Principals Message

Dear parents and carers,

Congratulations to all our families who made the effort to join with their children over the last two weeks and hear about their learning. Our students did so well explaining their work samples and their goals for improvement. I was able to sit in on some of the conferences and it was a privilege to be part of each of them. 

Out of nearly 400 students there were only around five families who were unable to be here. This is a very good result for a big school and a great example of parents, staff and students working together to clearly show how much we all value an education. Let’s continue to work together to grow literate and numerate students for a hope-filled future. 

Parenting is hard work and I think it is becoming harder to be consistently strong in standing up to the myriad of outside influences our young people are faced with everyday. I recently read the following article;

The importance of setting boundaries for your kids

Written by Jeanette Gardner Littleton

“We want our kids to have good things in life. But lavishing them with too many good things is like letting children gorge on candy – in the long run, it hurts their health, hinders their appetite for wholesome things and leads to a hunger for risky, harmful ones. Just as we limit sweets in our children’s diets, we also need to set healthy limits in other areas. We can do this by creating appropriate stages and boundaries.

Creating appropriate stages means putting age limitations on behaviours that rush our kids out of childhood – such as wearing makeup, enjoying Internet use, having a phone and getting a job. By delaying these activities until an appropriate age, we use them as rites of passage that mark a healthy progress toward adulthood.

As we set up stages and boundaries, we give our children something to look forward to. We help them see that maturity is a process, not something that automatically happens when they turn 18.

This approach also teaches our children that it’s OK to wait for something. Our society says, "Have everything you want now! Don’t wait. Go for it!" But seeking instant gratification often leads to long-term problems, such as massive debt, destroyed relationships and wounded emotions.”

Jeanette Gardener Littleton suggests we ask ourselves the following questions when we are faced with a decision or request from our children:

What is the reason for letting my child have or do this? 

Is my child ready for this responsibility?

Am I ready for this responsibility? 

Will jumping too soon to a particular life stage send unintended messages to my child about self-image or materialism? 

As a parent of primary school children I would be asking myself these questions when I was faced with the following decisions:

• My child wants to join some older children and walk around the streets of Gunnedah
• My child wants a radical haircut that I know is not in line with school policy
• My child wants a phone but has no real need for one
• My child wants to use a device in their room and with the door closed

Just a few examples and call me old fashioned but we are not our children's friends, we are their parents. My children are now in their 30’s and I love being friends with them now, we enjoy being with each other but they will tell anyone it was clear who was the ‘boss’ when they were growing up. It wasn’t easy but clear expectations and consistency do pay off. 

On Monday September 23 Pippa Baker, Mental Health First Aid Trainer and Counsellor will be presenting to parents the idea of a practical toolkit to investigate parenting.  The issues she will be discussing at the evening talk are, building resilience with kids, looking at failure as an opportunity, normalising negative emotions, working together with teachers.  

Pippa says that 90% of what we do as adults is obligation, giving kids the staying home from school or the quitting option is setting them up for failure. On Monday September 23 she will give practical tools for parents experiencing these issues at home. Pippa also talks a bit about stress and strength-based parenting. 

This presentation will be extremely valuable for all parents and carers and I encourage you to attend, if you possibly can. 

Kind regards,

Jen