Principal's Update

NURTURE: 

The unfolding of your word gives light. 

(Psalm 119: 130)

‘Learning brings hope ... that is based on the certainty of God’s promise of his love and care for us’. [Excel Wellbeing for Learning CEM 2018)

Dear Families

As I write to you this afternoon, the easing of lockdown restrictions has just been announced and we all breathe a collective sigh of relief. It has once again been a testing time for all of us but we can all feel proud of what we have accomplished together in two short weeks. It has been enormous and the support that has been offered throughout the entire lockdown has been tremendous. Many have carried the weight of 'extra' duties and workload; parents, grandparents older siblings, carers, students and teachers alike, and have managed so well.

I have praised our students this week in the 'in praise of' section of our newsletter and acknowledged their success. Each and everyone of them has accomplished so much. We acknowledge their outstanding commitment to their learning and connecting with school over the last two weeks. We are SO PROUD. We have loved seeing their skills and adaptability, resilience and capability throughout this whole two week period. They knew what to do, they were ready and they communicated their needs to trusted adults supporting them. What an enormous skillset they developed in 2020 that has enabled them to flourish this time around in 2021. We commend them. It was a short time but it was a purposeful time of learning and growth.

As our wonderful wellbeing team indicated in the Wellbeing Wednesday Episode this week we have a choice. Things do happen but it is our response that determines if the outcome is ultimately positive or negative. 

We all have a choice as the responsible adults in our children's lives to model the right coping strategies to help us stay above the line.  As 'Officer Right' said, when faced with uncertain and stressful situations, which we all have faced these past weeks, we can do the following;

1. Ice to water strategy
2. Drink a glass of cold water
3. Think positive thoughts
4. Do belly breathing

As 'Brain break Betty' showed us we can get up, move and have a brain break, or as Mars Hemingway demonstrated we can get ourselves back to the green zone , calm and 

de-escalate by using a fidget tool. As adults we need to do these things to de-escalate.

I am very proud of our community and especially proud of the team of people who come to work at Fatima every day to ensure that we are always providing the roadmap for fostering positive life attitudes, aspirations and service. We are truly blessed to have a team approach. It is through our team that we acknowledge school leaders, teachers and families as pivotal in fostering the wellbeing of children and young people. Together we strengthen the students’ ability to navigate the breadth of experiences they will face in their environment and relationships. Research shows that this is the enabler for all academic learning.

Thank you for supporting the wellbeing of your children and for supporting our school through a difficult time. We cannot wait to welcome back your beautiful children tomorrow. Go gently out of the circuit breaker lockdown and know that we are still here everyday to support you and your family. 

As always, if you have any feedback, questions or ideas we’d love to hear about them. All feedback drives our work forward. Positive interactions drive our motivation forward.

God Bless,

Patrika Rowley

PRINCIPAL