Book Week

State Chess Tournament

On Monday, ten students from our Chess team, represented the school to play chess in the State tournament at Tyndale Christian School. The students each played nine games against ten other schools in the state. Prescott did very well, finishing a close 5th place at the end of the day. I am always so proud of the fair play and sportsmanship displayed by all students at Prescott. Well done, team. Chess club will now be in recess until Week 3, Term 1 next year. Be sure to get your child's name down early.

Mrs Vice

ROBOGALS Incursion

Last Wednesday afternoon, ROBOGALS visited the school to do a computer programming workshop with the Year 3 and 4 STEM Enrichment students.
ROBOGALS is an initiative of the Adelaide University to encourage students (particularly girls) to think about studying in the fields of Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science.
The University students that took the workshop were studying Space Science, Engineering and Nano-technology, and the students enjoyed hearing about these degrees. The STEM group had lots of fun programming the EV3 Lego robots to move in a certain shape, use sensors to change direction so the robots 'see' a certain colour or go backwards when it senses an object. At the end, the students put all their skills together to see which group had programmed with the most skill and develop the 'strongest' robot. There was much excitement in the room participating in the final competitions. Well done to all students for their fantastic engagement and participation.

Mrs. Vice

We are having an exciting Week 3 of term at Prescott Primary Northern. Our team went out to the State Chess Championships on Monday and a big congrats to them all. We have author visits this week from Phil Cummings as a carry on of our Book Week celebrations from last week. Our staff also had a lovely time on Tuesday afternoon honouring Mrs Cheryl Allen, one of our incredible SSO team, who has chosen to retire after many years of service to our Prescott Primary Northern family. I would like to thank Cheryl for all her work and especially for those times when she went above and beyond so our children and staff were really well cared for.

I read this article recently from Michael Grose that has some really good suggestions around parenting. While I think parenting is an incredibly complex things and reducing it to something really simple can leave us short on many of the nuances, having something understandable can also be very helpful. There is also an invitation to a Parenting Ideas Webinar which will be free to our school families. I have not seen the webinar so I cannot endorse it, but it may provide some good discussion starters for parents around how they are parenting their children. I would love to hear your feedback if you do watch it.

“This year’s unique challenges have brought a sharper focus on child-rearing styles. Parents who rely one style have often struggled to meet the emotional needs of their children.

Kids who are worried, fearful or fretting about the future initially benefit from a nurturant, empathetic approach. “I get it” is what they want to hear so they feel safe and secure. They also benefit from a firmer approach where an adult communicates “You can cope with this” is something kids need to hear when they experience change, difficulty and disappointment.

This combination of nurturance and firmness is known as an authoritative approach according to Diane Baumrind, a leading researcher on parenting styles. A purely nurturant style is known as a permissive style, while a singularly firm style is known as authoritarian.

Warm cat, firm dog

It’s helpful to use a cat and dog metaphor when discussing the authoritative approach. As dog-owners know these pets are highly relational and respond favorably to attention. The dog style of parenting is empathetic and has an encouraging, relationship-building focus. Cats, on the other hand, are usually self-sufficient and can live happily without you. Continuing the metaphor, the cat style of parenting is more likely to challenge kids, better able to manage poor behaviour and provide solid family leadership.

Body language counts

The dog-cat styles are expressed through our non-verbal language – our tone of voice, posture and heads. A cat speaks in a flat, clipped voice using a minimum of words. Their head is still, its body upright and confident. A cat is calm, quiet and in control. A dog, on the other hand, speaks with lots of inflection in their voice. They’ll smile a great deal and lean in when they speak. It’s a warmer more approachable style suited to conversations and building relationships.

Which style do you identify with?

Most people naturally have a preference for one style over the other. If you defer to one then you may have to work a little harder or more consciously to bring the other side to the fore. Many parents working in partnership with each other will share the dog-cat loads. One parent is firm in approach, while the other uses a warmer, more personal approach. Sometimes parents switch styles according to the gender or personality of their children. This is quite common as boys have a tendency to bring out the firm cat in their fathers and the warmer, protective dog-side in their mothers.

Conversely, fathers often respond to their daughters in dog-like ways and anecdotally, it seems, many mothers are more naturally cat-like with their daughters. Single parents without the luxury of sharing the parenting will generally need to be flexible and move between the two styles.

Avoid mixed messages

Get your cat and dog wrong and you risk being ineffective and failing to meet either a child’s needs or the needs of a particular situation. If your first response to a child’s difficulty is to be distant and unapproachable, then you are probably not meeting their immediate emotional needs. Your child or young person needs you to be approachable or dog-like when they come to you with genuine concerns. Conversely, approach a child or teen whose behaviour isn’t up to standard with a dog-like approach and you’ll be ignored or not taken seriously, leaving you either angry or deflated.

Flexibility is the key

It’s my experience that it’s possible to move seamlessly between the two modes but it takes awareness and practice. If you naturally default to cat mode, then you may have to put some conscious effort into responding with empathy and nurturance when your child or young person struggles. Alternatively, you may practise dog-like behaviours easily but have to work on your cat side to promote independence and manage your child’s behaviour. In time these switches become automatic as your awareness grows enabling you to adopt new ways of parenting. Your effectiveness and satisfaction levels will increase as you move seamlessly between the cat and dog parenting styles.” (Grose, 2020)

Related webinar

Our school has a membership with Parenting Ideas. As part of this membership, you can attend the upcoming webinar ‘Parenting like a cat and dog’ at no cost.

In this webinar, Michael Grose uses cat and dog metaphors to introduce parents to two diverse styles of parenting. This will increase their ability and confidence to manage, nurture and build relationships with their children.

When: 11 November 2020 8:00pm AEDT.

To redeem

1. Click this link: https://www.parentingideas.com.au/parent-resources/parent-webinars/webinar-parenting-like-a-cat-and-dog
2. Click ‘Add to cart’
3. Click ‘View cart’
4. Enter the voucher code METAPHOR and click ‘Apply Coupon’ Your discount of $37 will be applied.
5. Click ‘Proceed to checkout’
6. Fill in your account details including our school’s name to verify your eligibility. These are the details you will use to login to your account and access your webinar and resources
7. Click ‘Place Order’

This offer is valid until 31 December 2020. If you’re unable to make the broadcast time, just register anyway and you will get access to the recording.

I hope you find this helpful.

Have a great week with your kids,

Mark B

One of my favourite passages in the Bible is John 13:34-35 where Jesus says:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

It amazes me how these two simple verses can solve many of the problems that we face in the world today. Whether they are the colossal problems that we have on a global scale where the Superpowers of the World are trying to vie for international dominance, or at the family level, where dad, mum, and the children are just trying to make it through the week. Many of these challenges could be solved if we loved one another as God loves us.

God loves us with all of our faults, and all of our weaknesses, and even with all of our betrayals towards him. God never turns his back towards us or gives up on us. When we know and experience the amazing and unconditional love that God has for us, this empowers us to love others, even our enemies, with the same kind of love.
Try loving others as God loves you and watch your life get better as your problems decrease, and your joy, peace, and meaning increase.

God bless,

Roland Talamaivao-Amituanai

To achieve this, Shivadhya trained very hard at home every day for months to get the strength and stamina.

Remembrance Day Chapter 2 – Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this article contains images of deceased persons.

Coming now to the era of the Second World War, conditions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples hadn’t changed much, with limited access to education, civil liberties and employment opportunities. These restrictions were even in place for those Aboriginal peoples recruiting for military duty, despite many wanting to fight for their country.

When Japan advanced upon the northern parts of Australia in 1942, there was some apprehension that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would make alliances with the opposing forces to break away from the oppression of white rule, especially as there had been contact with Japanese pearlers prior to war breaking out. These fears would be alleviated however, by the overwhelming number of Indigenous Australians who took up arms to fight for the country’s defence.

The frustrations and the obstacles that the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have had to endure, and yet still stand resolute as a people, is a wonderful reminder of resilience in the face of adversity. The Bible tells us that despite the hardships of life, we can be assured that ‘’in [Jesus] [we] will have peace. In the world [we] will have tribulation. But take heart; [he] has overcome the world,’’ (John 16:33, ESV).

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was under heavy pressure to maintain their number of fighting personnel and were less discriminatory than the Army when it came to recruiting. Although not much is known of the Aboriginal personnel in the RAAF (nor the Royal Australian Navy), some current research is shedding light on certain individuals who served, such as Leonard Waters, the first Australian Aboriginal to pilot a plane in combat.

Born in 1924 on the Euraba Aboriginal Mission, Leonard Waters was one of 11 children. Len, as he was known, developed a fascination with aviation from a young age, listening with admiration to news of the exploits of Charles Kingsford-Smith and Amy Johnson. Favourite stories were those of Biggles, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, keeping, as he said, ‘his head in the clouds’, from childhood.

