Dear Parents and Carers,

I would like to spend a little time today on the theme of manners. I am so delighted when I hear children using their manners, without prompting, that I have grown my awareness around the use of manners in our daily life at school. We seem to be spending more time at present helping our students remember the courtesies of “please” and “thank you” and “excuse me.” There was a “once upon a time” era when these words were automatized by the time most children got to school, however our reminders are to students across the grades with even some of the senior students needing prompting to be polite.

As we know, courteous behaviour sets a standard of self-respect and respect for other people who then feel valued as fellow human beings. If we, personally, set out to grow as unique persons, then, we will learn to respect the uniqueness of others. Confucius shares some thinking that might be relevant to the influence on us: “If I am walking with two other people, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pull out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.”

We as parents, and the first educators of our children, work hard to present ourselves as strong role models to emphasise the importance of manners, courtesy, politeness and common respect. What we all hope to instil in our children, as parents and as teachers is: “Always be respectful and express yourself in a polite and courteous manner”.

The other social behaviour I have been encouraging with the children, and again this will mirror a learning you may focus on at home, ‘being friendly first.’ What this means is that we encourage our students to initiate friendliness as much as respond to friendliness. I have been noticing and complimenting the students who use a greeting first, ‘Hello Mrs Scott-Pegum, how are you?’ and also those who are able to continue talking toward a short conversation.

Thank you for your continued work in the home to encourage these prosocial behaviours in your children!

Challenging Learning This week I spent a day in Canberra with other principals at an Instructional Leadership forum. During this time we collaborated around next steps to grow student centred teaching and learning and share the good practice in our schools. I was able to share the growing capacity of our St Pat’s students in writing and achieving their personal learning goals. This is a big part of our strategic move toward all students in our school understanding what learning is, and how they learn and their next steps in learning. In our green pillar Look Ahead to the Future at St Pat’s we have ‘A View to Lifelong Learning.’ We are clear in our aspirations, one of which is to, take responsibility for our learning, another to develop independence, interdependence, collaboration and self-motivation for all students. Please ask you child about their current learning goals.

Have a restful and fun long weekend. Happy fishing, skiing, camping, resting at home… and all other pursuits!

Christ With Us,

Jo