News From Mr Smith
Dear School Community Members,
Recently, all students completed the PERMAH survey. The PERMAH survey is an evidenced based tool designed by Professor Martin Seligman to help children understand and care for their wellbeing. Based on the PERMAH six elements of Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment and Health, the survey tool measures a student’s wellbeing. Ultimately, it provides practical insights and actionable steps to improve wellbeing. The data and information captured from each survey is utilised by teachers to conference with their students to maximise their wellbeing. We also use the data to glean whole school trends and patterns. While our students undertake the PERMAH survey three times per year and the overall wellbeing of our students is very healthy, our most recent survey indicated ‘Accomplishment’ and ‘Relationships’ as a strengths across our school. ‘Positive Emotions’ is a factor that indicated some further exploration and work.
Recently, I engaged in a webinar focussed on supporting the wellbeing of primary aged students. One of the guest speakers was Mental Health advocate, Wayne Schwass. Wayne Schwass begun the session with his personal journey with mental health (and his darkest day) and shared his expertise in creating an environment where people are welcome and invited to talk about their emotions and feelings. Below is a snapshot of Wayne Scwhass’ presentation on ‘Creating a culture to share our emotions’.
- 50% of 7-12 year olds show stress related symptoms
- Each year, over 65,000 Australians self harm
- Males have been taught to hide emotions and this is highly damaging
- Discussing emotions (how we feel) is so important
- Discouraging people, especially primary school aged children, from crying is harmful
- Asking people ‘R U OK?’ is a great start
- Resilience is the ability to cope and return to “normal” as quickly as possible
- Telling students to be resilient is not effective
- Resilience is a learned skill and can be taught
Mrs Forsyth and the Wellbeing Team will continue to explore how we can continue a culture whereby students are comfortable in expressing and sharing their emotions and feelings.
School Improvement Plan:
The next aspect of our School Improvement Plan that we would like to share with our community is:
Key Improvement Strategy 3 - English:
Develop and implement an agreed approach to teaching English to improve Literacy outcomes for all students.
Leaders:
Tom Fleming and Narelle Geary
Achievements:
- employed ‘critical friend’ and English consultant, Rachael Buck, to build the capacity of all teachers in the teaching of English (Reading and Writing)
- provided professional learning to all staff on our revised English block
- all Prep – Gr 2 classes engaging in a 25 minute Phonics session at the beginning of their English block
- research and identified Gr 3-6 Spelling approach: Spelling Mastery
Current Work:
- designing further professional learning for teachers to build our capacity in the teaching of ‘English’
- creating resources for the Phonics sessions
- beginning the implementation of Spelling Mastery for commencement in 2026
- reviewing our ‘Teaching and Learning’ Model
Student Reports and Parent/Teacher Conferences:
As many of you will be aware, our Student Reports and our Parent/Teacher Conferences are fast approaching.
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Our Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Thursday, 3rd July from 2:00pm until 7:40pm. Families are able to secure a booking for their Parent/Teacher Conference via Compass. We have approx. 65% of our families who have ‘booked’ their Parent/Teacher Discussion. Families who have not ‘booked’ their Parent/Teacher Discussion can do so via Compass.
A reminder that students will be dismissed at 1:30pm on this day.
Student Reports
Our Student Reports will be available via Compass on Friday, 27th June at 4:00pm.
Families can request a ‘paper copy’ from the Office if required – please contact our office team if you would like a ‘paper copy’.
Pupil Free Day – Friday, 13th June: A reminder that tomorrow is our next Pupil Free Day. Tomorrow is dedicated to our staff formalising their assessments of all students and compiling their student Reports. Care is available on this day through VillageOSHC. Please visit their website to ‘book’ care for this day.
Thank you for supporting our school and have a great week.
Christian Smith