Principal's Message

Principal's Message

Welcome to the Term 1 break. Note this is a shortened iNewsletter and only contains a few pages. 

I hope your child's experience with SMPS was largely positive. I hope you are happy with the level of service we have given your family so far. Of course, like everything in life, not everything can work out perfectly. Life is full of peaks and valleys. It has been thus for as long as existence. Our aim is to do the best we can in the time we have. 

I want to thank all families for their wonderful support of their own children, but also of their school and community. Nothing of note can be achieved without the support of parents and families. The modelling you do for your children is exceptional. 

I feel like the luckiest principal in the state with the children we have...but also the parents and staff that we have. I have won the school lottery and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thanks for supporting the Easter Hat Parade and the Raffle. We deeply appreciate it. 

Just a reminder that school will resume on Wednesday, April 23 (with Monday being a public holiday and Tuesday being our traditional Curriculum Day). 

I wish all families and the best kids in the universe a healthy and happy holiday. 

Student Outcomes/Dashboards

By now, you will all have received your Student Dashboards via Compass. These are data markers denoting progress over time. The goal of SMPS will be to improve your child - not to make them the 'smartest' in the class. The word 'smartest' doesn't really mean much - there is no specific 'smart' target in life. You can be smart in many areas. And competition between students is not something that we promote.

However, there are certain milestones that children are generally expected to reach. Just like when your child was born, there were percentile rankings for your child gaining weight, or height. And when these percentiles lagged, health professionals and families took action to remediate. Doctors take blood pressure and cholesterol readings for a reason and act accordingly if they are at levels that may cause issue. 

Our Student Dashboards are term-by-term health markers of academic and social progress. They are colour-coded according to a traffic light system. Anything tagged red should not cause stress or put pressure on a student's psychological wellbeing. However, it is a sign to pay attention. Something is happening that is below the expectation of a child of that age/stage. 

The biggest successes I see is when a parent appropriately responds to 'red' signals. My father used to say, "It is always later than you think." By that, he meant, act early and not late - because it may get too late. For example, if humankind is ever threatened by a meteor, I would want it to be detected sooner rather than later! No good panicking about a meteor that is as close as the moon - too late, my friends!

So, do this checklist:

• Have I checked my child's Student Dashboard via Compass?
• Do I see any 'reds'?
• Did I know about these 'reds' and have I had a conversation with my child's teacher about what we can do together to remediate?
• If not, why not?

Seeing 'reds' is not a signal to panic or consign your child to the 'weak' section of society. It is not a reflection of them as a human. We just want to see progress. Some things may stay red for a long time - and that's OK. You, the teacher, and your child can only do what they can do. But to NOT try is a problem. 

Work out the 'why' and step towards the solution. We don't want the rubber band to snap and find your child in high school really struggling to access the curriculum all because of a problem that could have been alleviated had we acted sooner.

It is always later than you think. Check your child's Student Dashboard and act accordingly. 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

One of the most fascinating theories I have encountered is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as seen in the graphic above. I have mentioned it before in this newsletter. At the top of the triangle is "Self-actualisation". This means that the goal of schools (and of parenting) is to get a young person to a position where they can use their own resources to maximise their potential in life. 

For almost all children at SMPS, the bottom three levels are givens. I have met children in my career whose parents were not able to offer even those foundations - and their life path became instantly rocky from the outset. It is as though they are swimming upstream through no fault of their own. The top two levels are interesting...and these levels predominate the aspirations of parents and staff at SMPS. 

I had an interesting exchange with a parent in Term 1. It happened in about week 5 and I am still thinking about it. A father and his daughter walked through the doors with their usual smile and hello. The daughter had a broken arm and I said to the father, "Does she need any extra help? Maybe a trip up the lift?" The father looked at me and said (very respectfully), "No thanks - she is tough. She will be all right." I reflected on this comment for a few days. My thought now is: "Well done, dad. That's why your child is so resilient."

Of course, there are limits to this approach. If the child was genuinely in distress and had crutches and moving up the stairs would have presented a danger to her wellbeing - then this "let's get on with life" stance may have been inappropriate. But this was not the case with this young girl. She was fine and could navigate the stairs safely. 

