"The good and the wise lead quiet lives."
Euripides (480-406 BC)
Greek dramatist
Busyness seems to have become a way of life for modern families. It’s unlikely you’ll ever hear a parent talk of having plenty of free time on their hands. Unfortunately, that’s a statement unlikely to be heard from a lot of modern-day children either.
The afternoons on family calendars are increasingly filling up with organised after-school activities, and in families with multiple children the logistics of keeping up with all this can be complicated. The strain of ferrying children back and forth, often in different directions, saps families of energy, resources and time.
We all have great intentions when giving our children extra-curricular activities but Recent research from the United Kingdom found that the desire for children to succeed is a strong driver for many parents, sometimes causing them to load their children up with extra-curricular activities. while the intentions are good, the method of keeping children so busy is probably questionable.
Other reasons for encouraging extra-curricular activities include: giving children the best start in life, making friends, keeping fit and healthy, developing interests and preventing boredom. Anecdotal evidence suggests the findings are similar in Australia.
The cost of busyness
We live at a time where rates of mental illness, particularly anxiety, are climbing. One in seven Australian children have a diagnosed mental illness. That’s three in an average classroom. Many more go undiagnosed.
Rushing to activities, late nights and stressed parents aren’t the conditions for family members to enjoy flourishing mental health. Too many organised activities detract from time to hang out with friends, to comfortably complete homework tasks, to spend time with family, to get bored and, importantly, to simply play.
Free play is serious business
Author and research professor of psychology Dr Peter Gray attributes the rise in anxiety, depression, suicide and narcissism among children to the decline of play. Unstructured play is vital for the healthy development of children and teenagers. Through play children learn to interact with others, develop physical skills necessary for school success and gain confidence they need to interact with peers.
How busy is too buy?
Some children can cope with busy schedules, while others flounder. As a rule of thumb, if your child or young person is struggling in any of these three areas: i) mental health, ii) schoolwork and studies, iii) their participation in family-life then it may be time to reduce their extra-curricular load.
Choosing the activities to omit from a schedule can be tricky, as your child or young person may have a different motivation for each. In short, each activity can be ‘the one they love.’ Here’s a good question to ask your child or young person that can make decision-making easier:
'If all of your after-school activities were cancelled, which one(s) would you plead with me to re-enrol you in?'
Their answers will reveal a great deal about their commitment to each activity. Ideally, children should be choosing extra-curricular activities that nourish them rather than cause anxiety and stress. Aim for two activity-free nights each week so that your child or young person can meet their study and family commitments.
The same principle for balance holds true for weekends. Make sure your children enjoy some time free from structured activity, so they can refresh and recharge, ready for the week of school that lays ahead.
by Dr Jodi Richardson (taken from Parenting Ideas)
Kind regards
John Dicks
Principal
The countdown is on with just 4 weeks until our Peter Pan Production on Tuesday 3rd September!
· Costumes - all boys K-6 need a class dance costume (Year 6 are backstage helpers). This information has been attached to the Chronicle each week.
· Main characters and Select Dance group - These boys will need 2 costumes; their main character or select dance group costume and their class dance costume. Please see the attachment below for details. You would have also received an email from Mrs Black or Ms Bown with further details.
· Whole School Rehearsal at Scots on Tuesday 27th August (week 6) for all boys K-6 - This will be a dress rehearsal for Main Characters and boys in the Select Dance Group. All other boys K-6 will be in school uniform. Further details and the permission note will be sent out soon.
· Our Peter Pan Production will be at Scots on Tuesday 3rd September at 6:30. Further details to come.
Peter Pan costume requirements for ALL boys Download |
SQUAD Athletics Training Tuesday 13/8, 20/8, 27/8, 3/9
Mandarin Lessons (optional) Monday afternoons from 3-4pm
Grandparent's Day Friday August 16 @ 9.00am
Year 6 Assembly Monday August 19 & @ 8.30am
Book Week Parade Thursday August 22 @ 8.30am
Father's Day Breakfast Tuesday August 27 @ 7.30am
Father's Day Stall - Wednesday August 28
South Harbour Athletics (SQUAD only) Saturday August 24
IPSHA Athletics (SQUAD only) Monday August 26
QUAD Athletics (SQUAD only) Friday September 6
School Concert: Peter Pan Tuesday September 3rd
Kindergarten Assembly Monday September 9
Year 5 & 6 Country Tour Tuesday September 10 - Friday September 13
School Photos Tuesday September 17
P&F Annual Fundraiser Saturday September 21
Last day Term 3 Friday September 27
First Day Term 4 Tuesday October 15
Speech Morning Friday December 6
Kindergarten Jamie Stergoulis
Year 1 Ryan Rumble
Year 2 Marcus Hronis
Year 3 Ethan Zorbas
Year 4 Josh Morris
Year 5 Asher Sarin-Hall
Year 6 Otto Freiheit
Kindergarten 637
Year 1 1085
Year 2 760
Year 3 821
Year 4 415
Year 5 571
Year 6 453
School Concert – Individual Performances
As we have the whole school concert this year, we have decided to limit the individual performances to Primary boys only. Boys wishing to perform must be attending music lessons and be competent at playing 1 piece of music.
Auditions will be held next Wednesday [ 21st August ], so boys will need to bring instruments/music on that day.
