Assistant Head of Primary

Pastoral Update

Welcome back to Term 4. I hope you enjoyed spending time with family and friends and are feeling rested and rejuvenated, ready for the busy Term ahead.

Over the past two weeks, students have enjoyed spending Pastoral and Community Time learning about relationships and forming meaningful connections. These have been addressed under the themes of Honesty and Conversations, Connections and Spreading Kindness Online.

Honesty

Young people are growing up in a complex world; a world that is vastly different to the world in which most adults grew up. In this context, it is vitally important that schools and families work together to support and guide students to adopt attitudes and behaviours that build community and foster respectful relationships.

Trust, honesty and respect are at the heart of all healthy relationships. The theme of honesty draws together learning from our Friendology curriculum and our school motto, Veritas. In Friendology, we teach students how to be brave and how to have open, honest conversations with their friends. Our school motto, Veritas, teaches students to be truth seekers. Both Friendology and Veritas encourage students to speak their truth and to stand strong in their values.

We also teach students to show kindness in their actions and in their interactions with others. This culture of kindness allows children to feel safe and accepted for who they are. It fosters a strong sense of community and of belonging for all individuals within our community.

In helping children learn to tell the truth, it is important that they do so with kindness and honesty. Sometimes honesty means admitting that we have made a mistake, taking responsibility for our own wrongdoings, apologising and restoring the relationship. A real apology requires acknowledgement of the hurt caused to the other person, taking responsibility for the damage caused and a commitment to address the harmful behaviour to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Conversations, Connections and Spreading Kindness Online

Conversations and connections are the building blocks of all relationships. Building on our theme about Honesty, students learnt about showing kindness in their words, through their conversations with others. This includes both face-to-face communications as well as the conversations they have online.

Whichever mode of communication is being used, the most important thing students need to realise is that words matter and that every time we are treated with kindness or we treat someone else with kindness, we are increasing the trust and respect in our friendships. When navigating friendships in the digital world, we must interact with others in ways that are respectful, kind and reflect our values.

Students were challenged to spread kindness through their in-person and online conversations, including iMessages and chat functions within gaming and other apps. Teachers helped students understand that this can be achieved by using kind words and by being an upstander who gently helps to remind others when they fall short or have missed the mark. For example, if someone posts something inappropriate online, they could respond by saying, ‘that’s not kind/that’s not nice. I’d really appreciate it if you could take it down.’ They could respond with their ‘feet’ and ‘walk away’ by leaving the chat when someone is inappropriate.

This concept was brought to life in Pastoral and Community time by putting kindness into action in the conversations and connections with others, making our community a better place through random acts of kindness. They created Kindness Jars filled with ideas for acts of kindness at school or at home, being part of our Chat Mat activity, building conversations and connections on picnic rugs and identifying ways they can be the best version of themselves when they interact with friends in an online environment.

The eSafety Commissioner (eSafety.gov.au) website provides a range of advice to navigate this often-challenging area for families.

• Learn more about apps and games by viewing The eSafety Guide.
• Understand your child’s gaming experience by having conversations, watching or playing together.
• Talk with other parents and carers from school. This could be a good opportunity to learn more about how their children use an app or game and strategies to manage the technology.

Curriculum Update

ICAS Assessments

Each year, students from Years 2 to 4 are given the opportunity to challenge their higher order thinking and problem-solving skills through participation in the ICAS English, Mathematics, Writing and Spelling Bee assessments. Whilst participation is not compulsory, a special mention goes to those students who achieved very highly as listed below:

ICAS Spelling

ICAS English

ICAS Writing

High Distinction
Jessica Princi (Year 4)

ICAS Mathematics

High Distinction
Alfred Jin (Year 4)
William Lu (Year 3)
Siobhan Chung (Year 2)

Lauren Petroni
Assistant Head of Primary P-4 and Curriculum Leader P-4