Principal's Report

Term Three

Dear Families,

Having been away for the first week it gave me an insight into how busy we are at Galilee. I looked from afar at the calendar and the amount of learning activities that occurred in only one week.

We visited our oldest daughter, who is currently living in Canada. It was a rare but precious opportunity to spend extended time with her at the age of twenty-two. When our children are small, we spend many hours with them and can sometimes take it for granted. The role of a parent is to nurture their children and encourage independence and resilience so one day they can make decisions and live a rewarding life. However, this means that as they get older, they spend less time with their parents and develop other influential relationships. Parents are the main educators of their children and although individuals, often reflect the modelling and values of their parents. Parents who encourage resilience in their children are helping them to build the strategies to deal with challenging issues they may be faced with later in life, when parents are not able to protect them. The opposite is also true of parents who always want to intervene on behalf of their children. This can result in the child feeling disempowered and lacking the confidence to ever defend themselves. Children who are encouraged to be independent, while feeling loved, often develop greater confidence in social interactions and learning. Children whose parents answer for them too often can develop a feeling of helplessness and lack an interest or confidence in learning. These behaviours can be learnt even before starting school. Our children are a product of parenting and I encourage everyone to enjoy the moments with your children while they are young and in your presence.

Weddings

Congratulations to Miss Boyle and Miss Hart who were married during the previous school holidays. Below you can see some photos from their weddings. We look forward to seeing Miss Hart back in Term Four.

ICT

eLearning is a new concept to Galilee in 2017, meaning: learning conducted via electronic media, typically on the Internet. On Friday, students will be working in their Friendship Groups to create a music video. 

 

The day will be hosted by the Year Six students and teachers will be supervising their Friendship Groups. 

 

We request that students attend the day in casual clothes. This is to follow our ICT Policy that has been signed by our students. The policy states that "the Galilee school uniform (or mention of Galilee) is not to be posted online including the internet or any form of social media," by our students. Therefore, as students are recording these music videos, casual clothes on this day follows this policy. It is important that students must have completed and returned their ICT Policy, signed by both student and parent, in order to participate in the day. 

 

We will be having an assembly on Friday afternoon, beginning at 2:45pm, where we will be sharing the videos to the school. We would like to invite all parents and carers to this exciting assembly to share our learning journey throughout the day.

 

Cybersafety

Just another reminder of our Galilee Cyber Safety Parent Session which is on August 2nd from 7pm. We would love to have as many parents from Galilee attend this exciting session as possible. Many parents last year requested information on Cybersafety and we have employed a terrific facilitator who will help you to guide your children through an introduction to social media. Only a small number of parents have chosen to attend so far and we encourage others to enroll. Supervision of school-aged children is available by Galilee staff. Technology will remain a significant educational and lifestyle tool for your children so we hope you take advantage of this opportunity to attend. Tickets are still available at bit.ly/GalileeCyber

Sport

This week, both our girls and boys qualified to participate in the Beachside Soccer Lightning Premiership. Both teams are to be congratulated on making the semi-finals, which has been a marvellous achievement. Thankyou to Mr Tobin, Pauline & Mrs Gerecke for their supervision and to the parents who also assisted. Heavy rain arrived before before the semi-final but cleared in time to play the last match.

Uniform

In Semester One, we sent out regular correspondence outlining expectations of how to correctly wear the school uniform (including the Uniform Policy). As we have outlined previously, letters are now being sent home to students who are not in correct school uniform (unless a parental note has been sent). However, the students are to be congratulated on how they are wearing the uniform this term. Wearing a uniform correctly increases a sense of belonging and pride in Galilee and oneself. It also sends a clear message to others (from outside Galilee) that we value each other and the school. Thankyou to the many parents who have communicated how much they value the uniform being worn correctly.

 

Peace & Blessings,

Simon Millar