Quarantine Dreaming
I write this week's Messenger Article four days into seven days of quarantine after contracting COVID sometime early last week. While I've been lucky and had only mild cold symptoms, being locked in the bottom end of our house and having food left at the door three times a day has not been a fulfilling experience. This lacklustre time has been further amplified by the lack of televisions in this part of our house and, to top it off, poor quality wifi. I need to own the internet issue... my daughters have complained about the internet down here for years, and I've done precious little to fix the problem.
Tom Ryan's Y8 Humanities Class Exploring the history of the Battle of Hastings
During my time incarcerated with the Labradors, I've been disappointed to miss out on key events during the last two weeks of term. However, it has given me the chance to reflect on our term here at Woodleigh.
I was beginning to celebrate my first lockdown-free term at Woodleigh, thinking that the great state of Victoria would not consider such measures again. However, I sadly overlooked my own circumstances, and as such, my dream of an uninterrupted term continues to elude me. Nonetheless, I hope to return to School this week, healthy and COVID-free, to defend the honour of the Senior Campus staff in the Fight MND staff-student netball game happening Thursday at lunchtime. I can already feel my calves and hamstrings twinging.
Staff vs Students Netball Match. Raising funds for Motor Neurone Disease Research
A Very Successful Term 1
Outside of my short spasms of self-pity, I managed to reflect on what has been an incredibly positive term for our School. Despite a rapid surge in COVID numbers, our weekly case numbers have remained relatively controlled. My colleagues at other schools have endured far greater positive cases in staff and students. We have also managed to run an almost normal calendar of events. While some slight variations were made to minimise risk, we managed to conduct Camps, Activities, Inter-School Sports, Excursions, Incursions, School Meetings, Assemblies and large community gatherings – all of which were incredibly successful and healing for our community.
I have particularly enjoyed spending time with our students as they move away from their virtual worlds and re-engage with each other and the School in the physical world. Our children seem more appreciative of these opportunities than ever before – each experience bringing a joy and excitement that many of us have not seen or felt for some time.
4Y0 Early Childhood Students working with Lionel Lauch from Living Culture
Relationships and Experiences Set Us Apart
I have often said that relationships and experiences give meaning and purpose to our School. The full range of experiences offered during Term 1 have enhanced and developed our students' relationships with their peers and teachers alike.
As parents, teachers and school leaders, we all have a moral purpose to do the best for the students in our care. To encourage them, support them and guide them to be the best person they can be. Every day across our campuses, I see wonderful young people who love learning, love interacting, and want to be the best version of themselves. I also see teachers and staff members working alongside our students, encouraging them and supporting their growth and development. As a Principal and a teacher, nothing is more inspiring, which is why I come to work at Woodleigh every day
Charlie Stevering Y10 completed the World's Greatest Shave, raising nearly $1400 to go toward beating blood cancer.
Happy to be at School
Our students and community have a new sense of appreciation for school, the experiences we all take part in, and our relationships with each other.
I want to thank and congratulate our students for being themselves and engaging with our school in such a positive and purposeful manner. I also want to thank our families for continuing to support our school and entrust us with your children's education. The old adage, 'The apple doesn't fall far from the tree,' is very true at Woodleigh. Great kids come from great families.
Thank you to our staff, who have worked tirelessly to ensure our students have had as normal a term as possible. They have covered for each other when we have often experienced staff shortages. They have planned for and implemented great learning experiences to ensure our students are engaged and motivated. Most importantly, they continue to be committed professionals who love their students and love working at Woodleigh.
I would like to wish every member of our community a very restful holiday period with friends and family, and I hope to see all of our students again in Term 2, safe and well.
Take care over the break,
DAVID BAKER Principal
News from the First Aid Room
As we move into 2022, there are several key changes that will be occurring across the First Aid rooms. These changes are to ensure we maintain a best practice approach and to ensure we meet evolving risk management and compliance requirements.
1: Medication Administration
The school is moving towards paracetamol being the only over the counter medication that will be supplied to students (and only when parent permission has been provided via Operoo). All other medication will need to be supplied from home, in the original packaging, with the student's full name, the medication dosage, administration advice, and parent name and signature supplied. The medication will then be stored in the First Aid room and will be provided to your child when the need arises. (my comment – perhaps this is via Operoo form).
