ANZAC Day
The beginning of term is always an interesting time. Some girls come back incredibly excited to see their friends and teachers again, whilst others can be a little uncertain and take a while to warm back up to school life. All is absolutely normal! This term, our girls entered school and headed straight down to the hall for our annual ANZAC Assembly which is always a sombre way to start the term. That being said, I was incredibly impressed with the manner in which our girls listened carefully at Assembly and acted with great reverence. Many thanks to Mr Mike Taylor, father of Charlotte and Gerry, for playing the bagpipes for us to commence our service on Wednesday, we are grateful for your willingness to support our service.
I shared with the girls, the stories of too incredible women, Vivian Bullwinkel and Betty Jeffrey, who both made enormous sacrifices as nurses undergoing terrible hardships throughout their service at in Malaya and Singapore in the second world war. These women were inspiring, in that even in their darkest times, they never gave up, they faced the challenges and kept working for their country. Upon returning to Australia after being kept as a prisoner of war for 3.5 years, they together then made it their lives work to create memorials and to celebrate the other nurses who were not so fortunate to return.
This is just the story of two women, out of so many men and women who have, and continue to, sacrifice so much for us and our lives. At the dawn service on Tuesday, whilst making ANZAC biscuits in our classrooms, and throughout the week we remember them with gratitude, and the upmost respect. We say thank you for your service. Lest we forget.
House Cross Country
Our annual Junior School House Cross Country was held this morning, in perfect weather and with a large group of families and friends supporting our boys and girls. Our preps, 1s and 2s displayed wonderful strength and resilience as they chased and passed ‘banana man’ around the lengthy course.
Our Year 3-6s then ran up to 2.8kms and once again, displayed wonderful grit and ‘personal best’ attitude.
Congratulations to Mansfield McKie who were the overall winners of both the Girls and Boys’ 2023 House Cross Country.
Mother’s Day
The Junior School is getting ready for another fun filled Mother’s Day with our annual Mother’s Day Stall and Breakfast. Parents should look out for emails regarding these events and are reminded that all parents wishing to assist must have a valid Working with Childrens Check (WWCC)
THE PARENTS WEBSITE
This week, The Parents Website has a wonderful feature on supporting girls to regain confidence and motivation by Andrew Fuller. In this article, amongst other valuable advice, Andrew states the following,
“We need to help our girls and young women to shift from narrow perfectionism to developing strong identities and create great lives. Being timid or oblique about their capacities and strengths does them no favours. Let them know you think they are smart and can get even smarter. Everyone makes mistakes. Great people use their mistakes to get smarter and stronger.
You don’t overcome perfectionism by not making mistakes. You overcome perfectionism by making mistakes and learning how to use that knowledge to create different outcomes in the future. All great undertakings require overcoming adversity and setbacks. Once girls know that you believe in them and like them, it is useful to move them from pleasing others to self-reliance. This is the development of courageous resilience. This is best done by coaching them towards strengthening a positive sense of their identity and extending their skills in an area of their choosing. The way we do this, is called CARE coaching:
Connect Ask Reassure Empower
Create a non-judgmental environment in which they can take risks, make mistakes, and improve on their performance over time. The desire that many girls and young women have to ‘get it right’ can quickly topple into anxiety and perfectionism. Perfectionist girls may constantly seek reassurance from you that they are doing the right thing. Discuss options with them and then teach them to trust their instincts and do what they think is right.
Most girls will do what is asked of them, but they may be less likely to realise that they have acquired a transferable skill. Instead of focusing on having pleased an adult, we want them to attribute their successes to their own skills and capabilities. This builds self-efficacy, self-awareness, and meta-cognition.
Help them to develop a resume of acquired skills. Teach them that everyone can get smarter and has learning strengths they can develop. Support them in trying out and learning new things. Encourage having a go and living by your wits. Our girls and young women need us to be bold and to act as positive antidotes to the dreadful effects of the past few years.”
This is a wonderful article which supports the important work we do at
Tintern on teaching the girls the benefits of making mistakes,
overcoming challenges and developing confidence in themselves.
For further reading, parents can follow this link:
https://theparentswebsite.com.au
Alison Prandolini | Head of Girls’ Junior School
