10 May 2024
It has been a very busy fortnight to start Term 2. Certainly a highlight for me was the House Cross Country event earlier this week. There were some outstanding running performances across the morning, but the biggest highlight for me came from watching our Year 6 students supporting boys from Year 3 down to Prep in their races. Seeing the example that these boys were setting for these younger students, hearing their encouragement and their joy when the student they were supporting crossed the finish line was one of those moments that made your heart burst with pride. This was a wonderful example of our boys displaying the school values and showing ‘strength and love’; being remarkable role models for the younger students.
Thinking back to the holiday break there was a great time of reflection on the role models that our students have to look up to. The societal challenges that we are currently facing are very evident at this time in our communities. In reflecting on our wellbeing programs recently one of the prominent action items was the involvement of parents and the wider community in the school’s wellbeing programs. I am so fortunate in my role to have many and varied discussions around a range of issues affecting young people and in particular our boys. There are many people in our community who are so passionate about wellbeing and I want to continue to set a goal to engage the wider community in supporting our students. Giving the boys the role models that they deserve to hear from, see and be guided by in how they interact and engage in our community and society in general. It is becoming clearer and clearer as a society that these role models are not coming from YouTube or TikTok.
The conversations that are occurring around mental health and wellbeing are so important for all of us. Many of these conversations talk about the importance of connections and as a community we continue to strive to grow these connections. I would like to bring your attention to the URStrong parent/child online workshop which will be occurring on May 22 at 6pm. Hosted by Tyson Greenwood, the director of URStrong schools, a number of Australian schools will be taking part. You can register at this link. Understanding the language of relationships used by our teachers to support the students can help build that connection between school and home and this online workship will provide famileis with this opportunity.
I wanted to take this time to remind all of our families of our access to the digital platform SchoolTV as a resource for the community. SchoolTV has an extensive range of wellbeing resources. Parents can access this tool from a tile in Keystone or by following this link.
If you have any aspect of your son’s wellbeing that you would like to discuss, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Ben Storer
Deputy Head of Junior School – Wellbeing and Administration