Manifold Heights PS Newsletter

News From Mr Smith

Dear School Community Members,

 

Resilience: Recently we have been exploring how we can further nurture and develop ‘Resilience’ within our school community. Part of this exploration was engaging in the research of Luke Ross. Luke is the founder of the Social Intelligence Group who deliver and offer Social Intelligence Programs for Schools. I want to share with you some of Luke’s research on ‘Resilience’, along with how schools can develop resiliency in primary aged children.

  • An ‘Adaptive Mindset’ develops resiliency
  • An ‘Adaptive Mindset’ is an ability to adapt to pressure, stress and constant change
  • Resilience is the ability to cope and return to “normal” as quickly as possible
  • 50% of 7-12 year olds show stress related symptoms
  • Adversity, such as teasing and failing, is part of the human condition and an important ingredient of building resilience
  • Telling students to be resilient is not effective
  • Resilience is a learned skill and can be taught
  • Everyone has a happiness set point – after a period of time, it doesn’t matter what the event is (good or bad), a person returns to their happiness set point. A study has revealed that a person with a permanent disability has the same “set-point of happiness” 12 months after their accident as a person 12 months after winning lotto 
  • The same study found happiness is 50% genetics, 10% external influences (eg. salary, cars etc) and 40% dependent on how we think and act (eg. comparisons we make (Instagram))
  • Resilience is not fixed and can be learnt. Resilience is learnt from following our role models (parents, teachers, peers). Therefore, resilient behaviour must be modelled with low resilient behaviour challenged and high resilient behaviour rewarded.

As a school, we will continue to explore research from ‘experts’ like Luke Ross to maximise the ‘resilience’ of our students. We are also looking forward to the partnership we have developed with Jess Dimitrious from Raising Resilience. Jess will present to our community on “Grow Your Child’s Resilience”. We thank the 52 families who have responded that they are attending Jess’ session. Registrations are still open, so we encourage families to consider this opportunity.

 

Attendance - Late arrival to School: We continue to promote the importance of attendance at school. In the spirit of maximising the opportunities and experiences at school, regularly being late to school can have similar impacts as regular absences.  Research shows when a student is late to school, their learning is compromised, and the learning of the class is interrupted. I hope that the following statistics from our school highlight the importance of students arriving to school on time:

  • In the month of July, we had an average of 12 students late to school each day
  • In the month of July, our Grade 3 and Grade 4 students made up 38% of late arrivals

Whilst I acknowledge there are many genuine reasons why a student may be late to school, it is vital these occasions are kept to a minimum to ensure each student is set up for success at the beginning of each day. When a child is late to school, they often miss:

  • the outline of the day. When students are familiar with the plan for the day, their confidence and self-esteem increases, and anxiety is minimized.
  • the explicit instruction from the teacher for the first lesson. This instruction includes the “teaching” (learning intention) of the concept or topic and the instructions for the task (success criteria). Without this information, students are significantly disadvantaged.

Families are encouraged to contact their child’s teacher, Mrs Geary or myself if they are needing some support to ensure their children are arriving to school on time.

 

Mano Trivia Night – Saturday, 3rd August: What a wonderful night! Thank you to all families and staff members who attended our Trivia Night on Saturday. I also thank our many wonderful sponsors and contributors to the evening. Finally, another huge shout out to our Parents and Friends Committee for their organisation of our Trivia Night – the Mano community appreciates and thanks you for your ongoing and tireless work.

 

No assembly next week: As a result of our rehearsal for our Concert on Monday, please note there will be no assembly on Monday, 12th August.

 

Parent/Guardian Opinion Survey: WE WANT OUR FAMILIES TO TELL US WHAT THEY THINK! Thank you to the 25 families who have completed the survey! We are aiming for 100 Mano families to participate in the survey.

Our school is conducting a survey to find out what our parents and guardians think of our school. The Parent/Guardian Opinion Survey is an annual survey offered by the Department of Education that is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of families’ perceptions of school climate, student behaviour, and student engagement. We encourage all families to participate in this survey. Our school will use the survey results to help inform and direct future school planning and improvement strategies. While previously a random sample of approximately 30 per cent of parents/caregivers/guardians have been selected to participate, this year, all families are invited to participate in the survey.

The Parent/Guardian Opinion Survey will be conducted from Monday, 7th August to Friday, 8th September.

The survey will be conducted online, only takes 20 minutes to complete, and can be accessed at any convenient time within the fieldwork period on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. The online survey will be available in a range of languages other than English. Please contact the office if you would like more information.

 

Thank you for supporting our school and have a great week.

 

Christian Smith