Disco Fever

School Psychologist

I am pleased to announce that we will be adding a new staff member to our

Wellbeing & Diversity Team from Term 3. Along with SFX and St Thomas Aquinas we have employed a School Psychologist who will spend a portion of each week at each school to support the needs of its students. She will be working directly with students, conducting assessments and also assisting teachers in implementing the recommendations in reports from external assessments. She will bring a wealth of knowledge to the team and we look forward to her insight.

West Belconnen Child & Family Centre

On Monday morning I visited the West Belconnen Child & Family Centre at Kippax to learn a little more about the services they offer to families. When I walked in it was so incredibly warm, friendly and welcoming. I met one of the intake workers, Michelle, who was very, very helpful and who introduced me to the many programs they offer.

Did you know that you can simply drop-in? When you do, a trained professional will sit with you, listen to you and help either connect you to a service they offer or to another service they know of that will meet your need. This can lead to one-to-one support with Child and Family Workers. The service is free of charge. While the services focus on birth to 8 years old there are select services on offer to children up to 12 years old.

The West Belconnen Child and Family Centre offers advice around:

• general parenting
• adjusting to being a parent
• family relationship issues
• your child's behaviour development

Location: 6 Luke Street, Holt
Phone: (02) 6205 2904

If you would like to know a little more about the services they provide we have some of their pamphlets available in the Front Office area. I would encourage anyone with young children and who is looking for support to make contact with them and see what they can do for you.

Have a lovely long weekend.

Matthew Garton (Principal)

Happy birthday to Dakoda L, Brianna R, Alyssa S, Allira R, James M, Sophia N, Elsie I, Tyler R and M Cameron who all celebrated a birthday over the last week.

Congratulations to the following students who received an award for the fortnightly Positive Behaviour Focus 'Transitions - A clean finish' or another great achievement. The awards will be presented at the School Assembly on Monday 17 June at 2:15pm.

Karen Monck (Grandmother of Tyler and Cooper N) has kindly offered to take over coordinating the school banking for students at St John's. This means you can recommence sending in bank books as of next week. Banking days are on Tuesdays. If you would like to set up an account for your child please feel free to contact the office.

Not in front of the children!

by Michael Grose

The things parents say in front of their children have wide-ranging effects on their learning, confidence and behaviour.

Ever said something about another person in front of your children, only to hear one of the kids repeat those words in public when the subject of your comments is around? Yes, children’s blatant honesty can embarrass the hell out of their parents. We need to be mindful of what we say in front of our children.

But being embarrassed by our children is only half the communication story. As celebrated US psychologist Martin Seligman found in his ground-breaking research about optimism, children usually reflect the explanatory style of their primary parent by the age of eight. So, for instance, if a parent is a raging pessimist there’s every chance that their kids will pick up and convey the same ‘woe is me’ way of viewing the world from an early age. As parents, this means we need to be really mindful of how we present the world to our kids.

Parents who talk down other people – including teachers, friends and family members – in the vicinity of their children are teaching those kids to devalue those same people. Even when we vent about someone else out of sheer frustration we are shaping our children’s views about those people.

For all these reasons, as parents we need to be so careful about the messages we give out.


‘I don’t have to do that work’

Recently I heard how a thirteen-year-old girl refused point blank to work for a teacher as her mother had said that the teacher’s expectations were unreasonable. Miss 13 cited her mother’s views when she refused to get to work saying, “My mum says I’ve got a problem with learning. She says you need to take it easy on me but you don’t. I don’t have to do your work!”

This type of entrenched view is very difficult for a teacher to encounter without ridiculing the parents and the young person. However stories like this are more common than most people think. They reinforce the notion that parents need to be mindful of what they say in front of their children, whether that be about the child’s abilities, their teachers or anyone else.

Negative views can easily shut down kids’ learning. Some children are quicker than others to latch on to even a skerrick of their parents’ negativity as an excuse either not to work or to lower the expectations of others.

As adults we have all sorts of opinions that don’t necessarily need to be shared with our kids. We may hold strong political views for example, but if young people are to formulate their own opinions then it may wise to curb our opinions when they are around.

Similarly, it may be smart to keep mum if our views about religion, sexuality and ethnicity are intolerant or don’t follow the mainstream. That’s not to say we don’t discuss these issues at home. Children and parents in healthy families are able to discuss all manner of issues, with even extreme views tolerated and challenged rather than mindlessly expressed and held as if they are the only possible truth.