Welcome Back to our first post circuit breaker Bulletins.

I’d like to thank our students and families for their support over the last three weeks. There would not be many people who would choose lock down conditions, and it is a trying time for everyone. It is however when our School Values of Curiosity, Resilience, Respect and Friendship get tested, so if we can come through it with heads held high, then it is a good thing.

One thing I have noticed is the genuine care that our staff demonstrate for the students at IEPS. They exemplify the moral purpose of the school in supporting every student to the best of their ability.

Facilities

There are a few projects coming up around the school that I would like to share. The first of this will be the Accessible Buildings Project. In 2020 the school applied for some work to be done under the accessible building program. The purpose of the program is to add design features into the school that allow the buildings to be used by students, staff or visitors that may have mobility issues. We have sought to schedule the works so that they have minimum disruption to the functioning of the school. More details around start times and logistics will follow once I receive them. These works will funded by the Department.

Our Essential Maintenance Program has also finished off a couple of jobs. The arborist has done the annual work with the Friendship Tree, having the dead wood removed and some weight reduction work. The crew also did similar work along the Robin Hood Road boundary of the school.

Another safety related activity was the checks and remediation of our Safety Lighting, especially around the high use out of hours areas near the gym. We also upgraded the lighting in the Art room.

A new Sub-Committee of School Council

At our most recent School Council meeting the Community Engagement sub-committee was re-established. The purpose of this group is to continue to strengthen the partnerships between parents and teachers by engaging them in conversations and sharing the teaching and learning that is taking place in our school.

In order to achieve this the group will:

• provide a communication forum between parents and school council to strengthen connections and build understanding of the direction of the school
• provide a platform for the school to share the teaching and learning that is taking place and engage parents in related conversations
• provide a forum for parents and teachers to develop connections to the wider community.

The School Council is keen to re-establish links between itself and the community and we look forward to the two–way conversation taking place.

This means that we will now have the following sub-committees of School Council;

• Finance
• Policy
• Facilities
• Community Engagement
• Canteen

Our next School Council meeting will be on August 4th.

A bit of research

After a brief hiaitus following the circuit breaker it might be timely to share an extract about how emotions and learning are connected. It comes from an organisation called Science of Learning and Development and is from an article by Pamela Cantor, M.D., Linda Darling-Hammond, Merita Irby, and Karen Pittman.

Positive developmental relationships. The key characteristics of a developmental relationship include emotional caring and attachment that create trust and support learning and growth. The emotional connection is joined with adult guidance that enables children to learn skills, grow in their competence and confidence and become more able to perform tasks on their own and take on new challenges. Developmental relationships can both buffer the impact of stress and provide a pathway to motivation, self-efficacy, learning and further growth.

Environments filled with safety and belonging. Children learn best when they feel physically, emotionally and identity safe, when their cultures are represented and valued in their learning communities and when they feel a sense of membership and connection. Learning communities that have shared values and routines, communicate worth as well as high expectations and demonstrate cultural affirmation create calm and ignite students’ capacity for engagement and creativity.

The ideas in this very brief piece are supportive of the work our staff and students do in the Smiling Minds program. As kids return to class after breaks and at the start of the day they reconnect with teachers, peers and environment. That notion of ‘getting ready for learning’ is an important concept that we try and reinforce consistently throughout the day.

Brett Millott.

brett.millott@education.vic.gov.au