“Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves.
Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.” -Unknown
This week saw all of us leading in one way or another. There has been a real buzz of enthusiasm and hope in our neighbourhood as we begin to establish our roles and visions for the year. While the Year 6s have focused on Student Parliament and Year 5s have embraced the role of Prep Buddies, we are all thinking about what we can offer PHPS in 2020. Some of us have visions of developing measurements on our running track and reinvigorating the jump pit, others are thinking of developing the garden and an inviting entrance to our school, others want to set-up a community book exchange…the possibilities are endless!
Welcoming Our Prep Buddies
As our Year 5’s continue to welcome our Prep buddies into our community, we all continue to meet weekly to build relationships; as well as share provocations and experiences that help us all understand what it means to be welcome and inclusive at PHPS.
In the past two weeks, we have played various games, co-constructed artwork, explored the school grounds, created maps from various materials, and programmed our Bee-Bots (bumblebees that move when coded coordinates). We are observing that we easily collaborate and share materials, and are beginning to develop greater interests in mapping and connecting with others.
Next week we look forward to developing a PHPS postal system that will allow us to write and receive letters or cards from each other!
Question Time in Student Parliament
Student Parliament is now in session! Our student leaders gathered together for Question Time this week.
Madame Speaker (Ava Pearce) and the Clerks (Esther Brown and Juno Russell-Petersen) met with the Government and Opposition this week to debate proposals and Bills for future change at PHPS.
Question time includes :
- Prime Minister (Harriet Brown) and Opposition Leader (Arlo Fennessy)
- Minster and Shadow Minister for Communications (Swanee Myles-Malone and Kane Jeffries)
- Minister and Shadow Minister for Education (Teddy Sexton and Poppy Pearce)
- Minister and Shadow Minister for Environments (Finlay Nolan and Lola Widmer)
- Minster and Shadow Minister for Health and Well-being (Indigo Dubb and Joel De Vos).
The Minsters bring proposals from their Portfolios (made up of their Ministry members and action-groups) to debate and vote-on to action change.
The Clerks have their minutes to publish to the public, and we look forward to sharing some of their proposals and actions as the year progresses. If your child feels strongly about any aspect of their community or learning we encourage them to seek out their representatives and share their ideas.
Design/Technology Space
There has been quite a buzz around the Construction Space of late, students exploring how robotics and coding could be used to ensure that a sense of “welcome” is established in the neighbourhood. There will be plenty of it to check out at the Welcome Expo, pop it in your diary if it isn’t already there.
Conferencing
Conferencing enables each of us exclusive time to discuss our learning, any challenges we have, clarification, and a plan of what we need to do next. As we continue to develop our inquiries and learning, we are keen to get more experts in our neighbourhood to conference with. If you have a current Working with Children Check, expertise to offer and would like to come in weekly or fortnightly, we would be very happy to work with you! We currently need support from authors/publishers, people who work with data and coding or technology.
Photography
As part of our electives, we have embarked on an exploration of the different arts expressions. An avid group of photographers headed out last week to snap up some shots, mostly focusing on nature. We are sharpening our ability to frame images and to find interesting vantage points for our shots. Here is a small sampling from the first trip. Check in next week for some fantastic portraits.
Student Introductions
We are looking forward to meeting you all next week, so you can share your insights, concerns, and hopes for your child this year. If you have not already signed up, please be sure to take some time and fill in a session via Compass.
Connections
As we continue to develop our understanding of welcome, it is timely to tune into people’s body language and facial expressions to see if what people say, and the tone in which they say it matches the ‘vibe’ and communication they are sharing. We have observed that on some occasions hosts say all the right things, but it doesn’t feel heartfelt. We are intuitive and we notice when people’s communication is contradictory. As a family, you might like to discuss the importance of tone and body language in your communication or analyse film characters and interferences made related to their paralanguage. As a family, you might also discuss strategies or expectations for what you might do when you have guests in your home, but not everyone is keen to socialise.
We are also inquiring about geography and world data. Now is a great time to pour over your family atlas. Discuss places you have been, locations you are curious about, landmarks, landforms, developing vs developed countries…be sure to share any great research or stories with us!