We are nearly at the end of Term 2. The year is halfway completed. I am sure you are looking forward to the winter solstice like myself, so we can start seeing longer days and the weather warning up.

There have been so many events in the last few weeks: The Year 2 Waste- wise incursion; the Year 1 Scienceworks excursion; The Year 6 North Melbourne Football club visit; the Community Sport excursion to the You Yangs; Year 8 soccer, Wyndham Technology College visits; Wyndham Division Cross Country; Year 3-6 Truganina district Cross Country and the Mother’s Day stall are just some of the exciting events that have occurred over the past month.

This coming week we have Celebrations of Learning in the classrooms which is such a wonderful opportunity for you and your child to discuss their learning- what has been successful and what are some goals moving forward.

The Anxious Generation

I have been reading the Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt which is providing evidence for the rise in anxiety and mental health issues with children and teenagers. It is a fascinating read and I think finally provides evidence for what many educators have thought but didn’t have the data to prove. There is a direct correlation with children no longer being given the opportunity to have ‘free’ play where they work with their peers to sort out problems, build their resilience and independence and their introduction to technology, the internet and social media.

It explores the ideas that free play is essential for developing social skills like conflict resolution but has been replaced with phone/tech based childhoods. Children learn through play to connect, synchronize and take turns. Attunement and synchrony bond pairs, groups and whole communities. Social media, in contrast, is mostly asynchronous and performative and leaves users lacking social connection which means there is a focus on the ‘I’ and not on working together and developing safe and happy communities.

There is a sensitive time of cultural and social learning that spans the years of about 9-15 years of age. Lessons learned and identities formed during these years are likely to imprint. This is often when they are exploring online more and more.

I will share more information from this study over the coming months as it gives great insight to how we could parent or teach a little differently. Here are the four main points that the book suggests for a healthier childhood in a digital age:

No smartphones before about the age of 14. Use basic phones with limited apps and no internet.
No social media before 16. Let children go through the most vulnerable time of brain development before being exposed to a wide work of social comparison and judgment.
Phone-free schools. This can only work if families support the school and ensure that students are reminded to lock their phones away or leave them at home as well support the school when consequences are in place.
More unsupervised play and childhood independence- this is the way children naturally develop social skills, overcome anxiety and become confident, regulated adults.

Late arrival at school

We are going to begin to send SMS messages to notify families when your child signs in late for school. We understand that the prompt closing of gates of a morning has been an issue for some families which has caused their child to have to enter through the main office and sign in. Whilst we understand that it is an inconvenience for some, we would like to thank those families who made changes to their morning routine in order to ensure that their child is at school on time. This morning 185 students were late and needed to be signed in. We understand that on wet days, this number is often higher than normal because of issues around parking and dropping students off at school who would normally walk or ride. However, the number of students who are consistently late, regardless of the weather, is still too high. Being 10 minutes late every day to class means that the students are often disorganised and/or missing important messages and yarning circles first thing in the morning. It also means that over a term, they have missed nearly two whole days of school and over the year it equates to almost 8 days. We ask for your support to ensure that the children are at school on time. It sets them up for a more successful day. It means that they do not miss important messages and are part of yarning circles which address significant issues and situations facing the students at school. We know that the morning can be a particularly difficult time for some families and ask you to speak to us if you need support getting your child to school on time and we will work with you to support you and your child. Remember session 1 starts at 8.40am.Thank you for you for working with us for the benefit of your child and we appreciate your efforts.

School Council

We held our June school council meeting last week. We discussed the last month’s finances and new staff arriving from overseas. We talked up some upgrades to the facilities. Our application to the VSBA to approve our undercover walkways around Ngarnga have finally been approved after 8 months of navigating the approval process. We are looking to install another soccer pitch in the oval area as soccer has proved to be very popular here at DCC. We are also adding a tiny town for the younger students as well as more outside musical equipment. We have also ordered some more seating for around the school grounds. We are looking forward to these new additions to our school grounds.

Eid al-Adha.

Eid Mubarak to all those are and have celebrated Eid al-Adha over the June 16th weekend.

P-2 Assembly

At the P-2 assembly last week, we focussed on what is ‘an accident’ and what is ‘on purpose’. Some of the leaders roleplayed some scenarios that occur regularly in the playground. We analysed the perspectives of each situation and looked at situations from the other person’s perspective. We talked about how teachers gather information about a situation and look at all perspectives and usually work both parties to restore the situation and provide some intervention around social skills. We also discussed how students won’t always know all that has been done to follow up an incident; they will usually only know what has been discussed with them. This does not mean that it wasn’t followed up with others. It was lovely to hear the students share their opinions; offer solutions and discuss the natural consequences that can occur after particular situations. We will continue with analysing scenarios in future assemblies.

Reports

Repots will be released at the end of the term and parent /teacher meeting times will be open for booking soon. Our parent/teacher interviews will occur in week 2 of next term. This is a fantastic opportunity to discuss your child’s report and progress with the teachers and discuss how you can work together to support your child moving forward.

With the end of term approaching, I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday. I hope you get to spend some quality time together as a family. We look forward to seeing you again on July 15th for the beginning of Term 3.

Last day term 2- Friday 28th June school finishes at 1.00pm

Below is the timetable for the last day.

Session 1 – 8:40 – 9:40

Session 2 – 9:40 – 10:40

Recess 10:40 – 11:10

Session 3 – 11:10 – 12:10

Lunch – 12:10 – 12:40

Session 4 - 12:40 – 1:00 roll taken inside classrooms, pack up.

1:00 – school finishes

Curriculum day Term 3

Just a reminder that we have a curriculum day (student free day) on Friday August 23rd.

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