Principal's News
Dear Parents and Carers,
“One in eight parents believe children’s play is mostly a “waste of time” according to a Royal Children's Hospital National Child Health Survey…so 7 out of 8 disagree that play is a waste of time, I presume.
The survey results were released last year and also found that 90% of parents said they enjoyed playing with their child, while 86% said that it was hard for them to find the time to play with their children. The poll director, Dr Anthea Rhodes said the results showed that some parents thought play - while fun - was “not essential”.
Dr Rhodes points out that “Play is a crucial part of children’s learning and development. It’s about allowing children and young people to have experiences that challenge and test them without putting them in danger.”
Recess and Lunch times at school are often the most challenging part of the day for some of our students. For whilst our staff actively patrol and are on hand to help we DO NOT, CAN NOT, nor SHOULD NOT control every word, action or interaction that takes place in the schoolyard. This is where children are learning to negotiate, play fairly, organise, make decisions, disagree, cooperate, apologise and forgive one another AND be held accountable for how well they do all these things.
Like any new skill, time and practise lead to mastery. Practise with parents and other significant caring adults at home helps enormously.
Their rewards are the friends they make and the school they continue to create.
FIRST COMMUNION AND CONFIRMATION Our Grade 3 children continue their preparations for reception of the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Communion.
This Thursday the children will be involved in a day of reflection, prayer and bread baking as part of this preparation. We wish all of them well and keep them in our prayers.
GRADE 5 CAMP Thanks to our staff who escorted our Grade 5s on last week’s camp to Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. I am reliably informed that the children represented our school in the very best way possible and enjoyed the experience very much.
SCHOOL CLOSURE DAY Could all parents please note that our school will be closed on Friday August 11th in order that staff undergo further training. Staff will be spending the day acquainting ourselves with Victoria’s new Maths curriculum and reflection on our current practice.
NAPLAN Reports Parents whose children are in Grade 3 or 5 should have received their child’s NAPLAN Report last Friday. NAPLAN was done in March rather than May and consisted of online tests that became easier or more difficult depending on the child’s responses. The reports to our school reflect these changes and can’t be directly compared with our previous results.