JS News, 16 Sept 20

Dates to Remember

 

Thurs 17 Sept	PKDM Greening Australia Incursion Year 1AJ Excursion to Barton Grocer Year 5/6 Round Square Bike Riding
Fri 18 Sept	Year 5/6 Drama Production Rehearsal PreK Incursion Footsteps Dance Kindergarten Incursion Footsteps Dance
Mon 21 Sept	Year 5/6 Production Rehearsal
Tues 22 Sept	Year 5/6 Production
Wed 23 Sept	PreK and Kindergarten Disco Year 5/6 Production
Thurs 24 Sept	Year 5/6 Round Square Bike Riding
Friday 25	Year 1 – 6 Disco Last day of Term 3

From Andy Gordon, Deputy Principal, Head of Junior School

As the term draws to a close, I share a story as an illustration of clarifying communication. I lost a friend I went to University with - early 40’s, young dad, great guy. Cancer does not discern or discriminate. Sad. I sent a text to a friend from Uni to let her know and she replied with “LOL”. Now I’m pretty sure many of us have come to accept that “LOL” stands for “Laugh out Loud”. I thought, “not really appropriate”. After an hour, I texted my friend and asked, “just out of interest what does LOL mean when you send it?” She replied, “Lots of Love.” Appropriate.  

One of the issues that I deal with daily is in resolving conflict between others. That conflict is often misunderstanding, personality clashes or just plain old-fashioned bad manners and rudeness. It occurs, student and student, student and teacher, student and parent, parent and teacher. I heard a parent appropriately call it ‘end-of-term nonsense this week’, though it is usually there as an undercurrent a lot of the time.  

Conflict and misunderstandings are unavoidable in close community where relationships are so pivotal. The schoolground is a microcosm of society. It is a mirror. It is one space that we share. We struggle as adults, with all our life experience, so how much more do our children struggle?  

The picture here found me in my Insta newsfeed on the weekend. I love it! I believe it! It is a lovely picture, and an appropriate expression of our interactions at Radford College.   
Can it be said any more plainly and beautifully?

What are our individual values and how do we see ourselves in relation to others? How are we setting this standard for ourselves and for our families?

Language that I use with students is that it is “never okay to hurt someone”. Regardless of how we feel, it is never okay. It is never okay to hurt somebody physically, and it is never okay to hurt somebody with words or attitude.

Let’s make sure that it is unacceptable in our community for any individual to hurt others, on purpose, in any way.

When we hurt others, we reveal quite a lot about ourselves, because “hurting people, hurt people.” Let’s determine to build a community of characters with the character to help, to exhort and to encourage each other!

 

 

 

 

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