Dear parents,

Recently parents, staff and students were invited to complete the Annual School Satisfaction Survey.  While the participation rate was not as high as in previous years it still, according to the survey designers, had a high enough response rate to gauge parents opinions on a range of issues related to the school.

As with last year’s responses, we will share these over the next four newsletters and then the results for all three surveys will be placed on our website under the ‘Our School’ tab, then reports and publications.

The first item is one that has created some discussion amongst staff and parents. The vast majority of parents see our school as a safe place for their child. Like any school there are times when relationships and interactions between students is not what we would expect. In these situations they are not adhering to our 5 Cs, which forms the basis for the expectations we have of our students.

We must remember we are dealing with children from five years to twelve years of age, who besides being educated academically, are also learning how to control their emotions, how to be resilient and, most importantly, how to treat others with dignity and respect.

Like all schools we have incidents where children become frustrated, angry and over competitive. This may lead to acting in inappropriate ways, which we follow up with those involved and their parents.  Bullying does happen as in any school, but is not common.  There is a distinction between children being rude, being mean or bullying another student.

Coming home tonight via Szapp to all families is an article provided by Mr Hart outlining the difference between the three forms of inappropriate behaviour mentioned above. I ask all parents to carefully read the article.

Thank you to those that assisted today to make Mother Teresa Feast day such an enjoyable experience for all the students, especially the dads who helped cook nearly 1000 sausages.

Maths Problem

Congratulations to Willem van Galen who was last week’s winner. Today’s problem is below.

Mr Gump’s 7-hump Wump has 8 feet to support its body and its 7 humps: our 1-hump Wump has only 4 feet.  From doing a bit more research, we learn that a 4-hump Wump has 6 feet, and a 10-hump Wump has exactly 10 feet.  How many feet are needed to support a 13-hump Wump?  What about a 25-hump Wump?  Create a table to help you solve the problem.  What patterns did you find?  What is the rule? Use the rule to find the number of feet needed to support a 100-hump Wump.

Enjoy your weekend.

God Bless

Peter Hughes