Prescott Primary Northern eNewsletter

Science Week 2020

Letter of Reply – from deployed military personnel

Earlier this year, many students wrote letters to deployed Navy, Army and Air Force personnel who are currently serving overseas. This gesture was part of our ANZAC commemoration, especially as many of those who are serving are doing so under such unprecedented circumstances.

Recently, a letter of reply was sent to Prescott Primary Northern to express gratitude for the letters and cards sent. A copy of this letter is attached.

What is especially encouraging is the acknowledgment by the outside community of the school values of Respect, Integrity, Service and Excellence that were shown during this.

Thank you to all our students who were able to write or draw an encouraging letter, card or picture.

Matt Mackay

HASS Coordinator

Reply_letter_from_troops.pdf

Reply_letter_from_troops _pdf 274.34 KB

Year 6 Experiencing High School at Prescott College

Year 6 students are continuing to enjoy classes in Design & Technology, Health Science and Science at Prescott College. This is a wonderful opportunity to assist students to transition to high school, while using the facilities and teachers to enrich our curriculum. As you can see, many smiles and learning is happening!

Another week of school is marching through, and after talking with family involved in schooling in Victoria, I am so grateful our children can continue to learn together in class with their friends. We have certainly been very fortunate in this state. You may notice over the coming weeks that we are continuing to work to develop resources and learning activities that will assist should we be required to return to at-home learning. Our Foundations and Year 1s are working on implementing a platform called Seesaw to enable easier communication and sharing of learning activities and experiences, while our Year 2s to 6s are continuing to develop skills using Microsoft Teams. Our staff are endeavouring to do this as a part of the everyday learning process. We are keen to ensure we are equipped to continue to provide excellent education to our students and families should we be forced to at-home learning. A big thank you to our staff for going the extra mile for our children’s learning.

I shared an article recently about the importance of traditions in our family and school life and how that these activities can bring about a consistency and security in a rapidly changing world like the one we are experiencing right now. In chatting with some parents, they have mentioned the challenges of building resentment in their kids by enforcing traditions on their children. I get that. I have been a deputy principal in a high school setting and experienced firsthand the resentment and, at times, burning hatred some teenagers express towards activities they perceive are cutting across their personal space and growth. However, I don’t think we should avoid involving reluctant children and adolescents in traditions because they don’t want to be. While flexibility is a key ingredient in guiding our children, so is the security that traditions and routines can bring. Loving, firm, caring, consistent, gentle, persistent direction is vital if we are to provide strong support and guidance as parents and educators. I read this article that gives some further ideas around walking the path between direction and flexibility. I hope you find it a practical help in our important work.

“Strong families develop their own traditions and rituals that define them and bind members together. They are the coat hooks upon which we hang our family memories. By definition, they are permanent and not set aside when life gets busy. They also link young people to their childhoods at a stage when everything around them is changing.

Develop traditions early

Family traditions are relatively easy to develop when children are pre-school or primary school aged. Parent approval is important to most children, so they will generally fit with family traditions and rituals that they enjoy and provide a relaxed, calm atmosphere.

Young people can challenge family traditions

Adolescents are likely to challenge many of their family’s traditions and rituals, which is often difficult for parents to encounter. Questions about, or even defiance towards the way you act as a family can come suddenly and be a shock to parents. On one hand, you know that your young person’s challenge is healthy and part of their search for identity separate from their parents. On the other hand, to discover that the child you brought up to respect family and even cultural traditions and rituals no longer wants to follow the family or cultural line can really sting.

Know the traditions that are negotiable

If part of the healthy development of young people means stepping away, albeit, temporarily, from their family it helps to establish those traditions that are negotiable and those that are non-negotiable. For example, if family birthdays are important then your young person may no longer need to attend their aunt’s birthday but they need to attend the birthday celebration of their immediate family members. “This is non-negotiable!” should become part of your family’s proprietary language.

Give young people some leeway

Giving your young person some leeway in family activities is recognition that they are growing up, but this shouldn’t be confused with growing away. Recent studies reveal that young people value being part of supportive family, but they want their family life to accommodate their burgeoning independence.

Make family meals non-negotiable

This writer recommends that shared mealtimes should be non-negotiable in families. There is a correlation between good mental health in young people and those families that share a meal at least five times a week. A young person can too easily drop out of their family unless there is a tradition or ritual that keeps them connected.

Healthy families are built around traditions and rituals. It’s useful to approach the concept of family traditions with a mix of flexibility to accommodate a young person wish for more independence and firmness to hold the line on those rituals that are essential to your family’s identity and your young person’s wellbeing.” (Grose, 2020)

Have a great week with your kids,

Mark B

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 “These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up.”

Over the years I have met many people who have walked away from God because it was just too hard. Generally their stories would have the common themes of how living life according to God’s plans and purposes was just too stifling, restrictive, and difficult, and that it basically sucked all of the joy out of life.

In John chapter 6, we see people doing the same thing after Jesus had shared some pretty hard truths. We read in John 6:66 (note the 666 haha) we read that, “From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.”

When this happened Jesus turned to His 12 disciples and asked them if they would leave him too. Peter answered Jesus by saying, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69).

Peter understood the important truth that as hard as we may think that life is with God, it is nothing compared to how difficult and hard it is to live life without him. I believe that walking away from Jesus because it is too hard is probably one of the saddest ironies of life. Speaking as someone who has experienced both life with Jesus and life without Jesus I can say that life can be hard in both situations, but life with Jesus is a million times better than life without him.

Are you finding life pretty hard at the moment? Try doing life with Jesus. It is definitely much better with Him.

God bless,

Roland Talamaivao-Amituanai

Last week, we talked about dependability and this week we honoured several students from all the classes in our school for demonstrating this value.

Sophia, Enock, Manasseh, Shayla, Orion, Pepper, Owen, Amos, Dvansi, Vincent, Sharlee, Luke, Geetaamruta, Athiang, Dannie, Mystique (absent), Noah (absent), and Darcy (absent)

Petros, Layla, Harroop, Jonathan, Kitty, Aryan, Tejas, Sophia, Kavya, David Van, Charlie, Roban, Aliap, Aishwarya, Seth, Lars, Kara, and Ashton.

Father's Day Stall

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

Senior Student Guides Book Selection

Emilia Pollok, Year 6, came up with a great idea! She wanted to make some recommendations to expand the range of Christian books that are available for students to borrow.

Using her own time, she researched more than 20 books that are suitable for students from Foundation to Year 6. The books that she shortlisted are a combination of Christian fiction and non-fiction that contain messages of values, morals, faith and hope.

Thanks to the wonderful initiative of Emilia, we have now purchased all of the books that she suggested and they are available for borrowing from our growing section of Bible stories.

Year 2 Student Takes the Lead

Grace Isaac, Year 2, asked permission to read the selected story to her class when they attended the Library recently.

She demonstrated poise and composure as she clearly and confidently read the story, emphasising the story in a way that kept the attention of her peers until the very end.

Although quite humble, we think that Grace was brave in taking on this challenge – maybe she was training to be a teacher or librarian in the future!