To begin I would like to take the time to acknowledge and congratulate our students for their amazing efforts in their production. For those of you who may be unaware our students put together the production themselves. A little guidance in the beginning and a bit of support to pull it all together was the only teacher input that was received. Each talent group were expected to put their own act together, create their props and costumes and ensure it was rehearsed enough to be a quality act on the night. Our judges and the host Molly Meldrum were in charge of their own scripts and bringing their character alive. You all did a fantastic job and should be proud of yourselves. Teachers, you too should be very proud of your efforts, it takes a lot of courage to get up and perform. You were incredible role models for our students, so thank you for going along with another of my crazy ideas.
To our graduating students I wish you all well on your new adventure into high school. I have had the privilege of teaching you for the past four years and the young people I have seen you all grown into I know can reach for the stars and make all of your dreams come true. The maturity you have developed, the independence and the courage will provide you all with the skills and attitude to strive for your best, and ensure you achieve all of your goals and endeavours. The roads you’ll take ahead may be a bit bumpy and you’ll probably come across a few cross roads, but as long as you stay true to who you are and take every turn with the biggest and brightest smile you will continue to be amazing. I can’t wait to hear about your future, so ensure you all stay in touch and keep the school updated. You all have an incredible history that you have written at our school, take those memories with you as you leave and hold the friendships you have created close to you.
As you are aware, with our graduating students we also farewell a large and core parent group. Five families leave us this year. This is five families who have all had a huge impact and contribution on the school, the school council and the P&C. We thank you all for your efforts and commitment to our school. Between the 10 mums and dads you have been active members of the grounds committee, run fundraisers, supported fundraisers, attended school events, participated in faction carnivals, sat in and through many meetings, chaired committees, and most importantly played an active role in establishing the learning opportunities available to all students. Your passion to our school has shaped policies, encouraged school programs and improved student outcomes. Thank you for everything that you have done for our school. Your time and commitment is truly appreciated and will be missed in 2020.
To the Salmon Gums Primary School Staff, thank you! We have incredible staff at our school who put the students and their needs at the forefront of all that they do. Thank you for strengthening our team and thank you for sharing the load. A small school brings a small amount of staff to complete a large work load. Thank you for the laughs this year and for all the support you have offered. With all of our uniqueness we make one quality team. Unfortunately, this year we farewell two staff members who are moving on in location or job prospects. Firstly, we farewell Mrs Bailye who has headed off to the mines to pursue a new career adventure. Thank you for your green thumb knowledge and commitment to our school gardens. They look spectacular and are often a comment of all who visit. We also farewell Mrs Esposito who is seeking a sea-change in the city to be closer to family. In her time at Salmon Gums Primary School she has played a vital role in the development of students and supporting their needs. Your knowledge of whole school programs and your easy going nature will be definitely missed. All the best to you both for your adventures. I am sure you will be just as great in your new role as you have been at Salmon Gums Primary School.
This year at Salmon Gums Primary School it has been the year for reflection and celebration. As a school community we have re-established and re-defined our school values and vision. We have also taken the time to understand our school motto – Keep Trust and to understand the reasoning behind our school logo. We have developed our new strategic plan and established our targets and aspirations through the four key priority areas. As part of this process it was encouraging to see so many of our community members taking the time to support the school in this journey, and to offer their own thoughts and ideas to ensure our new vision and values are also meaningful for our future students. Our new values of Resilience, Safe, Committed and Passionate, Innovative and Unique are all great representations of our how far our school has come, our current culture and our future prospects.
There is a lot of talk in the Department of Education at the moment around the importance of establishing a culture in your school, one that is embraced by all. This talk is extended out to all agencies, businesses, sporting associations. Pretty much any place where a group of people come together and work towards achieving a common goal. It is a firm belief of mine that as a school we cannot expect our students to achieve if we don’t have the culture established first. Placing time and effort into establishing this common understanding provides a safe and encouraging learning environment for us all. In a school this includes the physical appearance, the communication, feedback and appreciation of each other. It is stemmed from trust, keeping trust as our motto suggests and having mutual respect for each other. It is understanding each other’s boundaries, but encouraging each other to challenge ourselves, to step outside of our comfort zones.
I have recently read the book Legacy, which is all about the culture behind the successful All Blacks rugby team. One of the beliefs they hold within the club is based-on the Florida effect. This suggest that our sense of free will is a response to the stimulus around us, to our physical and psychological environment. The example they provided was a study around the impact of age-related words. The study found that when compared to other groups, the group with age related words embedded into sentences that they were asked to read, such as bald, wrinkly, arthritis, forgetful, were impacted in how they behaved after the activity. As each member in the groups were asked to leave, they were timed to see how long it took for them to walk down the corridor. Those participants who read out the age related words in their sentences scored the slowest times. The suggestion of age led to the reflexive response which led to them walking like the elderly. The narrative that we tell our team becomes the reality of the team. If we establish the culture and believe the story, then those who follow will live the narrative as well. At Salmon Gums Primary School, we are telling our narrative and we are sharing our narrative with our community. Our culture is positive and student-centered.
This year we have embarked on our first school review journey and were rewarded with the verification and validation that we are an effective school and are doing some incredible things. For a small school of under 20 students our processes and practices are effective and are on par with the bigger schools across the state. The results of our students are continuing to be maintained and are exceeding our expectations. The programs and practices in our school have been shared with schools in our region and beyond and our staff have embarked on their own self-reflective journey of improvement through performance management and Mallee interactions. The new strategic plan for the Department of Education has just been released to schools, and as I read through the expectations of the next three years Salmon Gums Primary School is already prepared. The key outcomes from the plan are shaped around Evidence-based programs to ensure student success and quality teaching, establishing the foundations through strong early childhood programs, being reflective practitioners to ensure we are always improving and have the best outcomes for students in mind, and strengthening the relationships between our schools and their surrounding community. All of these areas shape our new strategic plan, they are our narrative and they will strengthen what has already been established.
For us, our biggest achievement in 2019 is to have empowered a whole school community to share their voice and opinions. I remember when I interviewed for this role three years ago one of the things I outlined that I would like to achieve in my role was to bring a stability into our school through the whole school community. In a small school the staff and students come and go, but the community remains the same. If you can empower the community to take ownership over the expectations and strategic direction of the school, then you can ensure the priorities and their targets can be established and achieved. The school review process and the development of the strategic plan has shown me that we have an empowered school community and although we are all different, we are all working together to achieve the same outcomes. A quote about school culture and empowerment “Why do we not strap all of the individual and team rockets together with duct tape? They would all move off together, all heading in the same direction. All the power heading the same way”. In 2019 we did just this, we now need to ensure that we used the extra strong duct tape so that our rockets are held together; because as a community we have learnt that our targets and aspirations are not only achieved but they are strengthened with a powerful community force.
Enjoy the holiday break, Christmas and New year. Relax and cherish the time with your families. We will see you all again ready for an even better 2020!
