Kids Corner
The Kids Corner section of this fortnight’s newsletter features letters I have received from the children and my responses. Something that is always a sheer delight is receiving letters and cards from the children as they are always so heartfelt. For this fortnight’s newsletter I thought I would share some with our school community:
The Year One children are learning how to write letters. 1B wrote to me and I responded, I then asked them to send me an email as this is the ‘modern’ form of letter writing. Ishana (also in Year 1) wrote to me.
Below is a copy of the communication for your enjoyment:
Initial letter from 1B:
My response:
Dear Students in 1B and Ms. Gabriel,
Thank you very much for the lovely letter, I must say that I was so excited and very, very happy to receive such a well written letter.
If it is OK, I will now answer the questions you asked me.
How are you? I am really well thank you, thanks for asking. I have had a restful holiday and am now ready for another really exciting term of learning, fun and adventure at our school. I’m really looking forward to our production and can’t wait to see you all on stage performing your song and dance.
We hope you are having fun being a principal. Being a school principal is the BEST job in the whole world! It is a very busy role, however I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it especially because I get to work with the best learners and teachers in the whole, whole, whole world!
I am so glad that you are learning to write letters because it is a very important skill to learn and have.
Now it is my turn to ask you some questions?
What is the best thing about our school?
What are you looking forward to this term?
How would you describe our school to a new friend or relative? And
If you could change something about our school, what would that be?
Take care, thanks again for writing to me and I look forward to hearing from you.
Ps. Since you are learning to write letters, what about next time you send me an email? My email address is: frank.catalano@education.vic.gov.au
Mr. Catalano
1B’s email to me:
Dear Mr Catalano,
We hope you are having a great time in Tasmania. It is very sunny here today, is it sunny in Tasmania?
Thank you for sending us a letter. We were so excited to read it. Sorry we didn't reply earlier, we started to transfer our learning from letters to invitations and now to emails just this week!
Of course, we will answer your questions because we think you are the best principal.
The best thing about our school is learning new things, playing outside and making friends.
We are most looking forward to the production this term. We have practised lots and lots and can't wait to share it with our family and friends.
We would describe our school as kind, friendly, and full of clever kids who love learning.
If we could change anything about our school, we would make the Octopus playground at the ELC bigger with more things to do on it. We love big, scary slides and colourful things. Rainbow is our favourite in 1B!
Thank you for asking us for our voice. Have a great last day in Tasmania.
See you tomorrow.
From,
1B
My response:
Hi everyone from also a sunny Tasmania. I’m having lunch with Mr Lewis and 478 other principals. How many principals do you think are here in total?
Thank you for writing to me. I cannot express how much it means to me and also how much I miss you!
Mr Lewis and I have learnt so much about how to make our school even better such as improving our school’s wellbeing program and something called artificial intelligence or AI. I’m sure Ms. Gabrielle can tell you more about AI.
Very soon we have to get our luggage, then be transported to the airport in a taxi. Our flight leaves at 5 o’clock and should be in Melbourne at approximately 6:20 pm - do you know which airport we will land in?
We should be home by 7:30 and then tomorrow …….. are you ready for this? We will be back at school! Can’t wait!!!!!
We can’t wait to see you tomorrow because we missed you so, so, so much!
Take care, be good and keep being the best learner you can be!
Love from Mr Catalano.
Another email from 1B:
Hello Mr Catalano,
Thank you for replying to us. We were so excited to see your message because we miss you too.
We had a try to work out how many principals were having lunch together. Harley thought four hundred and seventy ten, which helped us work out that there would be 480 principals together. Wow! That's a lot!
Since the plane leaves at 5pm and arrives at 6:20pm, we think the flight will take 1 hour and 20 minutes. We don't really know what the airports are called, but Ms. Gabriel told us that it would be Tullamarine or Avalon. She told us that Avalon is far away so we are inferring that you will arrive at Tullamarine.
We better get practising for production.
We hope you have a safe flight and can't wait to see you tomorrow.
Love from 1B.
PS. Please say hello to Mr. Lewis from us.
A letter from Ishana (Year 1)
Dear Mr. Catalano,
We are having an awesome time at Glen Waverley! As you know it’s Crazy Hair and Pyjama Day! When I rushed to school, I was super excited!
At the conference did you remember?
Did you put on hair spray? What did you do?
We had lots of fun! I put cupcake hair.
Can you please respond?
Sincerely,
Ishana!
Ps. How’s Tasmania?
My response:
Saturday, 5 August 2023
Hi Ishana,
I trust you and your family are all well.
Thank you for writing the beautiful letter. I was so thrilled to receive it, particularly when you shared the amazing things happening across our school.
It is very obvious that you enjoyed Crazy Hair and Pyjamas Day, it sounds like you had fun planning how your hair will be. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to have a Crazy Hair day this year because I was in Hobart (Tasmania) I look forward to next year! Hmm, I wonder what I could do, or what sort of wig I can wear? Perhaps I can dress up as a famous actor or musician and include a wig that resembles their hair. What do you think?
I did remember about Crazy Hair and Pyjamas Day when I was at the conference, however I was not able to dress up. I think I might have looked a little silly because I would’ve been the only principal out of 480 people that would’ve dressed up!
Tasmania was great, thanks for asking. I got to meet lots of wonderful people and listen to some really amazing speakers who have helped me become an even better principal. I also got the chance to meet and speak with 2 principals who are looking forward to working with our school in the future. You may not know this, but we have a ‘sister school’ (a school that the children and teachers work together) in Nepal. Now after going to the conference, our school will be working with a school in Launceston and also New Zealand – wow, how exciting is that!
Anyway, I better go because I have lots of work to catch up on.
Take care Ishana and keep up the fabulous learning – I cannot express how very, very proud I am of you!
With lots of love,
Mr. Catalano