PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

As Term 3 draws to close it is good time to reflect back on the last two months and my first term as Principal of Hamilton (Gray Street) Primary School.

As you will have read in previous newsletters there have been a variety of events for our students to be involved in across the term. This has included sporting events, the Coleraine Art Show, academic competitions, and our upcoming Gray Street’s got Talent next week. There have also been terrific opportunities for our parents and families to be involved with STEM night, our Father’s Day afternoon and last week’s Hoop Time. These opportunities allow students to embrace our school motto “Semper Sursum” - ever upwards always our best – as student’s grow their personal interests, strengths and skills.

Whilst it is certainly great for our students to have these wide variety of extra curricula activities our staff continue to also have a strong focus on teaching and learning. The Preps are a great example of how our students are learning to do hard things, and how effort equals success. Across the term the Preps have been writing their own fairy tales. They have taken a big task, broken it down into a series of smaller tasks, then put the pieces back together again to have a finished product they are proud of. We can certainly all learn something from the Preps about how to go about doing hard things.

On an individual level of doing hard things I would like to acknowledge Manaia in Year 6. Mania recently participated in the Australian Cross Country championships in Tasmania. The conditions were particularly challenging with low temperatures and a wet and muddy course. As with the Preps just by focusing on one section and one kilometre of a time Manaia completed the course successfully. A terrific achievement, congratulations Manaia.

Breaking a task down into smaller, more manageable steps in order to be successful is also great advice for parents at home too. If your child is struggling with a task, consider the smaller steps that need to be taken for the task to be done. Supporting your child through these steps also teaches them how to sit with uncomfortable feelings and how to be persistent, as well as be resilient. Sometimes the hardest part in all of this for us as parents is seeing our child be uncomfortable. It takes much trust and self control to not rescue them at these times. With the holidays just a week away there will be plenty of times for parents to work with their children on projects or learn a new skill.

Next term we look forward to Ben returning as our Assistant Principal working three days a week, Monday to Wednesday.

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS