Gowrie Street Primary School Newsletter 10th February 2023

CALENDAR

Term 1

Reminder Preps have Wednesdays off until the week of 13th March

Friday 24th February- Curriculum Day (student-free day)

Tuesday 28th February- CIRCUS DAY

Monday 13th March- Labour Day Public Holiday

Monday 27th March- Harmony Day

Thursday 6th April- Last Day Term 1

Term 2

Friday 12th May- Possum Magic Show at River links F-2

Monday 29th May- Whole School Professional Practice Day (student-free day)

SCHOOL COUNCIL

It is time for us to ask for nominees to School Council again. Please consider nominating for School Council. It is a great way to work with us to improve our school and to have input into parts of your child's experience at school.

REAL SCHOOLS

Our school has made a very important decision lately and that is to become a Restorative School. Using Restorative Practices isn’t something we take lightly. We’ve been watching what’s been happening in the world of education when it comes to creating a strong school culture, to building effective relationships, to resolving conflict and to improving student behaviour and bullying. The bottom line is that we think there’s a better way.

Restorative Practices is that way. Working restoratively is really all about asking the right questions to students when things go wrong. You see, most approaches have us putting our detective hats on and focusing everything in the past. It really doesn’t get us very far because we never get to the present or the future.

Put simply, we’ll be asking your children questions like:

· What happened?

· How has that made people feel?

· And what action needs to be taken to make that better?

It’s all about teaching responsibility for your actions and knowing that nobody is going to do it for you. Our job is to help them do just that … better and better and better.

There’s a LOT more to Restorative Practices and we’re going to ensure you find out all of it. Our ongoing Partnership with Real Schools is supporting and resourcing us to make this change and you have access to all the resources too. Just head to the Member Login tab at www.realschools.com.au and use the login/password gowriestps to have a look at all that we’re working on at school.

Stay tuned for more information on this exciting development for our school. Our first curriculum Day on Friday 24th February will be for our staff to work with Real Schools to broaden our understanding of Restorative approaches.

THIS WEEK IN PICTURES