Assistant Principal's Report

As a school, we have so much to celebrate! Over the past fortnight we have held a successful Italian Cultural Day, Year 2 Extended Day, Respectful Relationship Celebration Week, Prep Transition Session and Open Morning. 

Prep Transition

Open Morning

Staff Professional Development

Fifteen staff, including Education Support staff, participated in the Department’s Protective Intervention Training (Staff Safety, Incident Prevention and Response Training) on Tuesday.  The purpose of this training is to provide support for staff when dealing with high level and unsafe behaviours ‘in the moment’.  The training was tailored to fit our school context and covered the topics of core behaviour response and de-escalation skills, core protective skills, personal safety and safety interventions and the development of core skills into practical responses.

Guest Speaker

The Year 5s have been learning about government systems and politics in their current unit of inquiry. As part of this, one of our very own parents, Gabi Crafti, offered to come and speak to the students. Besides being a mother of two students at our school, Gabi is a barrister and has also recently been appointed Senior Counsel. She spoke about what good oral and written advocacy looks like, as well as discussed the role of the courts and judiciary as an arm of government. 

Wellbeing - Resilience

Resilience is the ability to be able to bounce back from problems and setbacks. 

Resilience is such a valuable life skill because it's key to learn how to get back up and carry on after you face a difficult challenge, as we cannot escape difficult situations in life. When we're resilient, we're more confident in ourselves and our capabilities which in turn, motivates us to succeed.

There are personal and social skills that children need to learn to become more resilient and cope with problems and difficult times. 

They need to develop:

• Self-Management Skills – the ability to manage strong emotions, such as anger and fear, manage impulses, have the ability to predict problems and solve them and be able to focus on positive things in negative situation
• Self-Awareness Skills – have the ability to articulate their strengths and challenges, able to self-reflect on their behaviour and decisions and have the ability to accept setbacks as a normal part of life 
• Social Management Skills – have skills to make and keep friends, work through conflict with friends and ask for help when needed
• Social Awareness Skills – being able to read and respond to other people’s feelings and the ability to empathise with them, appreciate other people’s point of view, know where to go for help at home, at school and in the community and value relationships

Georgia Despotellis

Assistant Principal