Kindergarten - Harry Lloyd
Year 1 - Christopher Wong
Year 2 - Joseph Di Blasio
Year 3 Charlie Serhan
Year 4 Ned Read
Year 5 Luc Jurgens
Year 6 Fabian Wrigg
Congratulations to the following boys who have completed the reading challenge.
Jakob Saad Year 1
Sam Read Year 3
Akash Dutta & Ned Read Year 4
Leo Jreige Year 6
A total of 37 boys have now finished their reading challenge There are just over 2 weeks until the PRC finishes on Friday 30th August. There are 15 boys to still finish – come on boys!
Email Ms Gershon on kgershon@coogeeprep.nsw.edu.au
Book week will take place in week 5, with the parade on Thursday, 22nd August at 8.30am.
The theme this year is 'Reading is my Secret Power'.
All students will participate in the parade. We encourage and welcome parents to attend. A reminder that costumes are to be organised at home and students may wear their costumes for the day. We look forward to a fun morning celebrating books!
There will be two book voucher prizes per year awarded at the parade!
Round 11 - 9th August
Intermediate C drew 2-2 with St Therese B
Rookies E drew 2-2 with Matraville B
All interschool chess competition has now finished.
We are still waiting for all results to be finalised but we do know that the Junior Rookies H team won the Junior Rookies EC 5 division.Congratulations to the year 3 boys - Rugby Mangan, Aidan Quinlan, Zavier Prichard and Rowan Munro. More results will be forth-coming.
A special mention to Freddie Grindrod in year 3 who won all of his 10 games!
Fiver for a Farmer – Friday 9th August
On Friday 9th August, boys and staff members dressed up as farmers to raise money and awareness for farmers unfortunately, facing drought throughout Australia. As a result, Coogee Prep raised $914.70 which is an amazing achievement. Congratulations to all students and staff members!
Spanish – Languagenut
Teachers have distributed the boys’ logins and passwords for Languagenut so they can logon and practise their Spanish at home.
A big thank you to Trish Saad (Jakob Year 1) who came in and did a fantastic audit, tidy and repair job on our take home readers. They have never looked so organised! We will now start to re-stock as we have a clear picture of what we need.
Learning to read is a complex task, and takes lots of time and practice. Here are some ideas to make reading with your child at home fun and rewarding.
Giving your child undivided attention to hear him read is ideal. Short, regular sessions of about 10-15 minutes are better than having a long session once a week.
There are different types of books. Some are fiction, or made up stories, such as fairy tales and other imaginative stories. Others are information books, on topics such as dinosaurs, the weather and fire engines.
Start by asking your child to look at the cover of the book. For an information book, ask “What do you already know about this topic?” For a fiction book, ask “What do you think this book is going to be about? Why?”
When listening to your child read, allow her to try to work out unknown words, and don’t immediately tell her if she doesn’t know them. You could help by covering the ending of a long word, to see if she can read the main part of the word first, and then add the ending. Or, ask if it looks similar to a word she already knows. Or, ask if she can see a small word in the big word, and then add the other parts. Many words can be sounded out, but many more cannot. If it is still unknown, tell her the word, ask her to repeat it, and read on.
A good vocabulary (knowing the meanings of words) is essential to comprehension (understanding what is being read). Stop and discuss the meanings of any unknown words, and then read on.
At the end of reading the book, ask some questions. Some types of questions are:
1. Factual, where the information is clearly stated in the book. “What was the colour of Sally’s car?” “How many glaciers are in New Zealand?”
2. Inferential, where the information is not clearly stated in the book, but is implied. This is like ‘reading between the lines’. Children can also make comments by referring to their own life experiences. “How do you think Michael felt after the game?” “What would happen if there were no fire engines or fire fighters?” “What would have happened, if…?”
3. Alternate ending. “What could be another ending for this story, if you wanted something different to happen?” “If you had the job of writing another four pages at the end of this book, what would you write?”
4. Relate to real life experiences. For fiction books, ask, “Has anything like this ever happened to you?” Such as becoming lost, getting a new pet, having a fight with a friend, moving to a new house. For information books, ask “What have you learned about this topic by reading this book?” Such as more information about dinosaurs, the weather, fire engines.
5. General questions Did you enjoy reading this book? What were the funny parts? Surprising parts? Which characters did you like? Which characters did you dislike? What do you think of the illustrations? Would you like to read other books by the same author? Would you like to learn more about glaciers?
6. Retelling “If you were telling someone who had never read this book all about it, what would you say?”
It is important that children read their books several times. Research tells us that repeated reading of familiar books helps with fluency (speed of reading). Words that are unknown during the first reading are easier to read the second time, and by the third and following times, children are mostly able to read them easily. Reading fluently, at a steady pace, helps children understand what they are reading, and of course, this also builds confidence.
After reading, some children may like to write about what they have read, and this could be encouraged as a fun activity. Some children may like to act out parts of a story with the help of family members or friends. Children are very imaginative and creative.
As well as children gaining huge educational benefit from shared reading with an adult at home, they will always remember the fun and emotional closeness that this brings to the relationship.
Brickz for Kids is very popular with the boys.
Click here for an early bird discount for the upcoming holidays
CRU camps offer day cams and stay camps for children Kindergarten to High School. Book now and receive an early bird discount.
Free speech screening for children 4-8 years old. Download |
2020 Term Dates Download |
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