From the Principal
Goodbye to a challenging term
How good to be able to wave goodbye to what has been a very demanding and dislocated semester!
Just when we have got into the rhythm of being back to school the music stops and there is yet another change of pace. We have all needed to draw on our resources of agility, patience and open-mindedness as well as courage and compassion.
Certainly, for our teachers this holiday is not just welcome but a much needed break from the twists and turns of unpredictable and anxious times. Every one of our teachers has worked incredibly hard in ways we would never have imagined at the start of the year. Thank you to all of our wonderful families at Arlington for the messages of support and gratitude. And thank you to all of those parents who have told their friends about the many aspects of the program you have loved; this has been reflected back in some of our new families seeking to enrol their children – a wonderful result of the best type of “marketing”!
I hope families find this semester’s somewhat modified reports affirming and informative. Reading through them it is very clear how well the teachers know and care about each individual child’s learning, social needs, achievements and challenges. In the Courage document there is a chapter devoted to ‘Fostering Learning and Growth’. It starts with a statement from Greta Lyttle:
The important thing about learning in the non-compulsion way is that the children – strange fact! – grow to love learning more and more, and when they leave school wish to continue it.
Giving the children the opportunity to reflect on their learning, actively teaching them how to do this and placing it in their reports alongside the teachers’ comments, is a deliberate and serious strategy. It honours the School’s commitment to have each child come to appreciate their qualities as a learner, to have respected the things that they love, the things that they find hard and to grow in confidence that they can become independent and capable in any field to which they turn their hearts, minds and hands.
Having a team of specialist teachers working closely with our classroom teams is another significant aspect of what sets Arlington apart as a school that values all the areas of learning, offering this rich array of subjects as opportunities for individual passions to emerge for each child.
Please feel welcome to let the teachers, Cressida or me know if you would like to follow up some specific aspect of the reports or your child’s learning. We love talking about the program and are always happy to consider new thinking and better ways of communicating about children’s learning.
For many of us - children, parents and teachers - this will be a holiday without the usual excitement of travel and escape from a Melbourne winter or even holiday entertainments. For many it may well feel like a return to isolation. Hopefully, our return to Term 3 on Tuesday 14 July will be a genuine new start with much of the worst of Covid-19 behind us.
Enjoy the break and we look forward with great optimism to a second, less challenging semester.
Marilyn Smith
Principal