Today was our Kinder Orientation morning and we had the pleasure of welcoming our new Kindergarten students and their families to St Anthony’s. Next we will have 76 students in our Kinder cohort, allowing for the school to run a three class model for Kindergarten

The morning session included our new kinder students spending time in the classroom whilst the parents were in the hall listening to a presentation that explored our collective vision for the students who, which is hard to believe, will graduate from St Anthony’s in 2029. I spoke to the families around the concept of partnership and how we need to be in partnership with each other. During the session we  provided parents with the opportunity to converse with each other in regards to what are our ultimate goals for their children when they attend St Anthony’s. The feedback from parents included developing their spiritual, emotional and intellectual wellbeing, building their resilience and wanting them to be ultimately happy. 

I spoke to the families about this concept of ‘happiness’. Wanting our children to be happy is important but we should not want for our children to only experience this ‘bubble of happiness’ and be sheltered from the range of other emotions. Children need to experience sadness, elation, disappointment, confusion, feedback that tells them how well they have done and feedback that explains how they need to do better. They should hear the word yes but more importantly they also need to hear the word no. When we all experience the full gamut of emotions we become a more well rounded human being who is able to cope with the joys and challenges of life due to a higher level of self-worth and resilience.

In the weeks to come we will be sending out a school survey that will ask all families to provide feedback to how we, as a Catholic school, are ultimately meeting the needs and vision for your child. I look forward to sharing this feedback with the whole school community.