We understand that this is a change from existing practice; however, external consultants have advised that this is the best course of action for all parties. If your child requires any over the counter medication, we ask that you complete the Operoo Medication Authority form available here as soon as possible and deliver the medication to the relevant First Aid Officer.
2: Questions to be removed from Operoo Medical form
We are also writing to advise that we will no longer request Medicare numbers, ambulance cover status or private health cover information. This information is not critical to an emergency response and does not impact our emergency treatment protocols, and, in keeping with our Privacy Policy, we believe we should not hold this data as a matter of course. If particular camps, excursions, or activities require this information, we will request it on the Operoo form specific to the event and only hold the data for as long as it is required.
3: Staying Current
When providing first aid to your child, the information you provide via Operoo is critical. We ask that all parents review and update their child's Operoo Profile regularly, particularly when there is a change in health circumstances. If your child requires a Health Management Plan (i.e., asthma, allergy, anaphylaxis, diabetes, epilepsy), we ask you to check their expiry dates and upload updated plans onto the Operoo platform.
4: Anaphylaxis: EpiPen versus Anapen
Woodleigh staff have just completed their six monthly Anaphylaxis briefing. The training we undertake is related to the use of EpiPens rather than Anapens, so we ask that parents of anaphylactic children provide the school with an EpiPen rather than an Anapen.
As always, if your child has health issues that you wish to discuss, please get in touch with the School Nurse, Di Mold, on 5971 6100.
Safe and Sand
Penbank Year 6 Students have recently spent two days dialling up their lifesaving skills with the help of sports teacher Pete McGettigan and the crew at Mornington LSC.
Rescues, beach games and first aid training were all addressed on the picturesque sands of Mills Beach.
As Woodleigh students and families, we live by the beach, and we love it, but it's important that we understand and respect it.
Harmony Day Picnic 2022
Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.
Last week, the Woodleigh community came together at Penbank to share a night of music, food, family and fun.
Thank you to Jess Hitchcock, the Stiletto Sisters and IOP Hiphop for bringing such warmth, creativity, and energy to our school!
The Value of a Strength-Based Approach
In the last two years, our young people have spent increased amounts of enforced time with their parents and have relied on parents for vital sources of social support during school closures. This increased time and reliance on parents means that the style of parenting received during lockdown is likely to have a significant impact on the degree to which an adolescent can grow through the stress they are experiencing.
(Evans et al., 2020).
As we end Term 1, 2022, let's be grateful for our first full term back on campus for two years and acknowledge becoming a vibrant community again. It has been a very full calendar so far, which has included camps, Homestead night, activities, in-real-life classes, excursions, swimming & athletic carnivals, the year 12 formal and more.
However, navigating this welcome change is not without its challenges. There is the ongoing impact of COVID, increased separation anxiety from home and family, and the self-regulation and cognitive focus required by each individual to re-enter shared spaces such as classrooms and Homesteads. We see students with reduced capacity to concentrate for extended periods, navigate and calibrate changes to social networks and peer groups, and be with and around people most of the day. We have also noted some students struggling to enact an increased degree of independence and organization, and so it goes.
Keep in mind that for our young people, their brain architecture and physiology are simultaneously having some significant overhauls and renovations, which can make it harder for them to think logically and rationally. We – the grown-ups in their lives – need to know that at any point, we can help them or hinder them from getting back on their feet and moving forwards – gently and steadily.
The value of Strength‐based parenting
Professor Lea Watershas researched and written extensively on the subject of Strength-based parenting, which she describes as,
"an approach where parents deliberately identify and cultivate positive states, processes and qualities in their children. It's about connecting your kids with their inborn strengths such as strengths of character (eg. humour, kindness) as well as their talents such as writing or sporting ability. These strengths are the inner resources contained within our kids that help boost their life satisfaction."
Even before COVID, it was well documented that adolescence is a time when life satisfaction drops off. This is especially significant as we know that life satisfaction acts as a buffer against the development of psychological disorders during adolescence. Research identifies that young people with higher levels of life satisfaction have stronger emotional, academic, and social skills.
Hence, it may be more important than ever for parents to find deliberate ways to boost their child's life satisfaction, and Strength-based parenting is one such approach.
Research shows that children and teenagers who have strength-based parents:
- Have higher levels of life satisfaction
- Have a better understanding of their own strengths
- Cope with conflict in more proactive ways
- Use their strengths to help them meet homework deadlines
- Have lower levels of stress.
- Have enhanced a sense of self‐efficacy, which is a factor that assists young people to cope and be adaptive
Strength-based parenting doesn't just benefit our children; it also improves our life satisfaction and confidence as parents and promotes a shared understanding and value of each family member's wellbeing.
Practical tips for parents to apply to strength-based parenting
Strengths spotting: Think about the strengths that underpin your child's actions and let them know what you see. Spot the kindness that underpins their sharing with their friends, their self-control to finish homework on time rather than watch TV and the persistence they're using in sports training.
Strengths letter: Write a letter to your child letting them know about the strengths you see in them and how these strengths will help them cope with challenging times as well as helping them to thrive during good times.
Strengths surveys: There are many online surveys that children can take to help them identify and think about their strengths. The Gallup Institute has the StrengthsExplorer for children aged 10-14 and the StrengthsQuest for children aged 15-25.
If parents and children are interested in identifying personality strengths, they can go to The Values in Action Institute and complete the free online VIA-Youth survey. This is something that most of our students have undertaken at school.
Strengths role model: It always helps to see how other parents and kids are using their strengths. Visit the The Strengths Exchange and discover how parents and children of all ages apply character strength to every day.
For now
As a community, we have much to be grateful for as there continues to be much adversity occurring in our world right now (the war in Ukraine, natural disasters, climate change). And it can be a sad and overwhelming time for our students, our children and ourselves. We may not be able to control the things that happen in the world, but the value of a Strength-based approach can influence a young person's capacity to cope and potential to grow through life's stressors. And can help us all be stronger as we navigate the next stage together.
In kindness,
DONNA NAIRN
Director of Counselling – WOODLEIGH SCHOOL
Acknowledgements & further reading:
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the-value-of-strength-based-parenting
https://www.leawaters.com/the-...
https://www.leawaters.com/sbp-quiz
https://woodleigh.vic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-conflict-ukraine-au
Mother's Day Out 2022
Attention Mothers, Grandmothers, and Special Ladies! Woodleigh School invites you to join us for a very special Mother's Day event.
Join us for a beautiful day out with fellow Woodleigh ladies from our school campuses.
Cost: $80 per person
RSVP by Thursday 28 April – places are limited – so be quick!
We'd love to hear from you if you would like to promote your business with a gift bag or door prize donation.
Please click here to help support us in making this a special event for our Woodleigh ladies.
Book Now
Year 12 Drama Ensemble Performance – Christmas Down Under
Live theatre is back at Woodleigh!
The Year 12 Drama Class of 2022 is presenting their VCE Ensemble Drama performance,
‘Christmas Downunder.’
‘Christmas Downunder’ is an original piece of theatre devised by the students. It is an entertaining, family-friendly show focusing on different perspectives of Christmas.
Seating is limited. Book your tickets today and don’t miss out!
Gold coin entry – all proceeds to our Community Partnerships.
Book NowRecovering Long Overdue Library Items
Dear Parents,
Whilst the last two years have been less than ideal, it is now time to start sorting out some of the overdue items that have accumulated over that time.
To give you some background about the processes we undertake prior to requesting a replacement cost through family accounts:
- Students receive at least three automated reminders about books that are overdue – an email on the first day that the item is overdue, a second email 14 days later, and a third and final reminder 14 days after that.
- In addition to these automated emails, the library has sent out specific, targeted reminders during 2020 and 2021 and early in 2022.
Items that are placed on to family accounts as a replacement cost are very, very overdue. Although many students have only one or two items, the total cost of replacing these items is almost $7,500 – a significant sum, I am sure you will agree.
MIFFY FARQUHARSON
Head of Library Services
As we move into 2022, there are several key changes that will be occurring across the First Aid rooms. These changes are to ensure we maintain a best practice approach and to ensure we meet evolving risk management and compliance requirements.
1: Medication Administration
The school is moving towards paracetamol being the only over the counter medication that will be supplied to students (and only when parent permission has been provided via Operoo). All other medication will need to be supplied from home, in the original packaging, with the student's full name, the medication dosage, administration advice, and parent name and signature supplied. The medication will then be stored in the First Aid room and will be provided to your child when the need arises. (my comment – perhaps this is via Operoo form).
We understand that this is a change from existing practice; however, external consultants have advised that this is the best course of action for all parties. If your child requires any over the counter medication, we ask that you complete the Operoo Medication Authority form available here as soon as possible and deliver the medication to the relevant First Aid Officer.
2: Questions to be removed from Operoo Medical form
We are also writing to advise that we will no longer request Medicare numbers, ambulance cover status or private health cover information. This information is not critical to an emergency response and does not impact our emergency treatment protocols, and, in keeping with our Privacy Policy, we believe we should not hold this data as a matter of course. If particular camps, excursions, or activities require this information, we will request it on the Operoo form specific to the event and only hold the data for as long as it is required.
3: Staying Current
When providing first aid to your child, the information you provide via Operoo is critical. We ask that all parents review and update their child's Operoo Profile regularly, particularly when there is a change in health circumstances. If your child requires a Health Management Plan (i.e., asthma, allergy, anaphylaxis, diabetes, epilepsy), we ask you to check their expiry dates and upload updated plans onto the Operoo platform.
4: Anaphylaxis: EpiPen versus Anapen
Woodleigh staff have just completed their six monthly Anaphylaxis briefing. The training we undertake is related to the use of EpiPens rather than Anapens, so we ask that parents of anaphylactic children provide the school with an EpiPen rather than an Anapen.
As always, if your child has health issues that you wish to discuss, please get in touch with the School Nurse, Di Mold, on 5971 6100.
Penbank Year 6 Students have recently spent two days dialling up their lifesaving skills with the help of sports teacher Pete McGettigan and the crew at Mornington LSC.
Rescues, beach games and first aid training were all addressed on the picturesque sands of Mills Beach.
As Woodleigh students and families, we live by the beach, and we love it, but it's important that we understand and respect it.
Harmony Week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.
Last week, the Woodleigh community came together at Penbank to share a night of music, food, family and fun.
Thank you to Jess Hitchcock, the Stiletto Sisters and IOP Hiphop for bringing such warmth, creativity, and energy to our school!
In the last two years, our young people have spent increased amounts of enforced time with their parents and have relied on parents for vital sources of social support during school closures. This increased time and reliance on parents means that the style of parenting received during lockdown is likely to have a significant impact on the degree to which an adolescent can grow through the stress they are experiencing.
(Evans et al., 2020).
As we end Term 1, 2022, let's be grateful for our first full term back on campus for two years and acknowledge becoming a vibrant community again. It has been a very full calendar so far, which has included camps, Homestead night, activities, in-real-life classes, excursions, swimming & athletic carnivals, the year 12 formal and more.
However, navigating this welcome change is not without its challenges. There is the ongoing impact of COVID, increased separation anxiety from home and family, and the self-regulation and cognitive focus required by each individual to re-enter shared spaces such as classrooms and Homesteads. We see students with reduced capacity to concentrate for extended periods, navigate and calibrate changes to social networks and peer groups, and be with and around people most of the day. We have also noted some students struggling to enact an increased degree of independence and organization, and so it goes.
Keep in mind that for our young people, their brain architecture and physiology are simultaneously having some significant overhauls and renovations, which can make it harder for them to think logically and rationally. We – the grown-ups in their lives – need to know that at any point, we can help them or hinder them from getting back on their feet and moving forwards – gently and steadily.
The value of Strength‐based parenting
Professor Lea Watershas researched and written extensively on the subject of Strength-based parenting, which she describes as,
"an approach where parents deliberately identify and cultivate positive states, processes and qualities in their children. It's about connecting your kids with their inborn strengths such as strengths of character (eg. humour, kindness) as well as their talents such as writing or sporting ability. These strengths are the inner resources contained within our kids that help boost their life satisfaction."
Even before COVID, it was well documented that adolescence is a time when life satisfaction drops off. This is especially significant as we know that life satisfaction acts as a buffer against the development of psychological disorders during adolescence. Research identifies that young people with higher levels of life satisfaction have stronger emotional, academic, and social skills.
Hence, it may be more important than ever for parents to find deliberate ways to boost their child's life satisfaction, and Strength-based parenting is one such approach.
Research shows that children and teenagers who have strength-based parents:
- Have higher levels of life satisfaction
- Have a better understanding of their own strengths
- Cope with conflict in more proactive ways
- Use their strengths to help them meet homework deadlines
- Have lower levels of stress.
- Have enhanced a sense of self‐efficacy, which is a factor that assists young people to cope and be adaptive
Strength-based parenting doesn't just benefit our children; it also improves our life satisfaction and confidence as parents and promotes a shared understanding and value of each family member's wellbeing.
Practical tips for parents to apply to strength-based parenting
Strengths spotting: Think about the strengths that underpin your child's actions and let them know what you see. Spot the kindness that underpins their sharing with their friends, their self-control to finish homework on time rather than watch TV and the persistence they're using in sports training.
Strengths letter: Write a letter to your child letting them know about the strengths you see in them and how these strengths will help them cope with challenging times as well as helping them to thrive during good times.
Strengths surveys: There are many online surveys that children can take to help them identify and think about their strengths. The Gallup Institute has the StrengthsExplorer for children aged 10-14 and the StrengthsQuest for children aged 15-25.
If parents and children are interested in identifying personality strengths, they can go to The Values in Action Institute and complete the free online VIA-Youth survey. This is something that most of our students have undertaken at school.
Strengths role model: It always helps to see how other parents and kids are using their strengths. Visit the The Strengths Exchange and discover how parents and children of all ages apply character strength to every day.
For now
As a community, we have much to be grateful for as there continues to be much adversity occurring in our world right now (the war in Ukraine, natural disasters, climate change). And it can be a sad and overwhelming time for our students, our children and ourselves. We may not be able to control the things that happen in the world, but the value of a Strength-based approach can influence a young person's capacity to cope and potential to grow through life's stressors. And can help us all be stronger as we navigate the next stage together.
In kindness,
DONNA NAIRN
Director of Counselling – WOODLEIGH SCHOOL
Acknowledgements & further reading:
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the-value-of-strength-based-parenting
https://www.leawaters.com/the-...
https://www.leawaters.com/sbp-quiz
https://woodleigh.vic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-conflict-ukraine-au
Attention Mothers, Grandmothers, and Special Ladies! Woodleigh School invites you to join us for a very special Mother's Day event.
Join us for a beautiful day out with fellow Woodleigh ladies from our school campuses.
Cost: $80 per person
RSVP by Thursday 28 April – places are limited – so be quick!
We'd love to hear from you if you would like to promote your business with a gift bag or door prize donation.
Please click here to help support us in making this a special event for our Woodleigh ladies.
Book Now
Live theatre is back at Woodleigh!
The Year 12 Drama Class of 2022 is presenting their VCE Ensemble Drama performance,
‘Christmas Downunder.’
‘Christmas Downunder’ is an original piece of theatre devised by the students. It is an entertaining, family-friendly show focusing on different perspectives of Christmas.
Seating is limited. Book your tickets today and don’t miss out!
Gold coin entry – all proceeds to our Community Partnerships.
Book NowDear Parents,
Whilst the last two years have been less than ideal, it is now time to start sorting out some of the overdue items that have accumulated over that time.
To give you some background about the processes we undertake prior to requesting a replacement cost through family accounts:
- Students receive at least three automated reminders about books that are overdue – an email on the first day that the item is overdue, a second email 14 days later, and a third and final reminder 14 days after that.
- In addition to these automated emails, the library has sent out specific, targeted reminders during 2020 and 2021 and early in 2022.
Items that are placed on to family accounts as a replacement cost are very, very overdue. Although many students have only one or two items, the total cost of replacing these items is almost $7,500 – a significant sum, I am sure you will agree.
MIFFY FARQUHARSON
Head of Library Services