Principal Message – Week 1 Term 1

Welcome back to what will be a very exciting year for our school.

I hope over the summer break, you have been able to spend quality time with your families and are feeling refreshed and ready for the 2023 school year.

It has been a wonderful calm and settled start for the children. I am very grateful to the staff who have put enormous energy over the holidays and during the first two days of the school year, into ensuring this first week has been a time of reconnection. These first few weeks of school are very important for establishing routines, expectations, making friends and getting to know teachers and creating the learning environment where students feel safe (physically, culturally, socially, emotionally) to be responsible for their own learning.

Wellbeing and agency are nurtured when the environment provides a safe space to learn. (PYP: From principles into practice)

The first two days of the new school year for staff was given over to professional learning that focused on The Learning Space. As an entire (LSOs included) staff, we unpacked what this means for us individually, collectively and as a school.

Safe and inclusive learning environments recognize and reflect diverse ways of knowing, being and thinking. (PYP: From principles into practice)

I share this beautiful quote from Kath Murdoch’s The Power of Inquiry, because it sums up the learning we encountered and were challenged by during this time and because it sets the scene for what will continue to provoke our thinking about learning and learners this year.

I once heard the ideal classroom described as the space of possibility. In this space, students have agency and are active participants in the complex, dynamic process that is learning. The environment we create impacts on the learning our students experience.

To support the transition back to school we begin each year with Wellbeing Week. The focus this year is on our school theme for the year which is ‘HOPE’, developing relationships and building a strong sense of connectedness and community spirit. At St Columba’s we place a great emphasis on the development of children’s social and emotional skills. Wellbeing weeks are specifically designed to reinforce skills of resilience, empathy, relationships, positive emotions, mindfulness, and gratitude. These skills all help to create a greater sense of connection and belonging. They are foundational to and underpin the key building blocks of the learning process for each child and ultimately impact their success as a learner.

Learning occurs in environments that promote collaboration and a shared sense of purpose and belonging. (Edwards, Gandini and Forman, 2012)

Ultimately when children are settled, happy and feel safe, they have the confidence and courage to pursue and take risks with their learning.

As we begin this new year we invite you to share in this journey with us and to help to make our school not only a space of possibility but also a place of possibility.

Year 5 News