Head of Junior School

Dear Members of the St Gregory’s Family,

I trust that Term 2 has been a positive start for everyone. In the Junior School, it has been a busy start and we are all looking forward to the various events that are organised for this term. It was lovely to have over 130 mums celebrate at our inaugural Mother’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy this week. Our next big event will be welcoming our Grandparents to our Junior School in Week 4 for our Grandparents Day.

Writing . . . it is not just a girl thing?

Now . . . before you read too much further into this article – yes, I know that we are a co-educational Junior School. But, on reflecting on an article that I read a few years ago I thought that whether you are raising a girl or a boy, this research is quite pertinent, even though it focuses on the young boy. Research is very clear when it tells us that our boys often fall through the gaps when it comes to writing. Now obviously this is just a generalisation, as we have some wonderful writers in our school, both boys and girls. But, data such as NAPLAN, supports this overall generalisation that ‘boys don’t write as well as their female counterparts’.

We know many things about our boys that can help rewire their perceptions of themselves as writers. We know our boys:

Have some wonderful stories to tell – verbally this can be done very well
With proper encouragement and instruction, boys can write effectively
Can learn to write well and view writing positively when it is shared with them in a positive light.

Boys are often drawn to alternative forms of writing. Research and practice tells us that ‘boys love things that you can kill’. Writing about high interest areas makes writing much more engaging for boys – thinking spiders not turtles, tornadoes not clouds, and sharks not whales, adds to this interest. The process of writing for our boys needs to be more about writing skills than it is about the content, fostering this love of writing.

As a generalisation, boys tend to fear failure and many find writing to be a challenge. Having an environment where they are free to make mistakes and learn through failure is an environment where they will be able to achieve success. All students, boys and girls, need to see writing as a part of their everyday lives and in a positive light. Technology and visual literacy are very important to developing writers. Telling a story through multimedia is so engaging, using pictures, diagrams and video clips help to focus their imaginations and foster an idea that will build into a story. I had a boy in my class a few years ago who found it much more beneficial to tell the story through a voice recording app prior to writing. This consolidated his thoughts and he could then refer back to his original ideas.

Our students are exposed to a range of writing skills techniques on a regular basis to help them write. Teachers are achieving this by planning together, creating assessments together, sharing their writing successes and failures with the students. This week, I was a part of a class that was developing acronyms that help students structure their writing, using both group and individual writing to promote skill development and written reflections of learning. This is also done in fun and exciting ways both inside and outside the classroom. Mrs Cosentino and her creative genius is constantly looking at ways to ensure writing workshops are varied, different and meaningful. Ways to help our students write:

For our boys, help them respect writing as a ‘guy’ thing
Model good writing for them
Time – some students require this to form a detailed plan in their heads about what to write about. The start is always the hardest.
Make writing capture their interests
Use technology or visual aids to help the writing process
Encourage your son or daughter to share their writing with you – they then have their audience

(ASAD, Vol 56:1, Jan 2014).

Mother’s Day Events

A Jewish adage says, “God could not be everywhere, and therefore He made mothers”. Being a mother is a full time job and often goes unheralded or unrecognised. Not only are the vital roles mothers play in the raising and wellbeing of children, especially during their early years, demanding and daunting there are now added pressures such as career decisions, formal child care and changing family structures.

On Wednesday morning, we had the privilege of having over 130 mums and their sons and daughters attend our Mother’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy. This was our chance to thank all the mums from the St Gregory’s College community. I want to thank all the mothers who attended the events and shared a lovely morning with us. I trust that you all had a wonderful morning.

Today, the students had the opportunity to buy mum a gift from the Mother’s Day Stall. For some of our younger students, this is a great learning opportunity as they not only got to buy something for mum but also an opportunity to but something by themselves! I also want to thank the parents who gave time to set up the stall, by wrapping gifts, settling out the stall and even manning the stall.

To all mums out there – our special wishes for a wonderful Mother’s Day. I hope Sunday is a loving time and a real family occasion. You deserve it!

Our College motto speaks to us as a community about this resolute and grit. ‘We reap what we sow’.

Joel Weekes

Head of Junior School