Montmorency Primary School Newsletter

Principal's Report

Acting Principal - Sharon Marmo

By the time you receive this newsletter we will be down to three weeks of school left of the term. Thank you to all the families who have provided a box of tissues for their child’s class. This makes a big difference in the winter months when many kids have the sniffles.

 

School Banking is taking off in full swing. When 10 tokens are traded in for a prize, the banking team will apply for the appropriated prize. Once the prizes arrive, the recipients will be announced at school assemblies. This is a great way to encourage savings. Bank books are due each Friday and the Banking is done on Mondays. If you can spare some time to help after assembly on Mondays, please let the office know. We would love a couple more people to help out.

 

A few general reminders:

  • Parents, please don’t ask the teachers for a discussion about your child at 8:50am. As you can appreciate, this is a very busy time and the preparation for the day is happening during this time. If you need to see a teacher, please either make an appointment or take a chance after school.
  • No parent is to approach any child (other than their own) for discipline issues. I don’t think any parent would be happy to know that another parent growled at their child during the school day. This is totally inappropriate and unacceptable.
  • There is NO SCHOOL this Friday (8th June). The staff have a Report Writing Day.

Resilient Kids

I have just read a great article about helping kids to develop resiliency: (10 Tips for raising resilient kids by Margarita Tartakovsky) Google it and have a read. It will take less than 10 minutes. In a nutshell, we want our kids to be problem solvers. They are faced with all sorts of issues on a daily basis and the best we can do is help them develop strategies to put things into perspective and try and overcome any situation using common sense. Here’s a bit of a summary:

  1. Don’t accommodate every need: Overprotecting kids only fuels their anxiety. (Try not to provide certainty and comfort in every situation)
  2. Avoid eliminating all risk: Giving kids age-appropriate freedom helps them learn their own limits. (Eliminating all risks robs kids of learning resiliency)
  3. Teach them to problem-solve: Engage your child in figuring out HOW they can handle challenges. Give them opportunities to figure out what works and what doesn’t work.
  4. Teach your kids concrete skills: Teach your child a specific skill for a certain situation. (e.g. Show a shy child how to greet someone and start a conversation)
  5. Avoid ‘Why’ questions: Instead of asking ‘Why did you do that?’, ask, HOW are going to fix this?
  6. Don’t provide all the answers: Instead of providing all the answers, say ‘I don’t know’. This helps kids tolerate uncertainty and think about ways to deal with potential challenges.
  7. Avoid talking in catastrophic terms: Pay attention to what you say to your kids and around them. Anxious parents tend to talk quite catastrophically around their children. E.g. Instead of saying ‘It’s really important for you to learn how to swim’, say, ‘It’s really important for you to learn how to swim because it’d be devastating to me if you drowned’.
  8. Let your kids make mistakes: Letting your kids mess up or fail is tough for a parent but it helps kids learn how to fix slipups and make better decisions next time. (They need to suffer the consequences of their choices)
  9. Help them manage their emotions: Emotional management is the key to resiliency. Teach your kids that all emotions are OK, but after feeling those emotions, think through what you’re going to do next.
  10. Model resiliency: Kids learn from observing their parent’s behavior. Try to be calm and consistent. You cannot say to a child you want them to control their emotions when you are flipping out!

Below is a Problem Solving Wheel that you have probably seen around the school. Staff regularly refer to it when helping your children work through their problems and it is displayed on many classroom windows to prompt the children to help themselves. Please feel free to use it at home.

 

Parenting is the most challenging and the most rewarding thing in the world. Best of luck!

 

Sharon Marmo