Prescott Primary Northern eNewsletter

Full days for Foundation

After easing their transition to 'big school' our youngest students are now on campus for full school days - and we are so glad to have them.

Foundation students now get to be part of the full PPN experience, with lunch times in the nature play and play grounds, and more time with their classes until they picked up at the end of the day. The days are full of learning, fun and growing together.

Take a peak inside their classrooms through the pictures below. Can you guess what they are learning? If you have a child in Foundation you might like to ask them.

Year 4 Celebrate Diversity

'The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be' by Joanna Gaines, follows a group of diverse children as they each build their very own hot air balloons. As the kids work together, leaning into their own skills and processes, to fill the sky with beautiful colours, we discover that the same is true for life - it’s more beautiful when our differences are celebrated.

Students in Year 4B recently read and discussed how we all make the world beautiful and a better place by sharing the different things we bring and do. We built our own hot air balloons out of coloured cardboard and added our strengths, passions, talents and abilities, along with ourselves in our baskets. Together with Joanna, we took a journey of growth and imagination, and learnt that “the world needs who you were made to be. Most of all, the world needs both you and me.”

Investigating Garden Bugs

We investigated the garden for bugs and all creatures that crawl, fly, and creep through the leaves today. With magnifying glasses and a curious mind, the scientists in our PPN'ers erupted at lunch time to find how boats move freely with water and slopes, and how the worms in our garden are way more friendly than we knew!

I raised the idea of the importance of belonging recently in my remarks, and I would just like to revisit it briefly. The article by Allen that I quoted from, included this thought, “When kids feel like they belong at school, they enjoy greater overall wellbeing, improved academic achievements, better physical and mental health, and increased self-esteem. They behave better, are kinder, and participate more in classroom and extracurricular activities when they feel connected to their schools.” (Allen, 2023)

Truly belonging is very important to the health and wellbeing of our students, as well as us. In fact, research has shown that the craving for belonging comes from the same part of our brain as our craving for food when we are hungry. (Timova et. al., 2020) That would suggest that our need to belong is at the very core of our requirements. We should not underestimate how important it is for our children to have a sense of belonging at home and school.

I have had a couple of reminders in the last little while of the value of connection and belonging. I recently received a picture via text from the mum of a Year 12 student I taught many years ago. It was a picture of a Year 12 Jumper with the names of the students in the graduating class that year. Her message was one that shared joy over each of those young people and reminded me that they belonged with me and I with them. The second thing that reminded me of the value of belonging happened during drop-off duty. A car pulled in front of me, and I noticed it was an Uber. The passengers were a mum and one of our new students. As I helped them out, I recognised the driver, and the mum said to me, “Our driver is one of our parents here too.” After thinking about what the chances of that are, I moved to reflect on how beautiful it is to belong to a school family where we can enjoy connections with one another even in the incidentals of life such as school drop offs.

If you get a chance, go back to last week’s article and re-read the practical tips on helping our kids develop a sense of belonging to your family and our school. It is a basic need for us all, and we need to fill it wisely.

Have a great week with our kids,

Mark B

Hey PPN Family,

I am currently reading through the book of Leviticus for my personal devotions and it has been a struggle. Out of all 66 books in the Bible, this has always been the hardest one for me to read personally, because it is full of lists and instructions about the different kinds of animal sacrifices that need to be given for different kinds of sins and crimes. In fact, if you are struggling with insomnia, I highly recommend that you give reading Leviticus a try.

Although Leviticus is a difficult read, the main thing that fascinates me is that all of these precise directives and dictates point towards the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus to save us from our sins. Isaiah the prophet writes about Jesus in Isaiah 53:5 (NLT) “But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.”

Jesus sacrificed his life so that all of our sins, past, present and future, can be forgiven. That is good news for all of us.

If you would like to experience the peace and joy that comes from knowing that all of your sins are washed away, and that eternal life is yours as a free gift from God (John 3:16) Jesus is only a prayer away.

God bless,

Roland Talamaivao-Amituanai

Last week, we talked about the Beatitude, Kindness/Know component of our values, and this week we honoured several students from all the classes in our school for demonstrating this value.

