Being Well at Magill

Changes At Our School

Many of you will have been made aware there is a lot of change going on at Magill School presently. The big news of course, is that the Penfold building refurb is about to commence. All Reception and Year one students have now been relocated to their temporary classrooms. Our teachers have been working overtime to continue to deliver a curriculum to your children as well as packing and moving resources in every minute of spare time. A mammoth effort to say the least! All credit goes out to our wonderful teachers for creating a space that is warm and welcoming for your children.

Over the following months, our junior primary and primary students will be co-existing. Children are pretty adaptable and resilient overall. Staff at Magill have been talking to students about change, about being mindful and considerate of one another. There have been conversations about sharing stairways, toilets, corridors, library spaces and playgrounds. We are focusing on the positives such as, how wonderful it will be to have a newly refurbished junior primary area to utilise in the near future. Our Student Action Teams will get assistance in creating play spaces that work for all ages. In the meantime, supporting your child manage the changes they are currently experiencing will help further develop their resilience. 

If you are the parent of older children, have conversations about tolerance, kindness, and being considerate around younger children. Remind them that our junior primary students are more emotional and still do a lot of acting before thinking. It is also OK to acknowledge that actually, the situation is not ideal and may even cause some frustrations along the way. Life is not perfect; we do not always get what we want. Talking to and supporting your child about how she/he manages their frustrations and what strategies can be used is a real character-building opportunity and will support our children to manage this change in a positive way.

Our Junior Primary students have had to relocate from their established classrooms to unfamiliar buildings which ordinarily house the ‘big kids’. This is bound to take some time to adjust to initially and you may see some unsettled behaviour in the short term. Parents of younger children can support their child by listening to them before offering re-assurance that everything will be fine; they will adjust to their new classroom and environments. The children have you, their parents, as well as staff at school, to talk to about any concerns.

In the meantime, let’s be safe in the knowledge that as a community we will all continue to support each other and use this period of change as an excellent teaching/learning/character-building opportunity for everybody!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Until next time stay well.

Erica Teumohenga

Wellbeing Leader

KidsHelpline: 1800 551 800

Beyond Blue:  1300 224 636

Lifeline: 13 11 14