Waters left school before his 14th birthday to support his family, and he worked as a shearer before volunteering for service in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1942. Desperate for manpower to support the air war in Europe and the Pacific, the RAAF’s rules regarding Indigenous Australian enlistment were far less restrictive than those for the Second Australian Imperial Force.

Waters was initially trained as an aircraft mechanic but dreamed of becoming a pilot like his childhood heroes. His application was accepted in 1943 and he undertook training across New South Wales before graduating as a pilot in 1944.

Later that year Waters was posted to No. 78 Squadron, which was stationed on the island of Noemfoor off Dutch New Guinea. He flew on more than 90 missions from here over the next year and later flew from air bases in Borneo. On one flight his aircraft, named by Waters as ‘Black Magic’, was struck by a Japanese 37-millimetre cannon shell, which wedged itself in the cockpit without detonating. Waters flew for another two hours before landing safely with the shell still intact.

At the end of the war, Waters was discharged from the RAAF as a Warrant Officer. He returned to Queensland and never flew again. He hoped to start a regional airline but was unable to secure financial or government support, and soon returned to his pre-war life of shearing to provide for his wife and six children. He died in 1993, aged 69.

Following his death, Leonard Waters has been acknowledged in several ways, such as a newly named suburb and street, the construction of a monument and the production of a stamp, amongst other commemorative deeds, in recognition of his service to this country.

Lest we forget. 

Matt Mackay 

HASS Coordinator 

Bibliography: 

Australian Government. Leonard Waters in Australian War Memorial <<https://www.awm.gov.au/learn/memorial-boxes/3/online-resources/waters>> (Retrieved from the World Wide Web, 27 October, 2020). 

Wikipedia contributors (30 August, 2020). Len Waters in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia << https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Waters#cite_note-High_Fliers-3>> (Retrieved from the World Wide Web, 27 October, 2020).

Dyslexia Awareness Month

Part-Time School Bus Driver Required

Uniform Shop 

All students MUST be in full Summer Uniform now. Please call the Front Office on 8396 2577 to book your appointment as there are limited times available.  Appointments are essential.

Alternatively, all clothing is available online. The NEW SPORTS clothing is a small make so you may like to order a larger size.

The NEW PE Uniform is Compulsory from Term 1 of 2021. The current Year 5’s will be exempt from buying the new Sport tops as they will be issued with a Year 6 class top early next year.

Parking Around The School

1. Parking out the front of the school- 
We are noticing a lot of parents parking in the front area of the school, walking to the single gate and dropping off, only to return to the car minutes later and reversing out into traffic. We understand the convenience but parking here and reversing out is stopping the flow of traffic from the drive through zone. We are asking that if you are walking your child onto our school grounds or collecting them in the afternoons, please use the back car park.

2. Keeping the car park entrance clear
As mentioned in a hand out, it is very important that you please do not park in the entrance to the back car park. If the drive through line is full, please wait with your left indicator flashing while on Nelson Road. When the line starts to move, then feel free to move into the drive through zone but please don't block the car park entrance.

3. Turning left only out of car parks and drive through
In peak times, when families wait and try to turn right onto Wright Road from the drive through, it again, slows the whole drive through down - often to a complete stop. We are asking kindly that you turn left only out the drive through onto Wright Road. 

4. Side gate reopened! 
We have cleared the temporary storage near the Front Office and are happy to open this walkway again to allow an alternative entrance, rather than going through the Front Office.

Please remember the current restrictions still in place (No adults entering classrooms unless you sign on in the Front Office).

We hope to continue to develop the parking around the school so it runs as smoothly as possible. 

Daily Health Check

Prescott College

Encouragement For Year 12 Students

Week 2 was the last week Prescott College Year 12 students attended classes, as they are now currently preparing diligently for exams. Year 6 students encouraged each Year 12 student with an individual card, package of choc chip cookies, hot chocolate sachets and the text found in Proverbs 3:5 to ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight’. We wish each student the very best as they conclude the final year of their high school years and prepare for the next chapter!

PPN Yr 6 Students

Prescott College is holding their end-of-year fete on Sunday 1 November. 

Bring your family and friends along for a fun day out!

myOSHC

PC_students.jpeg

PC_students _jpeg 320.79 KB

Vac Swim

PC_students.jpeg

PC_students _jpeg 2.43 MB

Summer Camps Registration Now Open