A message from Margie  

A great start to term 2

I hope I'm not jinxing things 🤞 , but I'm happy to report we've had a really smooth start to Term 2, with almost all of our students and staff back at school.  We've been informed that we can now hold assemblies in person once again, and gather as a community in a COVID safe manner.  It's hard to know what will happen in the coming weeks, but it's certainly a relief for things to feel close to normal again after a fairly challenging Term 1! 

RESPECTFUL

Our Learn Stand Give Fly theme for the term is Respectful, under the category of Stand. We are considering, How can we help our children grow into respectful citizens? Students have started by learning about respect for others. We consider that respect for others is based on self-respect and is summed up in the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated.  

We are so proud of our students, who almost always treat each other with respect on a daily basis.  Of course, sometimes we need to help students to learn what respect looks like and sounds like; at times although the words they use are respectful, a certain tone of voice or body language can change the meaning so that the message comes across as disrespectful. Some children need to be explicitly taught this, but I find once they become aware of the effect of their words and actions, they are able to reflect and learn how to show respect more consistently.  

I know you already show your child how to talk to others with respect....  but any practice at home helps! 😊 You can help your child to resolve conflicts respectfully too. I know from my own parenting experience how frustrating it can be when your own child shows disrespect. Although we can feel cross and exasperated, the most effective action is to take a deep breath and then calmly and kindly in a gently voice ask them to reflect. Are they happy with the way they are speaking? Are they being their best selves?  Easier than it sounds, I know! 

You may have seen the national TEACHING RESPECT campaign; if not it's well worth a

 look! I think it shows in a really lovely way how every conversation we have with our children along the way matters. Respect.gov.au – Violence against women. Let's stop it at the start   It promotes standing up for others as a really powerful way to show respect, too. 

It was wonderful to see our students playing so respectfully and cooperatively today during breaks! I had a school tour today for a number of prospective families which went into recess time. We were chatting in the school yard and one of the parents stated, "I think the best advertisement for your school is watching these children play so well together!" I have to agree. Here are a few photos I captured today of our wonderful, respectful students. Remember to scroll along to see all the photos!: 

Good news story

It was so lovely to hear this good news story about one of our students from our neighbour last week in an email to me: 

Dear Ms Sarre,

I would like to share a lovely encounter I had with one of your students on the first Wednesday of the school holidays.  From my garden across the road, I noticed a dear girl put down the bike she was riding, and start to take in the school's bins which had been out on the street since the previous Thursday (no one at school to bring them in). 

I introduced myself and asked her if she would like me to help her, and she said yes, and that her name was Ella. So I brought the bins inside the gate, and then she took every one and put them into the shed right across the other side of the playground! During our work I asked her what prompted her to decide to bring the bins in and she said that she was leaving UPS this year (so in year 6 and probably going to Urrbrae, as her parents have an horticulture business in Swamp Rd, I think, that she was interested in horticulture) and that she just wanted to do something for her school. I was so impressed by her sense of engagement with the school, her positive and bright manner, and her willingness to give back (even when it was probable that her deed may have gone unnoticed).  

I hope she  doesn’t mind me passing this on to you. So congratulations to Ella, her parents and the school community.

Kind regards and best wishes,

Jan Warren

Thank you Ella for being such a great role model for respectful behaviour! 😍

Have a great fortnight everyone, our next newsletter will focus on our plans for an exciting Reconciliation Week in Week 5. 

Margie