A word from the Principal

Dear Parents/Carers

When it comes to managing mindset, we often underestimate our most powerful tool. It’s our language. Too often we don’t pay enough attention to the one thing that can cost us very little time and effort. Our language can have the greatest impact on influencing our thoughts, both positive and negative.  As part of building positive change, we have been focused with students on practicing gratitude as it is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.  These are elements of the culture we want to continue to enhance at Karoo.  We all play a role in this - teachers, students and parents. 

Attitude of Gratitude

Focusing Students on the Positive

The Attitude of Gratitude mindset teaches us the importance of seeking the positives from every experience and being thankful for all that we have. Through this mindset, we learn that we can use the positives or the negatives of our lives as the foundation on which to build. Choose the positives, and we are on our way toward extraordinary success; choose the negatives, and we embark on path toward disappointment, resentment, and suffering. In these lessons, we guide students to focus on all the things they have, leaving no time to be distracted by what they don’t.

The 4 critical components of Attitude of Gratitude:

1. Treasure Yourself – We create the wonderful lives we want by harvesting the great things within us. There are often things we don’t like about ourselves, but we must recognize that we’re made of far more wonderful  things than not. We need to recognize our own worth and see our uniqueness as something to treasure and develop so we can live the extraordinary lives we’re meant to live.

2. Be More Grateful – We all have the choice to focus on the good or the bad in life. If we

focus on the positive things, they expand and guide us down the path to our dreams. If we

spend our time in regret, jealously and anger, then the negatives multiply and we likely find our dreams sidelined and our goals unattained. We must simply be more grateful, reflecting as much as possible on the good things in our lives as well as those that are coming to us. 

3. Thank it Forward – One of the best and quickest ways to feel better and become happier is to do something for someone else. And the easiest as well as one of the most powerful things we can do for someone is express gratitude for who they are and what they mean to us. Thanking someone provides two wonderful gifts: it makes the other person feel good, and makes us happy at the same time.

4. Elevate Your Perspective – People who have achieved great lives point to moments of

great adversity and challenge when they learned a critical lesson or built the essential skill

that allowed them to be successful. Knowing this, we understand why it is important to

seek the positives from all situations, even those that seem completely negative. When we

do this, we get better, learn and grow in essential ways that help us to live richer and fuller

lives.

Top 5 Dos for Home:

1) Do practice gratitude every day, even if it’s only to tell your children how grateful you are to have them in your life. If you have a journal, write down the things that you’re thankful for every day, both the big and small. Verbalizing what you’re grateful for is a powerful way

that both you and your children can keep from taking things for granted and remain

thankful for all that you have.

2) Do say “thank you” regularly. Showing your gratitude to neighbours and teachers with a

kind note or word is one small way to show your appreciation for them. Teaching your children to do the same is important in helping them to feel gratitude for the lives and friends that they have.

3) Don’t let the bad times be all bad. Become an “inverse paranoid” and believe that the universe is conspiring to do you good, and the bad times and obstacles are there to teach you something useful. Try saying to yourself, “I can’t wait to find out what good will come from this!” This helps you look at all situations as leading toward positives in life.

4) Do write a thank you note to your children for what you appreciate about them. For example, you might write and leave a note that says, “Thank you so much for tidying up your room today without me even asking. You are an incredible kid and I am so thankful to have you in my life!”

5) Do treasure yourself and take care of yourself as a role model for your child. Many parents treasure their children but not themselves. Think about how you are living your life. Are you maximizing your potential? Enjoying how you spend your time? If parents are not able to live extraordinary lives and let themselves shine for all to enjoy, what kind of lives are we modelling for our children?

I personally am grateful for the teachers, students and parents who are part of our Karoo community.  I feel very fortunate to have a job that I love to come to every day.  Yes we have days that challenge us all, but there is something that happens every day that leaves me with a positive feeling.  I hope that everyone at Karoo can find that element in each and every day too.  

2021 Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey 

The Parent/Caregiver/Guardian Opinion Survey (PCGOS) is a confidential survey made available to all Victorian government schools in Term 3 each year. This year we have opened the survey to all families to provide them the opportunity to complete the survey as we value all voices in our school community. In the last few weeks, you will have received an email with log on details, please let us know if you haven't received it.  We will use this information to assist with the future planning and improvement of our school.

Hats

As per our Sunsmart Policy all students and staff must wear a sun protective hat that shades the face, neck and ears for all outdoor activities from mid August to April. Hats may also be worn for all outdoor activities outside of the August to April time period, by parent or student choice.  Staff and students must use a combination of sun protection (hats, sunscreen, protective clothing) in all outdoor activities during recess, lunchtimes, sport and other outdoor activities. You can read our Sunsmart Policy here: https://karoops.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Sunsmart-Policy.pdf 

Please ensure your child has brought in their hat to school by Monday 5th September at the latest.

Disability Inclusion

Our school is proud to be a part of the first areas to transition to Disability Inclusion, the new strengths-based approach to supporting students with disability in Victorian Government Schools.

These reforms introduce a new tiered funding model and Disability Inclusion Profile for students with disability.  Under Disability Inclusion, schools have more funding and resourcing to support students with disability. 

To help give schools more certainty as they transition from the Program for Students with Disabilities (PSD) to the new approach, the Victorian Government is providing schools with Disability Inclusion Transition Funding. Disability Inclusion Transition Funding makes sure that schools receive the same amount of funding or more to support students transitioning from the PSD to Disability Inclusion.

• For more information and how DI Transition Funding applies to individual student circumstances please contact Mrs Courtney Hoffmann. 

The profile is a strengths-based process to help schools and families identify:

• Your child’s needs
• The educational adjustments schools can make to support your child.

Key people who understand your child’s education and support needs complete the profile together. A facilitator helps schools and families work through the profile together.

The Victorian Government will review DI Transition Funding for schools after 2024.

For more information about Disability Inclusion, please visit: https://www.vic.gov.au/disability-inclusion-extra-support-children-disability.

Have a wonderful week, 

Danielle Heatley