From the Assistant Principal
We have had a wonderfully settled first three and a half weeks in our school. Our students are looking fantastic in their uniforms and are engaging and interacting well, both in the classroom and in the playground. This is a tribute to you as parents for the support you are giving your children and to our entire school staff for the care that they are putting into their teaching and learning programs and to our learning environments.
Throughout this term we are focusing on one of our school values – Respect – which is also one of our Department’s four values. In each class, students are discussing what respect looks and feels like. We are explicitly working throughout the school on the notion of respectful relationships in the classroom, in the playground and in the community. As a staff, we are committed to ensuring respectful teaching and learning environments with a focus on positive behavioural expectations as we understand that this empowers our students to:
- Respect themselves, respect others and respect property
- Be safe, responsible and respectful
- Respect relationships and respect responsibilities
- Respond to challenging situations constructively
As we visit classrooms, we observe our youngest students in kindergarten being supported to further develop their social skills right through to our senior students working collaboratively and respectfully with each other and their teachers. Our grade 5’s and 6’s recently participated in a full day seminar with JCP where they spent time learning about their own leadership potential with a focus on resilience and relationship building among their peers. Some of their follow up work from this day is shared in this newsletter.
On an entirely separate note, we would like you to join with us in wishing our Principal, Karen Hampton, all the best as she marries her long term partner, Patrick Monaghan on the weekend. She will be taking leave for a week from this Thursday. We wish them sunshine on Saturday and much happiness in the future.
Lynn Wyllie-Watson