Principal's Report

Principal's Message

The sun is shining this weekend and there is so much to be grateful for. I saw a picture of a school in Kenya this week and it showed a tin building with no running water with an open sewage channel running right beside the playground. The stench from the putrid water was so strong that the children had to take regular 'breathing breaks' to move down wind from the smell. 

I wondered why some children get more chance in the world than others. There is an African greeting used in Kenya which asks, "How goes it with our children?" Being used as a greeting is so interesting. It really means that the society cannot be going well unless things are well with our children. I like that idea.

The simple question also uses the words "our children" and not "my child" or "your child". Interesting again. Does this call us to wonder about each other's children? And to be concerned for others in the world in general? 

I ask all of you reading this, "How goes it with our children?"

Thanks for your support of our children.

Be kind to others and have a lovely week.

Open Day on Monday

I hope as many people as possible can make it to the school at 10am on Monday to walk through the school and see our children in action.

Come one, come all. Bring Aunty Mary along to see the kids. Or Uncle Jack...or Grandma...you get the picture.

See you all on Monday and bring along some coins as there will be some goodies for sale to help raise funds for the children.

Weekly Thought Piece

When running on the treadmill in the morning, I watch a bit of Netflix. Most of what is advertised is rubbish, to be honest; but it passes the time.

I saw a show with Brene Brown which caught my eye as she spoke about vulnerability and how we should be courageous enough to show it. She was at pains to make a distinction between vulnerability and weakness - they are not the same. Vulnerability means admitting you are not perfect but are willing to keep trying. Perfection scares people off. I have elements of perfectionism that I infected my own two children with and I regret that a bit. If I had my time again, I would have been highly encouraging as a parent, but not pushing for perfection. I wanted my kids to succeed, but maybe I was a little intense. 

Brene Brown also spoke of how we need to ignore most of the rubbish feedback found online. If we listen to every critic, we would go insane. Generally, I ignore most feedback delivered to me by people who do not have the courage to have the chat in person or at least engage with the school and its leaders. Often, I have to give the job of listening and acting over to our Assistant Principal, Carmen, or our Leading Teacher, Beth. They are best placed to act on the feedback and they keep me informed. 

Anyone sitting behind the safety of a keyboard playing email wars or planting Facebook bombs become quickly irrelevant in my eyes, especially when the comments are unkind and meant for public grandstanding. My mother taught me to be kind and not make a big public deal of things. My mother did not have Facebook, clearly.

Anyone kindly giving feedback and making an appointment with our leaders has all of our attention and I'd like to teach our children to be resilient when it comes to online rubbish written by cowardly keyboard warriors. Anxiety rises in children who think they have to please everybody and that is just not realistic in this day and age.