Dear Minimbah Families
We’re nearly back! I hope your summer has resembled my own, relaxing, catching up with family and friends, and getting ready for what I’m sure will be an amazing 2025. 

Being back at work and catching up with the Junior Campus teaching team has been great, with the universal feeling being that we can’t wait to see students on Friday morning, ready to embrace all the challenges, experiences, and opportunities the new school year brings.

This week, Minimbah and Penbank staff join Senior Campus staff in a professional learning program featuring globally renowned educational researcher Valerie Hannon, who will join us on Wednesday. Valerie’s thought-leading work challenges us to rethink what student ‘success’ looks like in the 21st century. 

Her insights, grounded in a deep understanding of educational systems, inspire us to imagine bold, meaningful pathways for our students. Woodleigh’s Strategic Plan, ‘Learning to Thrive’ was shaped by the ideas and concepts Valerie wrote about in her acclaimed 2017 book, ‘Thrive.’

Having Valerie at Woodleigh to offer her perspective on our shared commitment to nurturing creative, compassionate, skilful, and resilient young people who are prepared to thrive in a rapidly changing world is exciting and a wonderful way for us as a staff to kick off a new academic year.

 

Remembering John Marsden

While Woodleigh’s educational culture focuses on looking ahead to envision a positive future, we must take time to honour those who have shaped the world of education. 

On 18 December last year, John Marsden, acclaimed author, educator, and founder of Candlebark and Alice Miller Schools, sadly passed away. John made profound contributions to progressive education in Australia, and his legacy as a storyteller continues to inspire young people across the world.

John famously remarked, “Running a school is probably the most intense and complicated job I’ve had in my life,” a sentiment that resonates deeply with those of us in education. His wisdom extended beyond teaching, offering guidance for parenting with his “10 Tips for Parents.” As we begin this year together, I share his words for us all to reflect upon:

  • 1. Give children space. Back off. Let them roam. Let them be bored. Don’t over-plan their lives. Cut way back on the after-school activities programs.
  • 2. Keep away from all those ghastly, soulless, sterile playgrounds. Keep away from shopping malls. Look for real places. Wild places.
  • 3. Be an adult. Say no to your children at least once a day. If the role of Adult in your family is vacant, then one of your children will fill it. And it won’t be pretty.
  • 4. Don’t take up all the space. If you are dominating, loud, forceful, your children are highly likely to become passive, lacking spirit and personality … and/or sullen.
  • 5. Believe about 40 per cent of the dramatic stories your children tell you of the injustices, corruption and satanic practices happening at school.
  • 6. Teach them empathy. For example, after their jubilant victory celebrations when they win a sporting match, remind them that their jubilation was only possible because someone else – the losers – have been made to feel awful.
  • 7. Help them develop language skills. Don’t finish their sentences for them. Don’t correct them when they mispronounce a word – they’ll work it out sooner or later. Ask them open-ended questions, that need a detailed answer, not Yes/No questions.
  • 8. Make sure they have regular jobs/duties at home and that those jobs are done to a consistently high standard.
  • 9. Don’t whinge endlessly about the miseries of your adult life. A lot of children now are fearful about growing up because their parents paint such a grim picture of the awfulness ahead.
  • 10. Teach them to be very wary of people who Absolutely Know the Absolute Truth about Absolutely Everything! The colour of truth is always grey. Extreme positions are for the ignorant. Every creature, every person and every situation is complex. The universe is a wonderful mystery.”

A Shared Vision

As we begin this new chapter, remember that we are all part of something bigger. The work we do together—as educators, parents, and students—is driven by purpose and meaning. Our school/parent partnership is driven by a shared goal to nurture confident graduates with a strong sense of self and purpose, a deep respect for learning, and an open-minded, tolerant approach to the world.

Here’s to a year filled with enthusiasm, possibility and warmth.

All the best,

ROD DAVIES
Deputy Principal and Director of Early and Primary Years