You will notice the second last rung of the pyramid in the diagram calls for "Esteem" to be satisfied. Telling a person they are "good" does not mean they feel this way. They need to "do good to feel good" and get the sense that they can overcome hurdles that inevitably come their way in life. Too often, we try to remove barriers when it is the barrier that offers the lesson. The act of climbing the mountain enhances esteem, not being helicoptered to the top and suggesting we have conquered it. 

Schools are imperfect places and problems will arise for every student along the journey. It is the resilience to identify these challenges and to train students to find their voice and assertiveness (not aggressiveness) to solve these problems that leads to a healthy esteem and ultimately, to self-actualisation. Solving problems FOR the child or removing barriers altogether bubble wraps the child and leads them to think that life has no hurdles. It is a fine balance as none of us wants our child harmed. But real harm, versus bumping up against a problem, are two different things.

For the parent whose child had a broken arm but could walk just fine up the stairs  - thank you. I can clearly see why your child is resilient and can face life's adversities with esteem and confidence. And it is this student who has the most chance to achieve self-actualisation. The broken arm was a challenge to be overcome...a comma - not a full stop.

Holiday Work

It is probably assumed that principals are on holidays for the entire time the children and staff are not in attendance. This is a fallacy. I will be taking the Easter main days off, but will work through the 'holidays' at projects requiring attention to set the school up for continued success. Much of this is hidden and is around staff presentations for the Curriculum Day, reading educational journals, examining student outcomes in preparation for performance reviews of staff, facilities, finance, budgetting...the list is quite long. The flow of the work is different as I work from home (mostly, when not checking on how facilities are going or meeting contractors doing work). There are not many humans to organise as the staff and children are offsite - so the work is different.

Personally, I feel I have not had a holiday since COVID-19. The nature of staffing and managing the building with the upgrades has tethered me to the work for about five years continously. I am passionate about the children, the staff and the community - but it is taxing. I hope to get a few days off during the break to recharge. 

Some works being undertaken during the break include:

• Complete resurfacing of the gym floor (the boards stay, but they are being sanded, polished, relined and covered)
• Cleaning of the balconies
• Fixing of sliding doors
• Resurfacing of the forecourt playing surface
• Resurfacing of the decking areas in the forecourt and on Level 2 basketball court
• Various other maintenance tasks

I once again want to thank all parents for their financial contributions. Much of this work would not be occurring without your generous monetary contributions. 

Adolescence

I watched the Netflix serious Adolescence recently. I would rarely make mention of a movie or series in a parent newsletter and it is not the best thing I have seen on TV....but its central premise resonated with me. I would not allow school-aged children to watch it (due to its coarse language content) but I did engage with the ideas.

I have said this before, and will say it again: Would you allow a stranger into your child's room without knowing that person and exactly what was going on?

If you allow your child 'free time' on the internet (especially in their rooms or alone) then that is tantamount to what you are doing. You are allowing strangers open access to your child. 

People - don't do it.

NAPLAN Feedback

Thanks to the parents of students in Grades 3 and 5 who offered feedback on our system of supporting students sitting NAPLAN. Below is a high level summary of the feedback and Maddy Morrison and I will consider how to update our processes to be even better for the children and families sitting NAPLAN in 2026. 

Best things

• Snapshots helped familiarize children with the test format and reduce anxiety.
• Consistent preparation both at school and home
• Emphasis on creating a supportive, stress-free environment 
• Early planning and scheduling of NAPLAN preparation

Improvements to consider

• Improving access to Snapshots. Some parents experienced difficulties with the login process and recommended making it simpler.
• Targeted homework for individual students to strengthen weaker areas

Any other info

• Gratitude for school’s efforts and clear communication

Manners Champion

We had our first round of Manners Champions where teachers identified students exhibiting outstanding manners over the preceding fortnight. One student per class/ specialist was nominated and they enjoyed a morning tea with Mr Noel to recognise their wonderful manners. 

Manners are part of our value of Character and these students live and breathe them each day. Well done to the parents for training their children to have excellent manners! Note that when two names appear against the one class, the specialist would have nominated that child from their class (e.g. Music).

Here is the first name and grade of each of our Manners Champions (noting that last names are not used in these publications):