Emma Clemens – Deputy Head of Primary

Paws b Mindfulness

At the end of Term 1, I was very fortunate to participate in the Paws b Mindfulness training through Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP). In 2016 the students in Years 2-4 were all trained in the Paws b curriculum. This program is designed for students who are 7-11 years old. We also teach .b Mindfulness in Year 6. This program is also developed by MiSP and is designed for students who are 11-18 years old. In the Primary School we now have an ongoing cycle of children in Year 2 participating in Paws b and children in Year 6 participating in the .b program. Throughout this term I will be writing about the content in the Paws b curriculum and how parents can implement some of the strategies and key concepts at home.

Mindfulness has significant benefits for emotional wellbeing, mental health, ability to learn and physical health. “Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment”’ (John Kabat-Zinn). It also enables children and adults to think more clearly, perform at a higher capacity and feel less anxious or depressed. Mindfulness assists with quieting the mind’s chatter to concentrate on what really matters. The powers of neuroplasticity mean that children can use mindfulness to train and develop neural pathways so that there is a higher left to right dominance in the prefrontal cortex. The left prefrontal cortex is associated with feelings of compassion, happiness and positivity.

The title ‘Paws b’ comes from the idea that our mind can often act like a puppy. Therefore, training our attention is like training a puppy. Our mind wanders around sniffing aimlessly and it doesn’t stay put when we want it to. When training a puppy you might say “sit” or “stay”. But when you ask a puppy to sit it doesn’t always listen the first time. Sometimes it rolls on the floor, jumps up or even runs away. Likewise, our minds also don’t always stay still, particularly in the early stages of our mind training.

A puppy also brings things back that you don’t want. Similarly our mind often brings back things we didn’t ask for and it can make a mess. A puppy often finds an old sock or a chewed tennis ball and playfully brings it back to you. This is just like our mind. We want it to pay attention to one thing and then it goes off in a totally different direction. When training a puppy you need to be firm, patient, kind and have lots of repetition. This is also important when training our mind.

The first key concept taught in Paws b is that we can use our mind to train our brain. Our brain is an organ in our skull. But our mind is often outside of our body, travelling around focusing and thinking about all different things. Different experiences and activities make changes to our brain and this is called neuroplasticity. It’s really exciting that we can train the muscles of our mind to be more effective and efficient. We can use our mind to place more focus and attention on skills we’d like to improve and manage things that are difficult. The more we train our mind, the better we get. We can also train our mind to grow happiness. Mind training is about problem solving as well as focusing on pleasant and positive experiences to help grow happiness. In my next article I’ll outline the concepts taught to students about ‘Team Brain’ made up of the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, amygdala and insula.

Mobile phones

These are the rules for use of mobile phones for Primary School students at school. These guidelines are in place to reduce unnecessary screen time as well as preventative measures for viewing or sharing unhelpful digital content.

• Primary students are not to use mobile phones before school or during the day
• Mobile phones must be kept in school bags throughout the day
• Primary students can only use mobile phones after school to contact parents/carers regarding pick up arrangements
• Any mobile phone that is out during the day or being used for games after school will be taken from the student and stored in my office to be collected in the afternoon
• Students who break the rules repeatedly may have their phone taken for longer periods of time and we may request parents to come in in person to sign out the mobile phone.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Jesse Gothelf who was placed third at the NSW Combined Independent Schools (CIS) Tennis. Jesse was competing against thirteen other teams. The competition was incredibly tough as the students selected to participate were from across NSW. Jesse was also selected to be one of seven boys to represent NSW at the National Championships in Victoria. Well done Jesse on an outstanding result.

Chess success

Last Friday afternoon the Primary School Team A chess team competed against St Therese Mascot. They won 4-0. Congratulations to the students who competed and thank you to Colleen Elkins for training and supporting the team.

NAPLAN

This week the Years 3 and 5 students were involved in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). NAPLAN assesses key skills that are important to school and life including reading, writing, spelling and numeracy. Whilst the NAPLAN results provide helpful data to inform student learning, we know that the result of a test cannot fully represent what is exceptional and unique about each child. We are proud of all Year 3 and 5 students who completed the NAPLAN assessments this week, but more importantly we celebrate the growth and development they will make in all aspects of life throughout the year.

Mothers Day breakfast and stall

Thank you to the P&F team lead by Ruby Berkovic and Jennifer Opit for all their wonderful organisation for the Mothers Day Breakfast and stall today. Thank you too to the Canteen. It was lovely to see so many mothers and children celebrating together. The students were also very appreciative of all the gifts prepared and sold at the stall. We wish all our mothers a very Happy Mothers Day for Sunday.

BBQ and plain clothes day

When: Monday 15 May

Why: Raising money for MDA Magen David Adom

Cost: $3.50 for sausage sizzle

Uniform: Plain clothes day

Booking: On the day, students need to bring a sealed envelope with the correct money inside (no change will be given). On the front, please write the child’s name and the order. The options are listed below:

1. Sausage sizzle $3.50
2. Gluten free sausage sizzle $3.50
3. Vegetarian sausage sizzle $3.50

Please remember: The canteen will be closed on Monday 15 May and it is requested that students do not bring dairy to school.

Upcoming dates

• 14-22 May: Year 6 Northern Territory Trip
• 14 May: BBQ and Plain Clothes Day
• 17 May: Y5-6 IPSHA Debating, Inaburra School
• 17 May: Y6 Aboriginal Dance Fusion Incursion
• 18 May: Y4-6 Before School Sport Training
• 18 May: Twilight Concert, 4:00-5:30pm and 5:30-6:30pm Millie Phillips Theatre
• 19 May: Y6 Aboriginal Virtual Reality Incursion
• 19 May: Emanuel Debating Cup Round 1
• 19 May: Y4 Allwell Testing
• 19 May: JNSW Interschool Chess Competition
• 23 May: ICAS Digital Technologies, 8:00-9:30am
• 24 May: Yom Yerushalayim celebrations
• 25 May: No Y4-6 Before School Sport Training
• 25 May: ASISSA Cross Country, 9:00-2:30pm Queens Park
• 25 May: Y5-6 Da Vinci Decathlon, 7:45-3:15pm Knox Grammar
• 25 May: Mums@the Movies, 7:15pm Millie Phillips Theatre
• 26 May: Y1 Travel Bugs Incursion
• 26 May: Y3 Bundeena Excursion
• 26 May: Y4 NSW State Library Excursion
• 26 May: JNSW Interschool Chess Competition

Term 2 K-2 assembly item

• Week 4: 19 May: Year 2 Hebrew
• Week 6: 2 June: No assembly – Shavuout
• Week 8: 16 June: 2T class item
• Week 10: 30 June: K-2 music assembly