Principal's Message

Principal's Message

Welcome to Week 3 of Term 3. We are now in the midst of the term and routines and procedures are in train. The children are back into productive habits after shaking off any holiday cobwebs.

We have six full weeks of School Production practise before our big evening performance on Monday, September 9 at 5:30pm. A Newsfeed will come out via Compass on Monday this week with full details of ticketing and logistics. We are aiming for 100% attendance of our children and families on this night. It only happens once every two years so we hope you are fully supportive. We are excited and the children will be too. Please make the push to clear that date to be there. It is a wonderful celebration of children - and of SMPS more generally. 

I conducted four new parent/child interviews for enrolment on Friday. It struck me how diverse our population is at SMPS. One family was from Saudi Arabia, one from Syria via Saudi Arabia, one from India and one from South Korea. It was incredible! How wonderful is that?!

What struck me about all of these families (and the vast majority of our families at SMPS) was that mediocrity is not in their vocabulary. As families (and aspirationally for their children), they sought excellence. I don't mean seeking excellence in a pushy way -  they really want the best for their children and are willing to do the extra lift to get them there. Being average just won't cut the mustard for most of our children and families. They don't seek to be 'better than' somebody else - our families are humble and kind. But they realise the value of education and how important it is as a foundation for life success.

In a good way, this puts subtle pressure on our school and, by extension, our staff. If we were just mediocre, it would not fly with our parents. And I wouldn't want it to and neither do our staff. We thrive on high expectation. 

On Monday, Maddy Morrison (our Learning Specialist) will present to hundreds of statewide principals. Our school has been chosen and considered good enough to present materials to others across the state who strive to do what we are already doing. This is an honour and also a recognition of our progress.

What a privilege it is to be principal of high flying staff, students and families who strive for excellence. I commend and celebrate the wonderful diversity of our community. I also recognise the aspirational nature of our families who try to better themselves and their children each day through hard work. We have a mantra of "working hard to get smarter" which is designed to celebrate the effort to improve cognitive performance and intellect. Australia sometimes has a reputation of being anti-intellectual. We understand that not every child will be a genius. But every human should strive to be their smartest so their potential is reached and no stone is left unturned in the quest for excellence. 

I wish all families a happy week. Keep aspiring to be your best as it is a worthy pursuit.