From the Assistant Principal

Koorie Morning Tea:

We are still excited to share that on Friday, 29 August from 9-10am, we will be hosting a Koorie morning tea for families.  Our KESO, (Koorie Education Support Officer), John Murray, will be joining us for a conversation as to how we, as a community, can look to create a safe space at our school for our Koorie students.  While our Koorie population at school is a small one, we would welcome any families interested in helping us to develop this idea further through a cuppa and a chat.  Happy for you to grab me on the gate in the morning if you have questions.

School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS):

This term we are spending alternate fortnights focusing on our new school values in turn: Be Kind, Be Responsible and Be an Active Learner.  The past two weeks we have focused our attention on: Be Kind.  Teachers delivered a mini-lesson about Being Kind at the outset of the fortnight.  Then over the course of the next two weeks, they embedded a lesson about Being Kind written by our Learning Specialist, Johanne Abbott, in order to find a deeper understanding of what kindness can look like here at South Melbourne Park. Additionally, teachers, Education Support staff and School Council Representatives made use of our new Values Recognition Slips to recognise students who were embodying our school values in the classroom.  

While I only had time to read out a handful of examples last Friday at assembly, based on the Values Recognition Slips and our new Values Point posters, (which are replacing House Cup Points save for sporting events), our school averaged 24 recorded acts of kindness every hour over the fortnight!  What an incredible effort and how proud we are to see so many of our community demonstrate Being Kind in many different ways.  Our next fortnight will focus on Be Responsible, which we will celebrate at our week 6 assembly.  

ICT Safety:

This past week our Cyber Safety sessions continued in classrooms with livestreams in classrooms discussing the dos and do nots when navigating technology and the internet. These sessions have continued to upskill our students in their abilities to navigate our digital world.  The Parent Resource Portal at Inform and Empower has some great articles on how to discuss healthy amounts of screen time to what to say to your child when they view something distressing online.  I highly encourage you to check out the resources available.

Food Stall and Food Hampers:

Last Friday Leila Greenfield, one of our parents from our Wellbeing Subcommittee, brought out a trolley at the end of Friday’s assembly with some of our items from Food Bank, in coordination with Helen Shaw, who facilitates our Breakfast Club.  This trolley was stocked with some long-life items (milk, soups, rice, etc.) for any of our families who would like to add to their pantry.  We will attempt to make this an on-going opportunity post our fortnightly assemblies. If you can donate 15 minutes at the end of an assembly, please reach out to me directly so I can put you in touch with Leila to coordinate. 

Additionally, food hampers are available for families who need that bit extra in the pantry. Again, these items are long-life items, such as milk, soups, rice, vitabrits, etc.  If this is something you are interested in, please feel free to send me an email directly to coordinate.

Here’s hoping that spring sunshine and warmer weather is on the horizon!

Regards,

Sam Smrekar Thompson

Assistant Principal