Over the past fortnight we have been involved with the national testing regime of NAPLAN. The vast majority of our students did an excellent job, focussing on making their best efforts and demonstrating courage and resilience in what at times can be a challenging situation. A big thank you to Ms Styles, Miss Brown and Ms Papageorgiou for their work behind the scenes preparing, administering and problem solving for these sessions.
We had our annual Cross Country last Friday for our Years 3 to 10 students. There was good participation and positive house spirit from those who got in and had a go. We will be selecting students to represent the school next week at both the inter high and inter primary competitions and we wish these students all the best.
We are focussed on our work with assisting students to make positive choices and ask for your continued assistance in this area. Having regular and often daily conversations with our young people can provide the opportunity for them to share concerns or successes and both are important. We are encouraging students to find supported solutions to problems and to work through situations to assess and select ways forward when there are barriers to their situation – learning or relational.
Relationships can be challenging for all of us at times, so it is important that we all focus on generating solutions rather than making the problem or situation worse. Some things that we can do and encourage in our children are stepping back from the issue to get a more holistic view, talking with others, breaking the problem down into smaller pieces and seeking advice from others are all strategies that we can apply to resolve circumstances in a positive way.
In line with this we are also getting increased feedback around inappropriate social media use outside of school. Whilst we don’t have jurisdiction in this space, we are mindful of trying to assist with educating students about responsibility and respectful interactions be they face to face or in the on-line realm. These interactions can flow into the school setting and again we are keen to have your support to work together to avoid unnecessary issues.
We are very grateful for all the support we have from parents and families and want to recognise those who volunteer in our school for their contribution to our programs and culture.
Colin Pearson – Principal