Westlawn Public School
Newsletter Term 2 Week 9
23 June 2020
Strive to Achieve
North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 [email protected]
If you wandered around our school at the moment,
you’d be excused for thinking that COVID-19 never
happened. Full credit must go to teachers and
students for adapting so quickly to new hygiene
routines, enhanced cleaning procedures and adult
physical distancing.
Most activities are up and running again - some
with a twist, as in our Zoom Assemblies and our
NAIDOC. Some activities are new like our Stage 2
Enrichment Program where children study
Literacy, Numeracy, Music, STEM and Personal
development by cooking, engineering, drumming
and Rock and Watering.
Our tutor friends from the Clarence Valley
Conservatorium have returned to ensure that our
students and teachers can continue their music
lessons at school. Yes, I did say teachers. Every
Thursday morning before school, 15 of our
teachers enjoy keyboard, guitar and ukulele
lessons with Kris Edwards. It is hoped that our
teachers will take these new skills into their
classrooms. I have certainly attempted to serenade
the office staff with my new guitar skills – though
they did mention something about ‘practice
making perfect’.
Our Leadership Team is busy planning our Staff
Development Day to be held on Monday 20 July.
This is a ‘pupil free day’ where our teachers get
together for a day of professional learning. On the
agenda are a number of sessions including
SoundScouts (hearing screening software for all
children), a Livestream from the Department of
Education’s Secretary and Deputy Secretary on the
new School Excellence Website and planning tools,
Positive Behaviour for Learning, High Potential and
Gifted Education and specialist sessions for our
School Learning Support Officers.
Also in the pipeline is this year’s Kindergarten
Orientation Program. Mrs Barnier and her Kindy
Team have dates ready to roll out. If you have a
child who will be starting Kindergarten in 2021,
please complete an enrolment form as soon as
possible. Having numbers confirmed early helps
our school with organisational commitments.
As this is the last newsletter for Term 2, I’d like to
take the opportunity to thank you all for your
support and patience during challenging times and
wish you all a happy and safe holiday.
Kind Regards,
Sandra
Principal’s Message
Strive to Achieve
North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 [email protected]
ATTENDANCE – WE’RE STILL AIMING FOR 100%
AT WPS
Now that schools are open for full time face to face
learning, all students are expected to attend school
unless they are unwell. If parents believe their child
has a condition that means it is not safe for him/her
to return to school, they will need to obtain a
medical certificate and provide it to the school.
Students who are residing with a family member
identified as being at increased risk should attend
school unless a medical practitioner advises
otherwise.
KINDER 2021 ORIENTATION
For those of you interested in the 2021 Kinder
Orientation Program, we are currently working on
it. Dates had to be changed due to COVID-19, but
this year’s program will continue with new dates
soon to be advised. Stay tuned.
ACCESS TO SCHOOL GROUNDS AND ADULT
PHYSICAL DISTANCING
We value our contact with you, we just need to do
it differently for a while. There should be no visitors
to the school site unless they are essential. If you are
on essential business, please report directly to the
office and observe all physical distancing
requirements. Thank you for not entering the
school grounds at the beginning and end of the
school day when you are dropping your child at
school. Side gates will be locked at 9am. If your
child is late to school, please report to the Office via
the main school gate. All parent teacher contact
should be over the phone. If you wish to discuss
anything with your child’s teacher, this should not
be done face to face. Please do not hesitate to call
the school office and the teacher will endeavour to
return your call within 24 hours. Many thanks for
your cooperation and support in this area.
PARENTING INFORMATION FROM MICHAEL
GROSE
Raising resilient problem solvers
Personal problem-solving is an under-rated skill
shared by resilient children and adults. First,
identified alongside independence, social
connection and optimism by early resilience-
researchers in the US, the ability to solve your own
problems is the basis of a child’s autonomy and
self-efficacy.
When parents solve all children’s problems we not
only increase their dependency on adults, we also
teach kids to be afraid of making mistakes and to
blame themselves for not being good enough. As I
noted in my book Anxious Kids, this is fertile
ground for anxiousness and depressive illness.
