Message from
the Deputy Principal
Mr James Boyd
Lessons from lockdown
I sat in the Year 8 meeting via MS Teams on Tuesday morning and thoroughly enjoyed hearing Mr Thomas’ words of wisdom as he pointed out some of the skills that students are learning in lockdown.
One skill that our students have the opportunity to develop during lockdown is time management. Learning how to use their time more effectively will stand our stand our students in good stead for life post lockdown at school, at home and in their personal lives. I am certainly not suggesting that more time must be spent on school work, rather it is about striking a good balance between study, exercise, sleep, pursuing personal interests and time with family and friends. By managing their time more efficiently, they will have time to improve the health of their mind and body, which will, hopefully, see them being happy and more productive.
I shared a scenario with the Year 8 students about this and it might be something that generates discussion at home with your children.
Scenario:
Imagine you had a bank account that deposited $86,400 each morning. The account carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every dollar each day!
We all have such a bank. Its name is Time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever time you have failed to use wisely. It carries over no balance from day to day. It allows no overdraft so you cannot borrow against yourself or use more time than you have. Each day, the account starts fresh. Each night, it destroys any unused time. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, it is your loss and you cannot appeal to get it back.
There is never any borrowing time. You cannot take a loan out on your time or against someone else’s. The time you have is the time you have and that is that. Time management is yours to decide how you spend the time, just as with money you decide how you spend the money. It is never the case of us not having enough time to do things, but the case of whether we want to do them and where they fall in our priorities.
Question:
What do you do with your time?
Motivation in lockdown
This short video 10 Tips for Motivation and Productivity During Lockdown - YouTube was shared with me over the weekend and provides some great suggestions for students studying from home. I have shared this with the students as well via MS Teams this week.
I am sure that there are times when our own motivation wanes and please be kind with yourself as well. We all face those moments and experience difficult days. The important thing to do is to take a break, do something different, reset and then go again.
Paul Dillon Webinar for Parents
Paul Dillon has announced a webinar for parents and carers on Thursday 16th September, 7-8.30pm. Paul’s topic will be ‘Young People, alcohol and other drugs 2021: What do parents need to know?’
Information regarding registration for those who would like to view this session can be found at this link:
Paul is a regular speaker at KWS and is very well received by students. Paul has recently recorded a podcast which shares information about teens and risk taking behaviours like drinking, smoking and drug use, better equipping parents so you can start more conversations about these behaviours and work to keep them safer. This is well worth a listen:
Podcast with Paul Dillon from DARTA The Fathering Project
HSC Examinations – call for volunteers
The Learning Support Department are seeking volunteers to act as one on one Readers and Writers for the HSC Examinations (October/November – NESA to issue dates soon). Thank you to those who have already expressed interest.
Without volunteer assistance, our students with learning differences will not receive the support they require to complete their HSC exams, as school staff are not permitted to work in this capacity. For this reason, we need you, our school community, to offer up any time you can, even if it is only one session over the entire exam period. Parents of current Year 12 students CAN act as volunteers, but not for exams that their children are completing. For example, if your child is studying English Standard, you CAN act as a reader or writer for English Advanced.
Volunteers can help out as much or as little as they can, and would be required for 3-4 hour blocks. All volunteers must have a current Working With Children Check and adhere to COVID safe guidelines. If you are willing to act as a volunteer during these times, please get in touch with Bernie Sharpe (bsharpe@kws.nsw.edu.au) to indicate your availability.