Welcome back to Term 4, 2019. I almost can’t believe I am saying that. Our Year 6 and 7 students are about to enter their last couple of months of Primary School, the little ones who started school in January will finish their first year of school about nine weeks from now. Life seems to zip by. We have had a busy time here at school over the school holiday break. Work has continued on several development fronts, particularly while we had less students and teachers around. This term is definitely going to be one of inconvenience as far as parking and drop off/pick up is concerned, however, the final outcomes will be worth waiting for.

As I have been reflecting on the challenges and inconveniences we are working through here at school, it got me thinking about how we can use this as an example for our kids in discussions around building resilience through successfully navigating situations that aren’t particularly comfortable. Let’s face it, life is all full of these challenges. We are definitely living in an age of getting what we want as soon as we can and not having to wait for very long and I don’t think that is always for the best. I think of my expectations around email, for example. When I hit send, I think somewhere in my head, “I should hear back soon,” and if my time frame expectations aren’t met, I SMS thinking it should somehow speed up the process. I often recall that Stanford University experiment from the 1960s. ”In the study, children were placed in a room with one marshmallow on a plate. The lead researcher gave the children an easy instruction: You can eat the marshmallow now, or wait 15 minutes and receive two marshmallows. The researchers found that the children who were able to wait for the second marshmallow without eating the first one scored higher on standardized tests, had better health, and were less likely to have behaviour problems. . .  Delayed gratification is one of the most effective personal traits of successful people. People who learn how to manage their need to be satisfied in the moment thrive more in their careers, relationships, health, and finances than people who give in to it.” (Psychology Today, 2017)

Working through difficulties and challenges and coming out the other side is a wonderful discussion to have with our kids (as well as with ourselves) and I would encourage you to use things like the inconveniences around the school at the moment, as a starting point for the conversation.

I would like to thank you all for your patience and ask for continued patience and understanding as we deal with the changing landscape of school this term.

Welcome back and have a great week with your kids,

Mark B