Junior School

Pulse Survey Feedback

Even before the age of remote learning, many parents struggled to get any information about school out of their primary school-aged sons. Perhaps these conversation starters ring a bell for you:

“What happened at school today?”

“Nothing....”

or

“Did you learn anything today?”

“Not really...”

We might think that having the daily school experience take place right before us, in our own homes, might shed more light on just what happens in class and between children, and for many this is the case. For some others, remote learning has not been so illuminating. Either way, another source of information to give us insight into young boys’ experiences of remote learning is valuable.

Hopefully you will be aware from your sons that the College has been pushing out short pulse surveys to check in on boys’ learning and wellbeing while we learn remotely. The results of these surveys enable us to gauge how students are coping with a variety of elements associated with remote learning and employ strategies to contact those students who are struggling with the experience.

Mr Simpson has reported in this edition of the Especean on the results for Years 7-12. Some of the key favourable insights for Year 5 and 6 include:

• An overwhelming proportion of boys reported feeling ‘calm and relaxed’, ‘well-supported’ and ‘generally positive’; some reported feeling ‘neither good nor bad’, while a small proportion reported feeling ‘lonely’, ‘anxious’ or ‘very down and flat’
   
• Close to 62% of Year 5 and 6 boys reported on average getting nine or more hours sleep; a further 32% reported getting seven to eight hours each night
   
• 85% of Year 5 and 6 boys report exercising at least 30 minutes per day, with 37% averaging more than one hour each day.

In the open-text fields, we were humbled by the affirming messages from many children who wanted to affirm their teachers’ efforts and let us know they are doing fine, despite all the obstacles they face. This warms our hearts! Some children asked for someone to reach out to them – a teacher, school leader or College Counsellor – and this either has happened or will happen soon. 

I encourage you to talk to your sons about their responses to the pulse surveys and assure them that their responses matter. We take them seriously; this is one of many ways their voices can be heard.

Another survey will be conducted in the near future.

Year 6 Students of the Fortnight

As mentioned last week, the Student of the Fortnight Award is an award granted by each class teacher to one student per fortnight, usually during our grade Pastoral Care Period (PCP). To be given a Student of the Fortnight Award means you have earned it – it is not one of those once-every-ten-or-twenty-weeks awards that everyone gets a turn at. There are not enough fortnights in the year for that! When it is received, it is because a boy has truly deserved it.

Thinking we might have been able to present awards to the Students of the Fortnight when we returned to face-to-face schooling, we held off on announcing these during online PCPs. Now that it seems we will be learning online for some time, we have decided to present the awards and announce them to the community, recognising the great effort and achievements that boys have put in to earning them. So, without further ado, here are the Year 6 Student of the Fortnight Award recipients for the first four weeks of Term 3:

Congratulations to all these boys!

God bless,

Ben Munday 

Director of Junior School

Book Week Parade 2021

The Junior School will be celebrating Book Week in Week 7, 23-27 August. The theme for this year is ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds’. During your library sessions, everyone is asked to dress up as their favourite book character. 

So, this is advance notice to get your imagination fired up! Get the whole family involved. There will be prizes for creative costumes!

Helen Gibson

Westcourt Teacher Librarian