Positive Climate for Learning

Richard Crawshaw 

Assistant Principal

Welcome back everyone! It has been super exciting to have everyone back onsite this week and to see all your smiling faces again. The students (and staff) literally bounced into the school on Monday which was great to see. The JSA philosophy states that our positive school culture is based on student engagement being the basis for learning, this is certainly what our staff will be focusing on this week. Classes have been spending time re-connecting with each other, playing sport and P.E. activities in the playground, and familiarising themselves with their classroom and routines again. 

Helping Children Transition back to School in the COVID-19 era

Recently, a great resource was shared to parents and carers on reassuring students about going to school. Transitioning back to school in the COVID-19 era can present many challenges for parents and children. Here are a few of the key messages from this article that was emailed to all parents / carers, and also shared on the school Facebook page.

1. Reassure your child that it is safe to go to school. The decision has been based on medical advice, and everyone at the school is working hard to keep children safe.
2. Have discussions about what they are enjoying again at school, and even what they might be worried about.
3. Anyone who is unwell is staying at home
4. After school, try and gauge how the day at school was for them, what they enjoyed, what they are looking forward to. (You can use Seesaw for this discussion too)

Happy Active and Healthy Kids

After an extraordinary year of remote learning, it is a key target for the Department of Education to make sure we encourage our students to be active, healthy, and happy while they are back at school. As Corinne mentioned, one of the key focus areas for schools is Health and Wellbeing. As much as we will be adhering to this at school, the department has also highlighted some advice, tips and resources available for parents and carers to support their child’s mental and physical health and wellbeing at home. This information is available at: www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/family-health

One area worth being reminded of is the topic on; Physical activity and healthy eating. Physical activity will boost your child's physical and mental health and help improve their wellbeing. It also helps with concentration, memory and solving problems. This has been flagged as particularly important this term as students return to onsite learning.

Eating well is another way we can help maintain our physical and mental health and wellbeing. Making lunches with your child can help to teach them healthy eating habits.

As much as possible, your child should be eating a wide variety of food, including:

• vegetables
• fruits
• grains and cereal based foods
• lean meat or protein alternatives
• dairy foods
• plenty of water.

I know how well you all know your P.E. activities from the P.E. & Health day last term. I am sure you can continue all those physical movements you learnt and managed so well then.

Parent Info session overview

This week, we had a parent information session on Coping after COVID presented by Michelle Zammit (student welfare) and Natasha Stoilov (Student Support Officer). I know that not all our parents were able to attend, so here a few key take aways for you;

Focus on what we can control

• Re-establish school routines such as morning wake up time, breakfast, get dressed etc.

• Fatigue – your child might be tired the first few days back at school. If distressed behaviours increase consider talking to the school and reduce hours until they build their resilience.

• Consider quiet activities at home after school or a big rest on the weekend. Don’t organise too many activities. 

• Self regulation – your child might need more support with self regulation. Create a ‘tool box’ with calm activities for your child to use.

Remember your Values

• Take your time to adjust. Don’t rush to get things back to normal.

• Value family time, traditions, celebrations

Identify resources

• There is a lot of support out in the community.

• Have a chat with friends and meet up in a park

• External services

• Schools

The next parent session will be held via Webex on Thursday November 19th 9:30am. The topic will be 'Positive Mental Health'. Please look out for further details about this at the end of the newsletter, but we encourage our parent community to join in if you haven't already.