Term 2 is flying by, as Week 5 vanishes in just a few short hours! Since our previous newsletter our community of diverse and resilient learners have thrived and survived NAPLAN, Sports Day, Year 6 Camp, excursions, beach walks and a myriad of other rich learning tasks and activities that are a part of our everyday teaching and learning!
No, this is not students sleeping at school or all worn out from too much learning, this is our Move to Learn program facilitated by Leanne Stokes, which is having a positive impact on learning and focus in the junior primary. These students were shown a laminated image which they had to replicate on the ground to engage thinking across both spheres of the brain!
The team of staff at Star of the Sea are most passionate about preparing, planning and facilitating authentic learning experiences for all students, all of the time. This means that our staff take the time to really know your child/ren; their likes, their dislikes, their strengths and their areas for development. In doing so, learning differentiation is a regular feature of our classroom practice, which is what makes our nurturing community quite special!
A whole school initiative to support learner wellbeing, resilience and growth mindset has been the introduction of the Zones of Regulation curriculum for all learners. Teachers are facilitating developmentally appropriate lessons across all year levels to support learners to recognise and name the ‘zones’ and more specifically their own individual behaviours for when they find themselves in each of the different zones. It is our human condition that we experience positive and negative emotions and that these fluctuate, sometimes multiple times in a day or even an hour. Helping children to manage and regulate these fluctuations helps them to become super resilient learners!
In sharing with a group of students earlier this term, I reflected on some of my ‘red zone’ choices when my 6 and 8 year old, fought (for the hundredth time) about whose turn it was to have a shower first! I yelled, angrily threw a towel on the floor and stomped my feet loudly as I walked across the floorboards away from the bathroom door; and away from my squabbling children! Red zone behaviours and choices are normal for all of us at various tipping points, but more importantly it is what we do next to get ourselves back in the green zone and how we go about repairing any harm/damage we caused to our relationships as a consequence of the red zone choices. All students will be exploring and discussing the strategies they use to recognise what sends them into the red zone and how they get out of it and then what they can do next to repair relationships that may have become a little fractured or broken as a consequence of their red zone behaviour. I believe that this is how Jesus would want us to ‘do relationships’ in this, the 21st century; with compassion, forgiveness and understanding.
This made me think of a dear friend of mine from my mother’s group who recently posted this to Facebook (and I have sought her permission to share it here).
When you have a neurotypical child, you feel reasonably assured that class participation and decent study habits will result in good grades. These kids have close friends. They get invited to participate in social things like birthdays, play dates and weekend gatherings. They make the teams, auditions and are always busy doing something fun with their friends.
But when you have a child with certain differences, this is often not the case. Learning may take longer, both academically and socially. Despite their tremendous efforts, results are often a fraction of their peers and social acceptance is fleeting, setting them up for painful comparisons and bitter frustration.
Instead of a fun and fulfilling experience, school can become a breeding ground for depression, anxiety, and homework is a battle ground at home. It is exhausting for a child and parent alike. This is the week of SPED (Special Education) Autism, Dyslexia, and ADHD awareness.
For all the children who struggle every day to succeed in a world that does not recognise their gifts and talents, and for those who are walking beside them, please let this be a gentle reminder to be kind and accepting of ALL people. Recognise that the “playing field” is not always a level surface.
Children who learn differently are not weird, they are merely gifted in ways that our society does not value enough. Yet they want what everyone else wants; to be accepted.
Please help me share awareness of this in honour of all children who are deemed ‘different’. Our world would be far less beautiful without them.
Acceptance, understanding and inclusivity of neurodiversity in society is very important. Just as children have different eye colours or different hair colour, they are made in the image and likeness of God, with different ways of thinking and moving through the coloured zones of emotional regulation. Our Catholic learning community, centred in Faith and formation, continues to demonstrate inclusivity and compassion for all learners, including those who are neurodiverse.
As the winter months set in, can we please remember to
I am often overheard speaking with students about how they can only be responsible for (in control of) their own choices. Never can we control the choices of others. Recognising this difference between what one can control and what one cannot control helps to support learners to take responsibility for how their choices and actions contribute to situations. It also helps them to redirect their attention or worry away from things which are futile.
On another note:
Reframe grades. Explain to children that grades are simply an indication of past performance, NOT predictions of the future. A grade reflects a specific point in time, a time that has passed.
Just like when children get their feet measured for a new pair of shoes, this measurement is a snapshot of their growth and development at that time. This can be the same for grades and for learning. There is no learning finish line, even as adults we continue to learn and grow.
Narelle Sandercock
Acting Deputy Principal