Hello Everyone!

We’ve held the newsletter until Friday so that we can get in some photos from the ‘Orange Day’.

I hope you managed a lovely long weekend. I got some gardening done and celebrated with my ‘baby’ who turned 21! How time flies!

When he was only a few weeks old I got a call from a tiny rural school to come and do Relief teaching. On explaining that I couldn’t because I had the baby, they said 'bring him, we just need someone for a couple of hours!' So, I did! Of course, this can’t happen now-a-days but something that is happening in 2022 is difficulty in getting Relief teachers, especially at short notice (a sorry side effect of Covid). Please be aware that every effort is made to find a relief teacher when a classroom teacher is absent, however there will be times when class splits cannot be avoided.

Family Fun Afternoon

As role models, encouraging kindness, cooperation, sharing and our school values is how we can support our students to treat each other with consideration. Therefore, I would like to Thank all our families who came along to the family fun afternoon on Wednesday. It was wonderful to see so many of you there having a go at the activities. The Green screen photos have been made available via a link and there are more photos of the other activities later in the newsletter.

Condolences

It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of Chris Keenan, dad to Freya yr. 5 and Freddie (Yr. 6 2021). Our deepest sympathies to Melanie, and Harry and their extended family. Our thoughts are with you at this time.

Next Week

Next week it is going to be week 8 of the term. I can’t believe how fast it has gone! Telstra have been at school upgrading the speed of our internet connection so that we are able to participate in the new form of NAPLAN.

Also, next Monday 21st, we will be having a visit from our Koorie Education Support officers. They are coming to have a look at our school, a nice change from only talking via Webex. Emily and Simon hope to meet our students, talk about an indigenous garden with our sustainability team and Simon is planning to show students a possum skin cloak or two.

Kitchen Garden

The week after next on Tuesday 29th is our first session of Kitchen Garden. Please look out for further information from teachers. Due to the Kids teaching Kids conference on Tuesday 5th April we have had to split the kitchen garden times. Therefore, the second group for Kitchen Garden will be on Monday 4th April.

NAPLAN

The actual NAPLAN testing period isn’t until second term, however this term we have had to practice getting all the computers up and running at the same time. Next week is the big test of the system. All schools Australia wide will be logging on at 11.30 to see what happens to the system. Will it overload and crash? We shall wait and see.

Closer to NAPLAN time, information will be going home to first time participants (yr. 3s), explaining the NAPLAN tests. Both Yr. 3 & Yr. 5s take part in NAPLAN. These tests provide another form of assessment for schools and DET. Should there be any families who do not wish their child to take part in NAPLAN this year, please contact the office.

Cross Country

Don’t forget that our school-level cross country will be taking place at Hanging Rock next Tuesday. How lucky are we that our students can get a practice in on the actual district cross country course. On that day we will also be combining some of our environmental activities to support the great work the rangers do. Senior students will also get in a game of petanque with the Hanging Rock/Woodend Petanque club. Last year we hoped to make this a regular match, but Covid got in the way. Hopefully this year we can make it happen! Parents are welcome to make their own way to Hanging Rock on Tuesday to watch the cross-country races, however you will be required to pay for your entry.

Students will be running at the following times:

Year 3: 10:15 - 10:45am

Year 4/5/6: 11:15am - 12:00noon

Year 1/2: 12:00 - 12:30pm

Prep: 12:30 - 1:00pm

School Values

Over the next few newsletters, we will revisit our school values, so that families have a greater understanding of our Social and Emotional learning. The first will be Resilience.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity. It is a necessary skill for coping with life's inevitable obstacles and one of the key ingredients to success. Learning to bounce back and to bounce forward.

A lot is often said about resilience, how we need more of it. It’s not something that is 'just at hand'. It is built in response to personal challenges. Sometimes gains made fade away with time, until the next challenge is faced.

Often parents are well meaning when they wish to smooth out the challenges their children face. However, there is little opportunity to build resilience and help a person to grow. This is where strategies to support one’s ability to cope are so useful. Practicing phrases, responses, reactions with parents helps students to understand the message of resilience, classes are working through, with SWPB and Kimochis. The definition of resilience below is the one our students use. Along with the catch phrase for calmness.

Resilience –the ability to recover quickly from a tough, difficult, or challenging situation.

At Newham Primary School we work through problems calmly together and ask for help from teachers if we need it -I choose to defuse.

Following are some of the types of resilience students need for their personal ‘toolkit’

There are four different kinds of resilience:

Mental resilience
Emotional resilience
Social resilience
Physical resilience

Being back at school after 2 years of Covid make the first 3 of the four kinds of resilience so relevant. Social and emotional resilience, even more so as students rebuild connections with each other.

5 Ways to Build Resilience in Students

Set Brave Goals
Model Learning from Mistakes
Encourage Responsible Risks
Label Difficult Emotions
Write and Talk About Setbacks and Human Resilience.

At the end of the newsletter is an article on resilience from https://www.psycom.net/build-resilience-children

Resilient children may display the following qualities:

demonstrates a genuine interest in school.
solves problems effectively.
assertive and capable of showing initiative.
empathetic toward others.
responsible and trustworthy.
sets and attains realistic goals.
maintains a sense of purpose and a positive outlook on life.

Some useful Australian sites for developing resilience in children

https://healthyfamilies.beyondblue.org.au/age-6-12/raising-resilient-children

https://www.relationshipsnsw.org.au/how-to-encourage-resilient-kids/

https://cbtprofessionals.com.au/the-7-cs-of-resilience/

https://kidshelpline.com.au/teens/issues/building-resilience

Family Fun Afternoon

Snapshots