Dear Parents/Carers,
What a super day it was today with the children dressed up as their favourite book character.
Thank you to everyone for being so accommodating of the staggered pick up arrangements - the spaces outside of the school are less cluttered with more space allowing for physical distancing. I would continue to urge you to park away from Parkhill Drive as the Roger Beech hall end does get quite busy with cars parking.
SOCIAL MEDIA
It’s concerning that many of our students as young as Y3 are actively engaging in social media practices. I wonder how many parents are aware of their child’s online activities and how many platforms they are accessing. Many children in our upper school are known to have a variety of accounts.
I ask you to have a check of your child’s device – ask yourself how often do you check their device history and are you aware of what they are doing online. We hear lots about online safety and how to help our children access the online world safely.
There are many places you can find information about what legal ages apply to what platforms and guidelines for parents to help support their children. Online activity is something that is monitored at home but has a huge impact on the playground at school.
https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/skills-advice/are-they-old-enough
2021:
We are heading into 2021 soon. We are starting to think about planning for the year to come and discussions have begun about class compositions and the school structure. Our school structure will be as follows:
3x F/1 classes
3x Y2/3 classes
3x Y4/5 classes
2x Y6 classes
If you have anything you would like to share with me regarding your child’s placement in 2021 please do email it through. It is important to note that these requests can not always be honoured and should focus on your child’s learning. Individual teacher requests are not appropriate.
We are using an algorithm-based class maker this year which allows us to input the children’s friendship choices and relevant data before our classes are created. It will enable us to cross check more easily and also produce fairer classes. We will of course check the classes manually before finalising.
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING:
Resilience … it’s a familiar word, isn’t it? But what does it really mean?
When we talk about resilience, we’re talking about a child’s ability to cope with ups and downs, and bounce back from the challenges they experience during childhood – for example moving home, changing schools, studying for an exam or dealing with the death of a loved one. Building resilience helps children not only to deal with current difficulties that are a part of everyday life, but also to develop the basic skills and habits that will help them deal with challenges later in life, during adolescence and adulthood.
Resilience is important for children’s mental health. Children with greater resilience are better able to manage stress, which is a common response to difficult events. Stress is a risk factor for mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, if the level of stress is severe or ongoing.
https://www.heysigmund.com/5-simple-ways-build-resilience-well-children-dr-hazel-harrison/
How well do you know your child?
https://afineparent.com/positive-parenting-faq/questions-for-kids.html
Reminders:
Tomorrow is a Public Holiday - school will be closed.
The 12th October was originally pinned as a school based curriculum day – this will no longer be the case. The curriculum day has been rescheduled for November 16th.
Interesting reading:
https://www.mother.ly/parenting/7-signs-youre-an-awesome-parent
Please reach out if you need support, help or have any feedback at all to offer elaine.brady@education.vic.gov.au
Take care and very best wishes,
Elaine Brady
Principal
