Principal's News
Dear Parents and Carers,
We welcome everyone back to Sacred Heart for Term 2. This term we welcome three new families into our community, Ava Connley and Jerry Cowell have joined our Grade 4 team and Evie Wagner has joined our Grade 6 class. We do hope these children and their families quickly feel very much at home at our school.
I trust families were able to make the most of the Easter holidays. By the sound of it there was plenty of camping done, fish caught and enjoyment had.
First day of term is always such a nice day at school. The children are pleased to see their friends and teachers, the teachers are refreshed and happy to catch up with colleagues and kids and the parents are usually very happy to see school re-start!
Our Foundation children are here full time from now on and I’m delighted to report that they strolled in yesterday like they owned the place! We look forward very much to them continuing to grow and learn, like all of the children in our school.
ANXIETY IN CHILDREN Wow, hasn’t this been an unfortunate growth area in recent years. You know I’ve been a principal so long I can remember a time when no one ever really used this term to describe kids.
Perhaps we are better at recognising and diagnosing anxiety than we were in the 90s? Maybe it didn’t exist then, or at least not as much? Maybe the farm kids in Edenhope weren’t as anxious as they were in other parts of the country? Perhaps the lack of social media and the incessant scare tactics employed by multi media companies helped us remain less aware of any perceived dangers?
Like any complex issue, I suspect the answer is also complex and is probably a combination of the above and more.
It’s awful when kids suffer through anxiety at any age but in primary school? Life (& school) should be about having fun and learning stuff. It can lead to self sabotaging behaviours like refusing to go to school.
A couple of suggestions based on my experience:
If parents are anxious then kids will pick up on this and be anxious too. We know that as adults there are certain dangers that we need to be aware of, but we cope by keeping a sense of perspective about risks and reward. - This is harder to judge for kids, so they will look to our words and actions for guidance.
Give kids the opportunities to do things for themselves. REAL accomplishments build self confidence. Self confidence, I reckon is the enemy of Anxiety. This will require some risk taking and parents are in the best position to judge what is appropriate for their child. Walking or riding to school is an example of the type of thing that kids can do, given training, instruction, support (like an older sibling or neighbour taking them) and the confidence of their parents.
Think about it, if we don’t show our kids that we trust their judgement etc what are we teaching them?
We need to be discerning about the social media, online games, movies and TV that our kids access. NO primary school kids should be using Facebook, Instagram etc. There are laws about it and when we think OUR kids are an exception to this rule we are wrong. To me it’s the same as thinking the Drink Driving laws should apply to everyone else but I’m different.
Recent tragic events in Sydney and Ballarat have been tragic, upsetting and a little shocking. Shocking because they are unusual in Australia. Again the news coverage of these things can be very confronting for little kids. Again, as adults we know we need to be careful but we also need to enjoy our lives, so where kids have been exposed to these stories we need to talk to them in reassuring ways helping them to learn perspective.
We are all learning that domestic violence poses a greater danger to us than the lurking stranger.
FOUNDATION ENROLMENTS FOR 2025 It seems as though the year has only begun and we are starting to plan for NEXT year. I have been meeting with new families who are considering applying for enrolment of their eldest child in our school.
In order for me to know how many positions I can offer in Foundation for 2025 I need to know how many little brothers and sisters are intending to enrol for next year.
As of this morning there is a survey open on our PAM Platform that I would bring to the attention of all parents who have someone they would like to enrol for 2025.
Sometimes parents may be unsure, at this early stage in the year, if their little one will be really ready for the challenges of school. My advice would be to fill the survey in now and then give me a call to discuss the matter as the year progresses and the picture becomes clearer.
When we are reasonably confident that we have identified all of the little siblings we will send home an Enrolment Application Form for parents to complete.
It is my intention to have our foundation enrolments for 2025 sorted by the end of this term.
NO LUNCH ORDERS Unfortunately we can not offer lunch orders this coming Friday 19th. Janet, from our local shop, is away this week. Sorry.
ANZAC DAY Please note the school will be closed next Thursday, April 25th for the Public Holiday.
Jack Lenaghan - Principal