Principal's News
Dear Parents / Carers,
Many years ago, at this very school, in my first term here as principal in fact, I was informed that one of our favourite teachers had organised a meeting with the Mum of one of her more “challenging students”. Trying to appear useful, I offered to come along.
I remember the teacher looking at me, like “What on earth for?” but gracefully accepted my offer.
It became apparent, to me, during the meeting, that “Mr Challenging” wasn’t reading his reader each night as was recommended, apparently, according to Mum because he didn’t want to.
I’ll never forget our teacher’s response, she looked Mum straight in the eye and said
“You’re his mother, make him.” After a beat, a look of relief washed over Mum’s face, almost as though she had just been given permission to make Mr Challenging do something that he didn’t want to do, even though all of the grown ups present knew that it was something he needed to do.
Being a parent is very important and sometimes difficult work. Work that is sometimes thankless, work that is often complex and very imprecise (ask any parent who has had teenagers - ask your own parents) but it is important work. Work that not one parent that has ever lived has done perfectly. How reassuring is that? NO ONE has ever done it perfectly. Not even those with the picture perfect social media posts.
The crucial thing is that we all do our best and that we love our kids unconditionally, sometimes in the easy, cuddly way but sometimes in the tough way that we know will pay off in 10-20 years.
The story above illustrates the difficult role parents and teachers sometimes have in saying “No” or in making sure that our kids sometimes do things that they might not choose to do, like eat their vegetables, go to bed at a reasonable hour, have a bath, do their Maths, finish their story etc etc.
Saying “No” to our kids is an excellent way to grow resilience in them. Think about it for a moment. Learning that “No means No” is an important lesson we all have to learn. Best to learn it off those that love us and want the best for us.
At the end of the meeting described above this principal looked at the teacher and thought, “Wow we’ve got a good teacher here.” The teacher in question has retired now but that quality was confirmed over and over again.
MOTHER’S DAY I do hope all of our Mums were spoiled last Sunday. A big “Thank you” again to Erica Gleeson and her team for organising the Mother’s Day Stall last Thursday and Friday.
N.A.P.L.A.N. As mentioned in a previous newsletter, students in Grade 3 & 5 will participate in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy testing this week. This is the first year that the children from our school have done the tests online, which adds a bit of a twist.
NAPLAN is not a pass/fail test. It simply looks at what level students are achieving in literacy and numeracy against National Standards and compared with student peers throughout Australia.
NAPLAN cannot be studied for and students are not expected to do so. Later in the year the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment authority will send parents an individual student NAPLAN report that gives some indication as to how each child did on these tests compared with children their age across Australia. More information is available on the National Assessment website www.nap.edu.au.
If you have any concerns, please contact your child’s teacher.
RELATE Just a reminder that our school will be closed on Friday May 27th in order that staff participate in Professional Development for the “Relate” program as described in last week’s newsletter.
ENROLMENTS 2023 Families who have someone to start Foundation in 2023 SHOULD have received an Enrolment Application Form. We would appreciate you returning these forms promptly as we planning for 2023.
LUNCH ORDERS/CANTEEN - There will be NO lunch orders/canteen available for this Friday 13 May 2022 and until further notice.
COVID-19 The Victorian Government has announced some important changes to COVIDSafe measures for schools that will apply from the start of Term 2
Face masks
From 11:59 pm Friday 22 April, face masks, while recommended, are not required in any school setting. This means students in grades 3 to 6, staff and visitors in primary schools are no longer required to wear face masks. Any student or staff member who wishes to wear a mask may do so, including those who are medically at-risk.
Screening requirements
Students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19, and have completed their 7-day isolation period, now do not need to undertake rapid antigen test (RAT) screening for 12 weeks after their release from isolation. This was previously 8 weeks.
Household contacts
Students and staff who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case are no longer required to quarantine. They can return to school as long as they undertake rapid antigen tests (RAT) 5 times within their 7-day period and wear face masks indoors if they are aged 8 and above unless they have a valid exemption.
If any household contact returns a positive RAT result during this period, they must isolate for 7 days and not attend school.
Vaccination requirements for visitors to schools
Parents, carers and other adult visitors (not performing work) are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Community use of school facilities
Schools will no longer need to request evidence of vaccination of staff or workers from external community groups who use premises outside the school’s normal operating hours.
RAT screening program extension reminder
The supply of RATs will continue for the first 4 weeks of this term. The screening recommendations remain the same:
- mainstream schools – recommended to test at home twice a week