Principal's Message
Our children are our future...
Principal's Message
Our children are our future...
My section today is lengthy. Please stick with it as it contains important information.
Hello Families. I hope you are all well and being kind to each other and the world around you. For those who drop off their children at the gate or visit the school on Family Fridays to walk to the levels, I want to extend gratitude to the optimism, positivity and goodwill you spread when I see you. It does not go unnoticed. Your energy is wonderful!
I have included an article below today from Jo May, our Wellbeing Learning Specialist. It centres around the use of messaging and social media. Please pay attention to this article as it directly affects your child's ongoing mental health and continues to be a topic we need your support with.
Find below the remainder of Term 2 events in calendar form. Note the early last day dismissal at 2:30pm along with the public holiday and parent-teacher-child interview day. Only three weeks to go but lots to do! Remember to think about a rock star costume for our annual Rockstar Day - details below.
We have completed most of our testing for the half year and our results are again coming in strongly. We have two main focii at SMPS - Learning and Wellbeing. Our stated goal is to be best in the state (if not the nation) at providing these services. It is really hard work to become better each day, but our staff are committed to excellence in practice. It is an honour to serve our children and community. I am so proud of students and staff - they are the best!
Lastly, I would really appreciate those who can to pay their Parent Contributions. Our School Council President, Dragan Rajak, has written an article today seeking everyone's support. Please get behind our children and pay for the services we really want to bring to each and every one of them. I thank you all in advance for this effort.
A reminder for our Grade 4-6 Students that are swimming this week. They will be travelling to MSAC via tram. Students to be in full PE uniform when they arrive at school. We recommend that they wear PE uniform all week as it will make changing easier. We suggest wearing swimsuit/bathers (no bikinis) underneath their uniform at the start of the day.
What to bring:
We have made some slight alterations to the information that went out last week in the Compass Newsfeed. These changes have been highlighted in bold.
On the last day of Term 2 (Friday, 23rd June) we have our annual dress up day and concert to celebrate our Music Program at South Melbourne PS.
All students are in encouraged to dress up as their own version of a rockstar or a well-known rockstar/popstar.
Students are asked to bring a gold coin(s) to donate to the Music Therapy Department of the Royal Children’s Hospital. Are goal being to support them with providing music therapy for unwell children.
The concert will feature performances by:
Due to space, we ask that only families of students who are performing attend the concert. We hope to provide a live stream on Facebook as a way for all interested families to view the concert (to be confirmed).
Thank you very much for supporting the Music Program at South Melbourne PS.
Let’s Rock!
You will all no doubt have heard about the staffing shortages in schools. We are so lucky to have all of our classes and specialists filled. Some schools do not have this luxury and job advertisements online for teaching are at an all-time high. For some schools and principals, it is extremely challenging and stressful. We are very lucky!!
Last week, we made our third attempt at recruiting a suitably skilled Mandarin teacher - but had no luck. We conducted interviews, but could not find a suitable person for SMPS kids. For now, that means we will continue with DigiTech with Miss Hope (how lucky are we to have her on board). Hope has been doing a magnificent job engaging the children with this very popular subject. The kids just love it!
We will continue the search for a Mandarin teacher in this tough market. Rest assured, we want to resolve the problem of language provision - but we can't perform miracles when the whole system is finding it this hard. We will advertise later in the year again by going around for a fourth time.
At SMPS, we regularly see the negative impact social media can have on the health and wellbeing of our students. This includes group conversations on iMessage and Whatsapp. Would you let your child out alone, in an area you knew could be dangerous, and could expose them to frightening or hurtful things at the flick of a switch? Hopefully your answer is no.
If you are letting your child access the internet on a device without supervision, you are letting your children out alone, in an area you know can be dangerous, where they can be exposed to frightening or hurtful things at the flick of a switch.
The internet can be a fascinating and useful tool. Our society is obsessed with the internet, and for good reason. It is incredibly clever, and can help us access information like never before. However, we are adults, and have developed the skills to be able to use the internet over time. Even we are still learning about the internet – think how many people get caught out by scams every day.
Our children, on the other hand, are still developing the basics of reading, writing and social skills. Our children have not yet learned how to use social skills in real life settings. We cannot expect them to independently socialise on a tool which has different social demands and rules.
Primary-aged children hare just learning the skills to read and write. We cannot expect them to independently read signs and signals that might be an online virus, or an unsafe or unfriendly situation. Our children have not yet learned to follow instructions and algorithms. We cannot expect them to independently follow the steps to report inappropriate behaviour and set boundaries so that negative online conversations do not spill into their everyday lives.
Online conversations affect students. They spill into school lives very regularly. From our perspective, nothing good comes of group messaging online. Children often think they are talking to just one person, and that conversation gets sent to many. Phone calls and text messages can also be challenging – often, students think they are talking to one person, whereas they are actually being listened to by many people, or that conversation gets sent around to others.
What can we do as parents?
We are mindful that it is important to be calm when these situations arise and show students that they are not in ‘trouble’, but that we want to help educate them on online safety.
Education we can provide is as follows:
Young people cite social media as main reason for worsening mental health.
For more information, link to the following website for further information: Headspace