Head of Primary

Welcome back to the start of an exciting and very busy Term 4.

I trust that you had an enjoyable, relaxing school holiday spent with family and friends or just enjoyed having the children at home and not having to prepare lunches, do homework, stress to get them to school prepared and on time?

We are continuing to review our process and procedures in the Primary in order to ensure the school is one in which our CLEAR values of Christlikeness, Learning, Excellence, Attitude and Respect are presented and followed daily.

Labeled Uniforms

For the start of term 4, can you kindly check that ALL of your child’s Uniform Items and Lunch Boxes and Drink Bottles are clearly labeled with their name? Can we also please ask that you assist us in ensuring the students are correctly dressed in the right uniform each day? We are experiencing students wearing their sport uniforms when not required and have also noticed that some students are starting to mix and match their uniforms. If unsure about uniform items or correct uniform requirements, please feel free to check the school’s website, contact your child’s teacher or the RTC.

End of Day Procedures

Students may be collected anytime from 2.30pm but will unfortunately miss Structured Play time.

Students leaving in Structured Play need to be electronically signed out either in the Undercover Area or up at Student Services.

At the end of Structured Play (3.05pm), students go to class, line up for class roll call, collect their ports / bags and are taken up to the Undercover Area. They are only allowed to leave the Under Cover Area of an afternoon, when collected by a guardian or older sibling. No student can leave the Undercover Area without any supervision. At 3.30pm those students that have not been collected, will be taken up to Student Services until collected.

Thank you for not requesting students to make their way ‘on their own’ and meet you at the car. If you need them before 3.30pm, please come up to the Undercover Area and collect them there.
Thank you for your support and assistance in this regard as we wish to keep all our students safe and accounted for!

2020 Class Placements

“I have learned to be content” (Philippians 4:11)

We believe God has a destiny for every student in our school. He has already placed within them the skills, gifts and talents that they need so as to become the person God intended them to be. We are also blessed to have excellent teachers at Parklands because of God’s call on their life. Class teachers, Aides, all specialist teachers, RTC, LE Staff and myself spend an enormous amount of time discussing, praying about and working through the issues involved with student & class teacher placements and in trying to ensure that classes are well balanced. The matters of learning style, academic ability, behavioural concerns, student & staff personality, friendships, as well as social and emotional needs are earnestly discussed in the whole class selection process!

A reminder, due to the fact that we know the children and teacher / class environment, we do not accommodate requests from parents to swap class placements. It is an extremely difficult task that is complicated by requests for and against staff and other students or friends. We ask that you would pray for wisdom and discernment for us as they look to care for and meet the needs of each student.

Thank you for your understanding and support in this regard and look forward to seeing a wonderful working relationship continue to develop between teacher, student and parent!

iPad and eLearning in 2020

In wishing to offer our senior Primary students every opportunity to use technology in class to assist with and improve their learning, we will continue to allow the Grade 5 and 6 students to make use of or bring iPads to school next year. This follows on with the trend in education to promote eLearning and the use of modern electronic devices in Senior Primary! Feedback from staff, parents and the Yr. 5 & 6 students about iPad use has been very positive.

We have organized a Yr. 4 and 5 iPad Informative Parent Evening on Tuesday 15th October in Student Service’s Function Room, where questions about iPad selection, process, security, resources, Apps, class use etc. will all be answered. Look forward to seeing the Yr. 4 and 5 parents in attendance on the night.

The secret to confident kids

By: Michael Grose

The first habit from Stephen Covey’s wonderful book “The 7 habits of highly effective people” states that we should start every project or undertaking with the end in mind.

This principle holds true for any activity whether it’s planting your veggie patch; renovating a house or raising children. When you know what you are trying to achieve then choosing the right strategies becomes easy. The end game or goal for parents and teachers is Redundancy. Yep, you read it right. Your job is to make yourself redundant as an adult from the children you raise and teach at the earliest appropriate, possible age. When redundancy is your aim most of your time, effort and energy will go into promoting independence. You’ll stop doing things for kids and start giving them opportunities to do things themselves. You’ll spend most of your active parenting and teaching time teaching, explaining and prodding your child toward independence.

Independence leads to the 4 C’s

When independence becomes your priority then suddenly you’ve found a pathway to the development of other positive qualities and traits in your children including the key four – confidence, competence, creativity and character.

Here’s how:
Confidence comes from facing your fears and doing things for yourself.
Competence comes from the opportunity to develop self-mastery that independence offers.
Creativity is developed when kids solve problems themselves as opposed to someone solving them on their behalf, or worse, keeping kids safe. It’s amazing how resourceful kids can be when they are given the chance to resolve their own problems.
Character, which is essential for success, is forged under hardship and is needed if kids are to live a sturdy life. Kids need to be exposed to disappointment, failure and conflict if character strengths such as grit and perseverance are too be forged.
Independence takes many forms and adults are the gatekeepers for children’s independence.

Allowing kids to take responsibility and own their own problems builds confidence and competence. Start by expecting kids to help out at home and at school. Look for ways to develop self-help skills and don’t take their problems on as your problems.

Create junior versions of independence

It can be scary and also difficult developing independence in one big step. So smart adults intuitively develop junior versions of independence by breaking up big activities into digestible bits. Want your three year old to make the bed? Then start by arranging the teddies and the pillows (a junior version of making the bed) and let them work their way up from there. Similarly, want your ten year old to walk to school yet it’s currently out of their skillset? Then accompany them most of the way and let them walk the last 200 metres to school on his own. That’s a junior version of walking to school.

In all the noise and commotion about raising kids today it’s easy to forget that the job description for parents hasn’t changed since the dawn of time. Love them, bond with them, teach them and spend time with them. But also work like mad to develop their real independence so they become capable of handling what life will throw their way.

Trust you have a great term and rest of the year.