So how can we raise kids to be courageous
problem-solvers rather than self-critical, low risk-
takers? Here are six practical ideas to get you
started:
Turn requests for help into problems for kids to
solve
Kids get used to bringing their problems to parents
to solve. If you keep solving them, they’ll keep
bringing them. “Mum, Sarah’s annoying me” “Dad,
can you ask my teacher to pick me for the team?”
“Hey, I can’t find my socks!” It’s tempting if you are
in a time-poor family to simply jump in and help
kids out. Alternatively, you can take a problem-
solving approach, cuing them to resolve their own
problems and take responsibility for their
concerns. “What can you do to make her stop
annoying you?” “What’s the best approach to take
with your teacher?” “Socks, smocks! Where might
they be?”
Ask good questions to prompt problem-solving
A problem-solving approach relies on asking good
questions, which can be challenging if you are used
to solving your child’s problems. The first question
when a child brings you a problem should be: “Can
you handle this on your own?” Next should be,
“What do you want me to do to help you solve the
problem?” These questions are not meant to deter
children from coming to you. Rather to encourage
and teach them to start working through their own
concerns themselves.
Strive to Achieve
North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 [email protected]
Coach them through problems and concerns
Imagine your child feels they were unfairly left out
of a school sports team by a teacher and asks you
to get involved. The easiest solution may be to meet
with the teacher and find out what’s going on. You
may or may not resolve the problem but in doing
so you are teaching a child to become dependent on
you. Alternatively, you could coach your child to
speak to the teacher themselves and find out why
they were left out. Obviously, there are times when
children need their parents to be advocates for
them such as when they are being bullied, but we
need to make the most of the opportunities for
children to speak for themselves. Better to help
your children find the right words to use and
discuss the best way to approach another person
when they have problems. These are great skills to
take into adulthood.
Prepare kids for problems and contingencies
You may coach your child to be independent – walk
to school, spend some time alone at home (when
old enough), catch a train with friends – but do they
know what to do in an emergency? What happens
if they come home after school and the house is
locked? Who do they go to? Discuss different
scenarios with children whenever they enter new
or potentially risky situations so that they won’t fall
apart when things don’t go their way. Remember,
the Boy Scouts motto – Be Prepared!
Show a little faith
Sometimes you’ve got to show faith in children. We
can easily trip them up with our negative
expectations such as saying “Don’t spill it!” to a
child who is carrying a glass filled with water. Of
course, your child doesn’t want to spill it but you’ve
just conveyed your expectations with that
statement. We need to be careful that we don’t
sabotage children’s efforts to be independent
problem-solvers with comments such as, “Now
don’t stuff it up!”, “You’ll be okay, won’t you?”,
“You’re not very good at looking after yourself!”
Applaud mistakes and stuff ups
Would a child who accidentally breaks a plate in
your family while emptying the dishwasher be met
with a ‘that’s really annoying, you can be clumsy
sometimes’ response or a ‘it doesn’t matter, thanks
for your help’ type of response? Hopefully it won’t
be the first response, because nothing shuts down
a child’s natural tendencies to extend themselves
quicker than an adult who can’t abide mistakes. If
you have a low risk-taking, perfectionist child,
consider throwing a little party rather than making
a fuss when they make errors so they can learn that
mistakes don’t reflect on them personally, and that
the sun will still shine even if they break a plate, tell
a joke that falls flat or doesn’t get a perfect exam
score.
As I’ve often said your job as a parent is to make
yourself redundant (which is different to being
irrelevant) at the earliest possible age. The ability
to sort and solve your own problems, rather than
step back and expect others to resolve them, is
usually developed in childhood. With repetition
and practice problem-solving becomes a valuable
life-pattern, to be used in the workplace, in the
community and in family relationships.
Michael Grose, founder of Parenting Ideas, is one of
Australia’s leading parenting educators. He’s an
award-winning speaker and the author of 12 books
for parents including Spoonfed Generation, and the
bestselling Why First Borns Rule the World and Last
Borns Want to Change It. Michael is a former teacher
with 15 years experience, and has 30 years
experience in parenting education. He also holds a
Master of Educational Studies from Monash
University specialising in parenting education.
Strive to Achieve
North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 [email protected]
Strive to Achieve
North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 [email protected]
Strive to Achieve
North Street, Grafton. 2460 6642 7466 [email protected]
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