title may help students process any disappointment if they are not successful with their application this year.
Start Up Performance
Over the past few weeks, all students practiced a short dance, as a way of building connections and strengthening relationships with one another. Rather than focusing on a perfectly polished performance, this event celebrated the collaboration and sense of belonging that developed throughout the process. Congratulations to all classes on their entertaining performances. Awesome work!
