From the Principal's Desk
SAVE THE DATE!
Staff Development Day:
Good Samaritan staff will be participating in a staff professional development day on
Friday 11 September.
This is a student free day that was previously postponed due to the COVID-19 remote learning period. Students will not attend school on this day.
Throughout this day teachers will engage with the new PDHPE syllabus with particular emphasis on the Social Emotional wellbeing of students.
The Gonski Institute for Education:
The Gonski Institute for Education operates out of the University of NSW faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The core mission of the institute is to address the inequity experienced in education across Australia. In doing this the institute is able to act as a key enabler and powerful voice of change.
One of the recent resources presented by the institute is for Parents and Caregivers. Throughout Term 3 our school newsletter will highlight some of these resources. This week focuses on:
How to Help Your Child Grow Up in a Digital World
We are raising our children in an age of a generational shift. Earlier this year the Royal Children’s Hospital Child Health Poll in Melbourne revealed that 94 percent of teenagers, 36 percent of primary children, and 36 percent pre-schoolers have their own screen-based device. According to our recent poll, 92 per cent of parents believe that access to smartphones has reduced the time children have for daily physical activity and free outdoor play. This has us very concerned, and working hard to be the catalyst for change in Australian homes and classrooms
The attached guide talks about the research and also what parents can do to support children growing up in today’s digital world.
Year 6 Parents - CLAIM THE DATE!
As an important part of their preparation for moving to high school, the Year 6 children will take part in the ‘Get Set For High School’ workshop on Wednesday 16 September. This will be facilitated by Jenny Atkinson. Jenny has 30 years’ teaching experience and is the author of the award winning book for parents, ‘High School Rocks: Make Starting High School An Awesome Experience.’
The activities focus on how high school works, coping with change, getting organised and developing essential skills for handling the high school workload. During this interactive program, Jenny Atkinson helps take the ‘unknown’ out of moving to high school so that the children are more prepared and confident to manage this important transition.
Following the student workshops, Jenny will make available a webinar for Year 6 parents, ‘How to Help Your Child Cope With High School’. (Pre-COVID Jenny conducted a parent workshop evening) In the webinar Jenny will explain the challenges children face in adjusting to high school and you will take home practical strategies for supporting your child. Some of the issues covered include: supporting your child through their transition, navigating technology and cybersafety, managing the increased homework load, getting organised and dealing with changing friendships.
Year 6 Parent Action: You will have access to the webinar for a fortnight following the student workshops on Wednesday 16 September.
Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection:
(Mark Twain)
Thank you to all those parents who were able to share their thoughts through the Google form. These responses will work to give us valuable insight into how we can improve our School-Parent partnership. It is only when the family and school develop an understanding for one another that we can work to do what is best for each of the children.
The staff will take some time to review the thoughts of parents and correlate with our own reflections on the experience of remote learning. I am sure we will see many similarities!