From the Principal

Greetings,

I hope you will enjoy reading the following article from Gavin Hirschhausen, our Head of Secondary. 

Blessings to you,

Dan Clarke

Principal

Recently we had Graham Hyman visiting Geraldton to encourage us in our work with young people’s lives.  Graham worked with the year 8’s, he spoke at two staff meetings and ran a parenting session.  In the same week we had parent teacher interviews.  It was a crazy, busy time.  In all of that busyness one thing glared out at me.

Conflict – conflict between students and parents, conflict between students and teachers and conflict between students and their peers, even conflict internally for the student themselves.  What is at the core of most of this conflict is communication.  So I thought it might be good to provide parents with some tips to improve communication and also some tips that will enhance your child’s learning experience.

Below are some practical tips to assist with communication:-

• Set expectations – Get everything ready for school the evening before.
• Get in touch with class teachers and obtain a list of things that are required for that subject daily.
• Do not use parent teacher interviews to discuss problems, make appointments at separate times as there are some bigger issues to discuss.  At parent/teacher interviews, see the teachers in those subjects where he/she is doing well so that the student does not always associate your interaction with the school when he/she is doing badly.
• Use a single file with dividers for all subjects in school.  Keep colour coded subject folders at home and each weekend spend time with your son/daughter transferring the sheets of information, not directly needed, into the subject folder.  This is the beginning of ‘study’ as the student looks at the sheet a second time and, with you there, articulates to you what it’s about.  This system ensures that if the school folder is lost – only a week’s work is lost not the whole term/year’s efforts.
• Colour code the subject material – i.e. the colour code for SOSE is green, and if every piece of paper is coded with colour as it is received. It can be filed correctly and will prevent confusion.
• Spend 15 minutes each day reviewing one event (academic or other) that took place. Openly discuss and listen.
• Empty the school locker and bag at least once per week and plan for this to happen.
• Make extra copies of the timetable.

Vigilance – attend school functions – be involved.  We have an assembly once per  fortnight on a Wednesday and lots of other opportunities for you to “see” your son/daughter at school and have a shared experience that is a great opportunity for discussion.

Above all, be encouraged – the more communication, the less conflict.

Blessings,

Gavin  Hirschhausen

Head of Secondary