Principal's Page
The classroom is a place for the development of people and not just for the delivery of the curriculum.
Schools serve a vital function in protecting our most vulnerable children. This function may have been obscure to many people who don’t frequently interact with the public education system. To protect vulnerable children, we focus on SEL - Social Emotional Learning - a curriculum meant to help bolster students’ emotional regulation and relationship skills.
We do this because emotional stability and academic achievement are inextricably linked. The whole child matters. Our teachers understand we are working with human beings in progress and understand the decisions they make and approaches they take will impact their children for life.
Covid-19 lockdowns and illnesses have definitely impacted families. While children are naturally pretty resilient, coming back to school after being out of school for a prolonged period of time can be a real challenge. Some children have to learn again how to get on with other children, how to cope with less one-on-one attention, and how to cope with general classroom expectations.
A recent survey of school counsellors found that students were having more trouble regulating their emotions than they did before the pandemic. This is a clear reminder that the classroom has to be a place for the development of people and not just for the delivery of the curriculum.
Ideally, we would live in a country where all children have their basic needs met by their parents or their close communities, and schools would not have to play such a vital and expansive role in children’s emotional lives. But we don’t live in an ideal world, and the more places children can learn to be empathetic humans, the better.
When our children see their teachers act with care and compassion, they give it back to one another. To me, that is a pretty essential schoolroom lesson.
As always - if you have questions or concerns about anything school-related - email me at macash@mac.com, and I will get back to you asap.
Take care all -
tofa soifua
noho ora mai
Ash Maindonald
Principal.
