This week is another busy one at school. We have had our author visits with Andrew McDonogh that have carried over from Book Week last week and the kids have loved it. A huge thank you to our Book Week team, Mrs Vitoria Cowley, Mrs Kelly Pridmore, Ms Jasmin Lim, Ms Sarah Petney, Mrs Megan Joyce, Ms Caitlin Smith and Mrs Karen Blyde. They have gone above and beyond for our children. Thank you so much to those families who were able to join us for the Book Week Parade last Friday. It was a hoot!

This week is also SSO Appreciation Week. We want to say a huge thank you to the non-teaching staff at Prescott Primary Northern. This includes our SSOs, Front, Office Staff, Student Services staff, maintenance staff and bus drivers, who work so hard for the children, families and staff in our school. Each of them give so much for our school family.

Also, a reminder that Wednesday next week is a Show Day, School Closure day so there will not be any school on that day.

This Sunday is Father’s Day and it would be remiss of me not to give a big shot out to the dad’s and father figures in our lives, and the lives of our children. I understand that families come in a lot of different forms, and I love to honour parents and good parenting, however, I also think it is of great value to honour and encourage fathers and father figures, for the special contributions they can make. Below is an article highlighting some of those specific things and offering us some research-backed suggestions on how we can make even better dad contributions to the lives of our kids. So hats off to dads!!! We appreciate and need you to be good dads for us!

Fatherhood Redefined.

Dads of all kinds are important contributors to families. Biological fathers, step-fathers, legal guardians, fosterfathers, grandfathers, even close family friends acting as faux fathers can all perform important roles in families. There is even a YouTuber who acts as “Dad” to 4.6 million subscribers, who turn to him for “Dadvice” about everything from how to shave a beard to how to inflate a tubeless wheelbarrow tire. However, the benefits of having a present and involved dad go far beyond having someone around to teach wheelbarrow maintenance. In fact, Harvard family scholars Marc Grau Grau and Hannah Riley Bowles state that “The importance of engaged fatherhood is now undismissable in ways it was not in earlier decades.” Fathers are not like mothers. Fathers parent in unique ways, which offers unique and important benefits to their families and children. Here’s a few things dads can do to be uniquely helpful:

Take paternity leave

Fathers who take paternity leave, especially if they take at least two weeks, are significantly more likely to dedicate their time to childcare and housework, not only during their leave period, but at least until the child is two to three years old!

Be present

It seems simple, but remember that having a present father in the home is a protective factor for reducing antisocial behaviour in boys, and reducing teen pregnancy, depression, and early sexual activity in girls

Share the load

It’s highly likely that the distribution of childcare and housework tasks isn’t as even as you might like to believe it is. By stepping up and sharing the load, fathers can help close the gender gap even further, model for their children how healthy relationships function, and set expectations for their children’s future relationships.

Play

Dads play in unique ways, particularly by encouraging risk taking and exploration. The sort of vigorous, stimulating rough-housing play that dads are so great at predicts enhanced social competence, while decreasing externalising and internalising behaviour problems.

Read to the kids

Reading books together, telling stories, and singing songs to the kids are all important forms of cognitive stimulation which have established benefits for improving literacy outcomes in children. Interestingly, these benefits are more pronounced when dad does the storytelling.

Talk with the kids

Dads also engage in a unique communication style with their kids. Fathers seem more likely to use bigger words when they speak to their children. Mums keep it simple. Both forms of communication are valuable for kids, but this report from the American Academy of Pediatrics points out data showing that “at 3 years of age, father-child communication was a significant and unique predictor of advanced language development in the child but mother-child communication was not.”

Engage in discipline

To discipline means to instruct, teach, and guide. Parents can effectively discipline their kids by setting limits in a way that explores what’s going on, explains our reasoning for desired behaviour, and empowers kids to problem solve and come up with reasonable ways forward. Fathers are typically more authoritarian than mothers, so may need to work harder to move away from coercive and punitive discipline methods.

There’s so many other things dads can do to be excellent fathers. But… here’s the vital thing:

Fatherhood matters. Period. Even if dad is not in the family home. Even if dad is not married or together with mum. Even when it’s not part of the ‘package’ deal. (Which is, by the way, ideal… but the world is far from perfect.)

In Australia, there are more than 1 million single parent families, and 86% of those families are mother-led. Additionally, data from the US suggests that 27% of non-resident fathers don’t see their kids at all. That is a lot of kids who are growing up with absent fathers.

Living away from the kids does not mean that a father can’t provide them with the benefits of being involved. This meta-analysis of 52 studies finds clear support that non-resident fathers can still have a positive impact on their children’s academic achievement, behavioural adjustment, and emotional well-being. Being involved matters. Having a positive father-child relationship matters. “ (Coulson, 2023)

Have a great week with our kids and happy father’s day,

Mark B