From the Principal
Ross Pritchard
One of the certainties in life is that time goes quickly when you are having fun. In this report, I will include some comments about things I am reading and listening to.
Students and staff are toiling away at Semester 1 work, and assessments are imminent. By all accounts, overall, the students have settled in and will give a good account of themselves. Staff will be preparing the students with practice questions, formative assessments, and study tips. The process, in many aspects, is more important than the result. Simon Sinek, in his book ‘The Infinite Game,’ outlines the importance of playing the infinite or long game by concentrating on goals that address actions, behaviours and outcomes that are sustainable over time. The alternative is to set finite or result based goals that are a win or loss, a pass or fail. This concept reinforces the importance and relevance of our focus on Auburn Learner Qualities and Learning Behaviours.
For more information, please refer to the links below and talk to your children about them. Research tells us, employers keep reinforcing that young people entering the workplace, and adulthood need these skills and qualities.
CREATIVITY, COLLABORATION, CITIZENSHIP, COMMUNICATION, CRITICAL THINKING AND CHARACTER.
I am also listening to the Huberman Lab podcast by Dr Andrew Huberman. He also performed a live show last weekend. If you are interested in science, biology, human health, history and progress, then Dr Huberman is for you. He uses science and research as a basis for discussion around a range of topics, one being stress management. The real-time control of stress is a major component of modern life. One example he used I thought was most pertinent to us as a school community. Fixated vision engages the sympathetic nervous system, and panoramic vision engages the para-sympathetic. An example of this is eye contact. When we force eye contact, the body automatically goes into flight or fight mode to varying degrees. How many times have we asked someone to look us in the eye when we are talking to them? To manage real time stress, some people prefer to use the panoramic view to disperse focus. It doesn’t mean that they are not listening, in fact, they are probably receiving the message better because the para-sympathetic system kicks in. Try it next time you need to have a conversation with your child. Go for a walk, go for a drive, sit side by side and begin a conversation. I know it worked for me with my teenage boys. It’s amazing how people open up more when eye contact is not forced.
I am also reading the book that guides our Instructional teaching model, AKA the GANAG model. This a research-based model that embeds nine high-yield teaching strategies. Your children are benefiting from teaching that is focused on knowledge construction, a range of immediate and scheduled feedback, effective differentiation, and a positive classroom environment. The staff will be focusing on professional learning and collaborative work that will help students be interested in and commit to learning, make sense of new learning, and then practise, reflect and extend their learning. The book begins by stating that research shows that the longer students are at school, the less motivated, and curious they become. The authors reinforce that effort and hard work is still a major factor in overcoming this. This effort and hard work comes from internal motivation, which is much more effective than external motivation. This poses a challenge for educators to know our students as well as possible. We appreciate parents’ assistance in this. Often parents don’t communicate to us the issues they are seeing at home or significant changes they see in their child. The support we can provide is directly correlated to how well we know the child. Early intervention and challenge is most effective. I am excited to work with the staff and the students in this area of education.
I am listening to the Strokes, lo-fi study tunes to work to, Australian Story by Stan Grant on Audible, and some retro hip-hop tunes from Grandmaster Flash. Good times. The other great thing I have discovered is that Spotify has a running genre where it sets music to a beats per minute. This is fantastic for tempo running, and I encourage anyone who is training for the Relay for Life in March to try it out.
Last Friday our 2024 swimming carnival was held at Prahran pool. This type of whole-school event is significant for school pride, student leadership, social development and ‘having fun’. We had our largest carnival of all time where students swam competitively, swam in novelty events, played games of spike ball and spent a beautiful summer's day cheering for their House. I thank all the staff for assisting our Sports Coordinator Nick Szabo, in the organising of the day. Congratulations to Hollows who won by a narrow margin from the other three houses.
Thank you for your continued support of the school.
Until next time,
Ross Pritchard