Ella, Yuvtegh, Aanya, Samardeep, Zander, Henisha, Sanchit, Maja, Jaivin, Nathan, Japji, Emannoop, Danita, Celine, Savannah, Gurkirat, Marlee (absent) & Leiah (absent)

Samaira, Yash, Nathaniel, Japleen, Gabriel, Aanya, Gurreet, Arnav, Amos, Gracie, Viraj & Sanvi

Ivainashe, Tobi, Elena, Ryan, Tyson, Mila, Isabella, Navya, Sienna, Krish, Suhav (absent) and Freya (absent)

Do they have devices in their bedroom?

During COVID lockdowns, children spent almost 27 more hours each week on their screens compared to pre-pandemic levels. That’s more than one full day extra on their smart phones, tables, computers and television.

According to the Deakin University study, the greatest changes were among children aged between five and 12 years old.

Research suggests these figures have dropped – but not significantly. And, one of the biggest differences has been the time children are spending on devices in their own rooms, particularly in the evening hours.

The risks

When we allow screens into children’s bedrooms we often struggle to really know:

What they are doing or watching
How long they are doing it for
Who they are doing it with

While there are systems available to help manage these, the truth is that no application is needed if the devices are only used in common areas of the house.

Bedrooms are naturally a private space. We wouldn’t invite a stranger to arrives at our doorstep into our bedrooms – but many people, and children are doing just this through their screens. An increase in bullying behaviour, mental health challenges and risk-taking in children is strongly correlated with increased screen time – particularly when it happens in the bedroom.

The Impact

Amongst all of these social risks, one of the biggest impacts of devices in bedrooms is on sleep.

Getting enough, quality sleep is not only a predictor of short-term success and emotional regulation, but of life-long health and wellbeing. In short, it’s important we help our kids get enough – and screens at bed time do the exact opposite.

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that children aged six to 18 had an 88 percent higher risk of not sleeping enough when devices were in the bedroom and a 53 percent higher risk of getting a bad night’s sleep – and that’s when devices were in the bedroom just three nights a week.

What does that mean? If kids have devices in their bedrooms its likely they aren’t getting enough good quality sleep. And tired kids struggle to focus and learn, manage their emotions, and eat and exercise properly.

Steps you can take

Dr Justin Coulsen has this to say, ‘Whether it’s messing with their brain, impacting their relationships, affecting their physical health, or leading to depression, there are no strong reasons to put a screen into your child’s bedroom.’

So what can you do?

The simplest, and perhaps hardest thing to do is say ‘no’. If the ‘no screens in the bedroom’ rule already exists in your home, keep at it.

If it’s a battle you need to take up here are some ideas to get you started:

Move it, don’t lose it: Remind your kids that (at least at this stage) you’re not taking their device away, just asking them to use it in a different place.
Swap it out: Put in the effort to start a new and engaging routine that replaces the screen in the bedroom. Could it be a TV show you watch together, an evening game or project you can work on, or a new toy they can play with?
Find alternatives: Some children may feel they need a phone or other device to use as an alarm clock; so, take them shopping to buy an actual alarm clock they love.
Have clear, compassionate and collaborative conversations: Talk with the children about their screen time experiences with (age appropriate) questions such as: what is positive about them, what negative impacts do they feel or have heard about, how could screen time be used to improve their life and their experience of family, and, what decisions could be useful to make everyone feel good about screen time?

The Screens Issue, recently published on the Happy Families website is a great read if you’d like to learn more about managing screen time and how to have what can be challenging conversations with your children. Click here to read it online now.

Pupil Free Day

Uniform Shop

Please book your appointment for your child’s Winter Fittings through the Front Office now.

These fittings are done during the first term holidays.

Uniform Shop opening times for this year are:

Monday - Thursday 2:30pm to 4pm

However, fittings still need to be by appointment ONLY.
Please call the office to make your appointment for a fitting: 8396 2577

Enrolments 2024

Office Administration Trainee

Do's & Don't of Dropping Your Kids to School

Daily Health Check

Just a reminder that as each class has regular weekly Library time, students are encourage to bring along their library bags. These bags help protect the books from accidental damage. If your child does not have a Library Bag, you can purchase a PPN Library Bag from the uniform shop.

Notable Books for 2023

The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Notable Books 2023 will be announced on Tuesday, 28 February at 7:00 pm.

The annual CBCA Book of the Year Awards aims to:

promote quality literature for young Australians;
support and encourage a wide range of Australian writers and illustrators of children’s books and;
celebrate contributions to Australian children’s literature.

Some more wonderful news is that we have purchased new furniture for the library – four mobile book dsplays, a spinner book display, a beautiful floor mat, and a book trolley.

Here are some pictures of the furniture!