Chatham Newsletter

Issue 15—25th May 2017 Email: chatham.ps@edumail.vic.gov.au Website: www.chathamps.vic.edu.au

Phone: 9830 1933

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

A reminder that Friday June 9th is a pupil free day – there is no school for students.

This article was re-published in The Saturday Age last year: I thought it was wonderful! How not to get a sports scholarship by Becky Carlson, then Greg Baum Replying to an applicant for a place in the women's rugby program at Quinnipiac university in Connecticut, the coach begins by noting that her letter was short, poorly written, scant for detail and inappropriately casual, giving only her Christian name. In as many words, the girl wanted to know if the team was "giving out scholarships". The coach, Becky Carlson, says that a polished and thorough resume arrived a week later - from the email address of the appli-cant's parents. They apologised for their daughter's failure to return calls and emails from the university, saying she was "too busy to answer". When the girl and her parents did at last visit the university, the parents did all the talking, Carlson notes. "However, when you did speak, you were openly correcting and verbally scolding them when you deemed their information sharing inaccurate," she says. As they toured the campus, Carlson observes that this girl who was too busy to return a call or email was never off her email-enabled smart phone. Gradually, Carlson builds a picture of a brat, talented, but privileged, indulged and insolent. Against her better instincts, she says, she went to watch the applicant in a high school game. She saw immediately that the girl was the most gifted player on the team, but also lazy, aloof and self-possessed. At half-time, she sat apart from her teammates. When they huddled before returning to the fray, she chatted to a teammate, paying no attention to the coach. When she scored, she expected the adulation of teammates. When a teammate scored, she ignored her. When teammates made mistakes, she loudly upbraided them. "You had moments of greatness but they were followed by sporadic lulls of half -hearted effort." Carlson says. Though captain, the applicant took no part in the post-match debriefing, says Carlson. Nor did she help her mother lug out snacks for the team. "Last, as the rest of the team broke the field down and put equipment away, you found a quiet spot on the empty bench to text on your phone," she says. Carlson forgives the girl to the extent that she has probably spent a lifetime being told how good she is, by coaches versed in the mechanics of sport and not the principles, coaches consumed by the winning imperative. "However, players like you, with similar demeanour are a dime a dozen," she says. "Please bear in mind, none of this makes you a bad person, only potentially a bad teammate." Carlson writes all this in a blog entitled "An open letter to the athlete we must stop recruiting" that has gained widespread attention in cyberspace. By now, it is apparent that this precious young lady is not one person, but a composite of many whom Carlson has come across as a player, administrator, talent scout and coach. She extrapolates lessons that she also addresses to the fictional teenager. University women's rugby in the US is, you imagine, a niche, but sport is a universal language, and some of Carlson's morals doubtlessly will resonate among coaches of young athletes here. The charmless one, says Carlson, will be a drain on coaches, a divisive influence in the team, prone to sulk and perhaps become insecure among the many more fish in this much bigger pond. She will dwell on her successes and brood over failures. But she will blame everyone else. This disposition will ill serve not only the team now, but the girl in her later working life. One of Carlson's points is only obliquely applicable in Australia. It is that the student/athlete's goal should be to "get a degree while playing a sport you love", not "to get a starting position while earning a degree you tolerate". Carlson's degree was in journalism, the sports she loved along the way were rugby and tennis. She is not just a coach, but a pioneer of and apostle for women's rugby in the US, an advocate for women coaches in general and a believer in the idea of sport as an agent for social change. In 2014, she was named women's rugby college coach of the year. Carlson concedes that young athletes, properly guided, can change. "However, the investment on my end presents high risk to the health of team morale, my livelihood and sanity," she says. "In my younger coaching years, I believed far too often that many like you were capable of transformation. Over time, without consistent support from the powers that be, I have lost my fair share of those battles and have watched colleagues lose their jobs when athletes like you are unsatisfied. "I have learned from my mistakes. As a result, although the athlete playing right next to you has half the stats and three-quarters of your speed, they are supportive, determined and selfless. This kind of athlete, will be our next signee. "By choosing not to recruit you, I am saving my team culture." Becky Carlson, the Women’s Rugby Coach at Quinnipiac University

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK PAGE 2 Last week at assembly I commended the Year 6s on their sports reports. I was impressed not only with the quality of the writing about games played that morning, but with the sentiments expressed – most teams lost their matches, but all present-ers acknowledged strong team work as a united contribution, as well as expressing hope for next week – fantastic messages! The students are clearly intent on working well as a team as a first priority.

It’s to be expected that children, developmentally, are egocentric. In regular discussions with small or larger groups of stu-dents about choices and consequences, we discuss consideration of, and responsibility to others, over putting oneself first. Without ignoring the academic elements, it’s part of our job as teachers, in conjunction with parents, to help influence each child’s character development. Schools are, in effect, microcosms of our broader society, usually reflecting society’s values. If it’s not OK to turn around and hit someone who bumps us in the street, it’s not OK to do that at school. If we try to work with people in a range of social and sports situations without bullying our way through, then we take that approach at school. If we take our turn and don’t push in front of others who were there before us at the shop, then we wait our turn at school. If we manage our emotions, consider others, use manners when visiting friends’ houses, then we try our best to do the same at school. If we use a rubbish bins in the street, we use rubbish bins at school (clearly a work in progress sometimes, at school!).

We are very mindful of doing our best to assist each child to consider others, develop empathy, and to try not to prioritise an individual’s wants over that of the group. Just as when teaching children to read, this requires specific teaching and feedback, reminding, reinforcing and revisiting. Of course children make mistakes – we all do – and it’s part of learning. We use restora-tive practices to build empathy for others; we use circle time to help children name their emotions and feelings; we apply gratefulness to support children to recognise that considering others is part of what makes us good people, and being grateful for and to others, and satisfied with what we’ve got, is vital to our sense of well-being. Teachers at Chatham model these traits well. There is a strong sense of team – in considering others (staff, students, parents); in supporting one another to support the students; in learning about, trialling and improving the curriculum; in planning each week, considering student needs; in taking on feedback from parents, students and peers and reflecting on what’s going well and where improvement is needed; in recognising there’s no ‘i’ in team. We are privileged to work in tandem with parents to help to mould the character of the next generation of positive contributors to society. Together we aim to influence - to devel-op good people.

PUPIL FREE DAY On Friday, June 9th the teachers from Chatham will gather with teachers from two other schools we’ve been linked with through the Department’s Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO – love an acronym!) for a mini-conference where we’re studying the Victorian Curriculum’s critical and creative thinking capability, through a STEM (science, technology, engi-neering, maths) lens. Keynotes and workshops will be presented by staff from Melbourne and Deakin Universities. It promises to be a highly stimulating and challenging day, and will certainly support Chatham in the IT refresh and BYOT that is explained further on, under the School Council heading.

GRANDPARENTS What an incredible number of visitors we had on Tuesday for Grandparents’ Morning. The whole school was buzzing and, the

weather held out too, which was great! There were so many smiling faces and proud children and adults. Thank you to the

Parents’ Club for their superb coordination of a much-complimented morning tea – the catering of which was a feat in itself –

and to everyone for their support in what’s a really special morning for everyone.

MEDICATIONS From time to time students need dosages of medication at/during school. Schools are not allowed to administer medications without parents’ explicit, written permission, and without written dosages detailed. Schools do not keep paracetamol or any medication on site, to administer to students. Only water or saline can be used on a wound; only water, ice and/or monitoring can be undertaken for an illness or injury. An administration of medication form can be found on the school’s website to assist parents. It is expected that an adult bring the completed form and any medication to school, and hand it to a teacher, or a member of the office or support staff. Thank you for your support. TAX DEDUCTIBLE FUNDS Coming up to the end of the financial year, it’s a good time to remind parents that the school has two tax deductible funds – the Library Fund and the Building Fund. The Library Fund covers items that can be often seen in libraries – furniture, training equipment and computers, books and collections that are not fixtures. We are using the Library Fund to pay for the IT refresh. The Building Fund can be used for purchase of land for which there are definite plans to construct a building to be used as a school, construction or purchase expenses and associated financing costs, painting and general maintenance of school buildings, and building insurance, ex-penditure on carpets that are fixed to the floor of the school building, and administration costs of the fund, including bank fees, accounting costs and fundraising expenses. As such, the Building Fund will be used to cover the cost of the recently in-stalled stair nosing on all the outdoor stairs at the school. If you’re thinking of making a donation to the school, either of these tax deductible funds are worth considering – and we’d certainly appreciate it. Continued on Page 3…...

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK PAGE 3 WORKING BEE Thank you to the families who were able to come along to the working bee on Saturday. Thanks also to those who couldn ’t be there on Saturday, but who made the effort to pop in at another time and make a contribution. Lots of weeding, some painting, repairing, sweeping and tidying up was done so the school is looking at its best for the influx of visitors that have ar-rived this week.

SCHOOL COUNCIL School Council met on Monday evening.

Steel Playground. Given that one part of the playground has been barricaded off because of unsafe and non -compliant fall zones, a decision was taken to remove all the steel playground equipment. This work has been undertaken today. Plans are afoot to replace that equipment with a new playground, though there will be a period of time when the space is empty. A number of concepts which provide options for new playground pieces have been sourced. Students will be able to vote on the concept they like best. We have applied for a grant to help fund this unexpected expense. If this is unsuccessful, fundrais-ing dollars will be diverted. Again, thank you to Parents’ Club for supporting this – and to the school community for supporting their fundraising efforts. Because the playground replacement has been deemed to be a higher priority than the proposed grounds redevelopment, the facilities group will meet to review and reprioritise their plans. This will be done in conjunction with the Parents’ Club, who have raised funds to upgrade the grounds. We’re very fortunate to have such an active and practical group of parents who are prepared to commit time to this planning process.

