Dear Parents and Caregivers

“Two salesmen were sent to a country by a Shoe Company to investigate and report back on market potential. The first salesman reported: “There is no potential there; nobody seems to wear shoes!”  The second salesman reported: “There is immense potential there; nobody really wears shoes!”

I continue to be amazed at the resilience the students have developed, during the COVID-19 period, and how they continue to gain self-confidence in their own potential. How important it is that we teach our children to have a positive attitude to life and to be optimistic about themselves; life will be fulfilling, because they were able to develop their abilities by having self-confidence. We all know from experience that what we believe about ourselves affects the way we act. Our children are likely to become the sorts of people they believe others believe them to be. As parents, we are the main influence in the development of self-belief within our children. What we say, either positive or negative, can have a long-lasting effect on our children, because they believe us.

“Careful the things you say. Children will listen.” Stephen Sondheim. 

Our children’s belief in their own ability to do things, is of great influence on their motivation, perseverance and success. Self-belief can motivate our children more than their actual skill level as well as extrinsic motivational rewards. If they truly believe they can succeed at a test or write a poem, they may be more likely to achieve it than other children who have better ability, but who don’t believe they can achieve it. The more our children believe they can do, the more likely they are to generalise that self-belief to other areas of their life. They then believe they have the ability to attempt, persevere and succeed in a whole range of activities.

Self-belief is about being aware of and valuing our true self. It is not about how others see you or how you think others see you. Self-belief is different from self-esteem because self-esteem generally means how you feel about yourself, in comparison to others, and so can fluctuate according to circumstance. Self-belief is more like an inner light that comes from within you. It is not about how we behave on the outside but rather about our inner feelings and how they make us optimistic about life.

“Promise yourself to live in the belief that the whole world is on your side, so long as you are true to the best that is in you.” Christian Larson. 

Parents can help their children to believe in their own ability by teaching them to take the initiative to make things happen, instead of waiting for them to happen. Likewise, parents can help children to be proactive by helping them – not telling them – to think about options and solutions instead of problems and barriers.

“Your mind can think of only one thought at a time; make it a positive one.” Author Unknown. 

When we, as adults, evaluate our lives, we are more likely to regret challenges we did not confront, risks we did not take and contests we did not enter as a result of self-doubt or lack of self-belief. We are less likely to regret actions we took as a result of innovative self-belief or being too optimistic or even foolish. As least we made the attempt and knew the result.

So, we need to believe in our children’s potential, like the second salesman believed in the Company’s potential. We need to inspire them to self-belief.

“After all, good habits are as hard to break as bad habits.” Frank Pajares. 

Congratulations Isabella – Makers Empire Competition Winner

This month Isabella in Year 6 won the MakersEmpire ‘Design your dream learning space’ competition. Isabella’s design in the Learning Places competition was very creative and included lots of well-designed details. Isabella’s design was selected from over 11,000 designs from all over the world entered in this competition. Congratulations Isabella!

120 New iPads

During the week, the OLA Board members approved the leasing of 120 new iPads for the Pre-Primary – Year 3, as part of the school’s Strategic Plan and Annual School Improvement Plan. The new iPads will be used in the classrooms to enhance the students’ learning, as a tool, during a range of activities, including literacy and numeracy. Thank you to the OLA Board for approving the three-year lease. Mr Morris will be coordinating the leasing so that the iPads are ready to go in Term 3.

2020 Sacraments

We have just received confirmation from our Archbishop. The Most Reverend Timothy Costelloe, we can commence planning our Sacramental Celebrations for Communion and Penance. With the decision being made, we will be consulting with Fr Ken, over the next few days, and will publish the new sacramental dates in the near future. These dates will be determined by the restrictions being lifted, (I am expecting these restrictions to be lifted in the coming weeks), to allow large crowds to congregate and celebrate the occasions. More than likely, these sacramental celebrations will be held in Term 3.

The Archbishop is still to make a decision about the Sacrament of Confirmation – I will keep you posted.

New Reports for Semester 1, 2020

Due to the COVID-19 period and the remote learning, the system has made a decision, in line with the Department of Education changes, the assessment section of the Semester 1 Report only, will be different to what parents have experienced previously. This semester’s report will have a general comment only, and not learning area comments as well as an assessment scale of Below Target, At Target and Above Target, instead of the A-E grading scale. Semester 2 reports will go back to the A-E grading scale at the end of Term 4 (Semester 2).

New Climbing Wall

During our Mozzarella meetings with the Year 6 students, a climbing wall was raised at the meeting, with the students, with members requesting a wall in the adventure playground. Taking on board what the students raised and requested, our groundsman, Mr Arace, has built a climbing wall (on a slant and not vertical) at the end of the adventure playground behind the Year 3 classrooms. Mr Arace has done a magnificent job and it will be ‘opened’ to the students next week. The next task to be completed is replacing the hand water pump in the same area.

Thank you.

Greg Martin
Principal