Dear Parents and Carers of Good Samaritan,

Welcome back to the new school year! We have had a good start to the year welcoming the students back yesterday and beginning to re-establish our school for learning and growth.

The next couple of weeks will see the students engage in establishing the routines for learning which will optimise student participation and attention. The teachers have spent time ‘penning the script’ of the stage of the classroom so that they are able to deliver lessons that promote learning.

This includes organising the physical space, establishing classroom rules and determining and introducing routines and procedures that guide both the teacher and student behaviour throughout lessons.

Our attention to this throughout this first part of the term enables students to adjust themselves as they come into the school environment. This is a complex task for children. Some find it easy adjusting from one environment to another whilst others find it difficult and harder to accept. However, a school is a ‘mini’ society and has to function as such. Some may ask the question: ‘Why can’t schools/classrooms run like families?’

We can look to philosophers of old who studied the need for societies to have parliaments and laws. One such scholar was F.A. Hayek (1899-1992) who wrote: 

‘Part of our present difficulty is that we must constantly adjust our lives, our thoughts and our emotions in order to live simultaneously within different kinds of orders according to different rules. If we were to apply the unmodified, uncurbed rules of the microcosmos, that is, the small band or troupe or of say, our family, to the macrocosmos - wider civilisation - we would destroy it. Yet, if we were to always apply the rules of the extended order, civilisation, to more intimate groupings, for example, families, we would crush them. So we must learn to live in two sorts of worlds at once. To apply the name ‘society’ to both or even to either, is hardly of any use and can be most misleading.’

(F.A. Hayek The Fatal Conceit 1988)

Whilst this may be a dense philosophical argument, it does highlight the thinking which underpins Positive Behaviours 4 Learning (PB4L). The processes and procedures of our classrooms and playground support the children to work and play successfully. 

Over the next couple of weeks, as your child settles into the school year, ask some questions about how their classroom is organised for learning. Below are some to get your conversation started:

• What does it look like when you line up ready for class in the morning?

• What does it sound like when you are at your desk working?

• Describe what happens when your teacher asks you to pack up your belongings.

• How does your teacher know what you are thinking during a lesson?

Deliberate focus on our routines in playgrounds and classrooms aims to make sure that students are Ready to Learn every day.

As we journey through the week, together, with Jesus,

Toni Sillis

Principal