Principal's Message

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.

Swimming for Grade 4-6 This Week

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:

Underwear to change into after
Towel
Goggles
Plastic bag for wet clothes
For Water Safety day (Friday only), we request that all students bring some clothes that they can wear in the water over their bathers.
No jeans, tracksuits, or other heavy materials.
Appropriate clothing would be thin long sleeve shirts, leggings, long old pyjamas etc.
Please ensure bathers are washed each night and ready to go for the next day.

Parent Teacher Student Interviews

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.

We invite you and your child/ren to attend an interview with your child and your child's teacher on Thursday 22 June
Should you be unable to meet with your child's teacher either on Thursday 22 June or between the hours of 11:00am and 7:00pm, please contact them and arrange a different time. Our teachers will do the best to accommodate your schedule whilst balancing their own work and life.
Interviews will be scheduled between 11:00am and 7:00pm
Interviews that begin between 11:00am and 3:45pm will be held onsite. Interviews that begin between 4:00pm and 6:45pm will be held via Webex. The relevant Webex details will be shared with families closer to the date
The duration of each interview is 10-15 minutes
Students must be present for a component of their interview as they play a key role in discussions
Students will not attend school on this day to attend classes - only to attend their interview
OSHClub will operate for those families who need it. The staff at OSHClub will ensure that students are on Webex for any afternoon or evening interviews
The interview will be an opportunity to celebrate your child's learning throughout Semester 1 and identify areas for growth throughout Semester 2
Bookings will be available via Compass soon. We will announce when they are live.
Interpreter Service
- If any family requires the assistance of an interpreter, please select from the language service available when making your booking
- The school will then arrange interpreters. As this process requires external services, bookings requiring an interpreter must be made by 9:00am on Friday 16 June
- We look forward to seeing you at our Term 2 Parent-Teacher-Student Interviews.

Rockstar Day

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:

Rock Band
Marimba Band
2/3 Choir
4/5/6 Choir
Prep A – Class Performance
2B - Class Performance
4A – Class Performance
5C – Class Performance

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!

Mandarin Teacher - Third Attempt

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.

Social Media Use (Including iMessage and Group WhatsApp Messages) by Jo May (Wellbeing Leader)

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?

Monitor
Set the boundaries for the students – social media is addictive and students cannot set their own boundaries. It has to be done by adults.
Educate
Keep calm
Praise children who ask questions, and report things to you – we want them to come to us to ask questions, not go elsewhere for answers or keep quiet

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:

As soon as we start using the internet, we have a ‘digital footprint’. Even if you delete messages or pictures so you personally can’t see them anymore, they remain on the internet forever. This concept is very challenging for students to understand (even those in high school).
Keeping yourself safe online is also about keeping yourself emotionally safe. If something is making you upset or uncomfortable, pause, block and/or report and ask for support.
If someone is mean to you or your friends online, don’t try to jump in and stick up for your friends. Report to an adult who can help you deal with it. Often lots of students getting involved makes things worse (and the situations continue) whereas reporting makes it better, and makes it stop
What happens if I don’t like what I see online?
- How do I know if someone says or does something that makes me feel gross or comfortable?
- What should I do?
- What should I say?
- Who should I tell?
- What should I do if someone says a term and I don’t know what it means? This is important as students may Google terminology and then be exposed to pictures that they find disturbing. It’s much better for them to speak to a trusted adult and ask them what it means. They won’t get in trouble if they are curious and ask – but it may protect them from seeing content they don’t want to see.

Young people cite social media as main reason for worsening mental health.

For more information, link to the following website for further information: Headspace

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