IT Refresh. Another decision taken at School Council was to approve the upgrade of the school ’s IT infrastructure, all of which is 4 – 6 years old. Plans are well-advanced and purchasing will commence soon. The school’s tax deductible Library Fund will be used to support the IT leases – a legitimate use of this income. Alongside the IT refresh, students in the older classes will be able to bring their personal tablet device to school to use, should parents be in agreement. Each device will be hooked into the school’s wireless network during the school day, which will provide access to the strong filter applied by the Depart-ment of Education. We can guarantee the safety of wireless access providing that devices aren’t’ accessing a SIM card – it is parents’ responsibility to have this discussion with their child should a SIM card be in use. Strong cyber safety messages are being delivered in the classrooms and there are clear messages and expectations about how to stay safe online.

More information about ‘BYOT’ will come home soon, and it is anticipated that students in Year 6 will be the first group invited to participate. Please note that there is NO expectation that parents race out to purchase a device (iOS, Windows or Android are fine). Hardware will be available in classrooms for students to use, no matter what decision is taken by individual families.

STUDENT REPORTS The written student reports that are available in June and December are the most formal forms of feedback parents get about their child’s progress at school. Of course there are many informal forms of feedback too – verbal feedback to the child from a teacher or parent, including through parent/teacher interviews; written comments and corrections from a teacher; self-assessment, where students might use success criteria or developmental rubrics to examine their own learning and/or prod-uct; peer assessment, where (in a structured environment), students might use the same success criteria or developmental rubric to identify strengths and areas for improvement.

Some classes will be using three-way interviews in the upcoming reporting period – it’s important that students also take re-sponsibility for their learning and are involved in discussions about achievement and effort. More details will be available soon. In the reports you’ll receive towards the end of this term, teachers are reporting for the first time against the Victorian Curricu-lum. This is a developmental curriculum and, as such, usually covers two years of learning growth (except at Foundation). To support the developmental nature of the Victorian Curriculum, the Department removed the need to apply an A – E assess-ment for all subjects, at each reporting period and has readjusted the achievement levels. (An A grading now means that the student is operating more than two years above the expected level for their class e.g. a Year 3 student receiving an A is achiev-ing at the level of a Year 5 or beyond.)

This adjustment may have an impact on how you view your child’s academic achievement. I’d strongly encourage you to view learning as developmental and discuss your child’s progress as an individual – are they progressing as expected, more quickly than expected, more slowly than expected? How can you support their learning? What’s a reasonable expectation between the end of this term, and the end of the year? Can goals be set to support that learning? What actions will the school be taking to achieve those goals? What is the expectation at home? Learning is a partnership – let’s have the conversation. Enjoy the week. Marcia Lane, Acting Principal

Dates for the diary Friday 26th May Year 6 Sport at Auburn South PS Saturday 27th May School Tour @ 9:30am Friday 2nd June Year 6 Interschool Sport @ Auburn South (again) Wednesday 7th June world Environment Day—free dress Friday 9th June Curriculum Day—no school for students today Monday 12th June Queen’s birthday public holiday Thursday 15th June Year 5 day of the Notables—9am to 1:30pm Friday 16th June Year 6 Interschool Sport @ Camberwell PS Thursday 22nd June Year 2 Old fashioned games day 9:15am to 11:00am Friday 23rd June Year 6 Interschool Sport @ Canterbury Student reports coming home Monday 26 June parent/Teacher interviews this week School Council @ 7pm Friday 30th June Last Day of term 2—school finishes at 2:30pm Monday 17th July Term 3 Commences Wednesday 19th July State School Spectacular Tuesday 25th July Year 2 robotics Incursion Saturday 29th july parents’ club trivia night

The Year 3 Parents Mixer (drinks and nibbles) When: From 7pm, Thursday 1st June Where: Saint Barry, 595 Whitehorse Road, Surrey Hills Please join us for a casual night out with your fellow Year 3 parents. The full Saint Barry menu (share plates and a la carte) will be available to order, and drinks can be purchased from the bar. Hope to see you there, Year 3 Class Reps

READY TO RUN!

Chatham Winter Interschools Competition 2017 We’re only three weeks to the beginning of the 2017 ski season! Have you thought about schussing down the hills yet? Thought about the kids representing Chatham in this year’s Winter Interschools competition? So far we have eight children entered over three Divisions. The children can enter from Prep through to Year 6 and compete in both Downhill skiing and/or Snowboarding. The children love to race, cheer their friends on, and most importantly represent their school both on the snow & the night time march through the village. Interested? Would you like to know more? Then give Cheryl

a call/text (0478-222-839) or email cwilby@ozemail.com.au

for more information. Or, have a look at the website -

www.vicinterschools.com.au