“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you”
~UnknownDear Parents
After our exciting theme about South Africa and our heritage dress-up day, the nursery and Pre-Reception classes have been learning about our beautiful city, Cape Town, and all the wonderful landmarks we are blessed to have on our doorstep. We did a virtual red bus “city tour” visiting Kirstenbosch gardens, the V&A waterfront, Table Mountain and all our gorgeous beaches. We learned about the flora and fauna and all the various cultures in our amazing home town
The Reception girls have been learning about “friendship and feelings” and how to be kind and caring to all, and are now learning about “Time” and eagerly preparing for “Big School” next year.
Dear Junior Primary Parents
This past Saturday I attended an all day online Conference - Teaching with Purpose. It was time well spent and I felt deeply nourished by the content covered. The presenters recognized the enormous pressure and strain placed on teachers this year and the significant rise in burnout. As teachers we are on a heightened level of alertness for ourselves, loved ones, our colleagues and our pupils. The economic crisis and the global implications in the post pandemic world are thoughts constantly on our minds.
We have also realised the incredible capacity of the human spirit to adapt and adjust to ever changing circumstances. Self care is however essential as you can’t pour from an empty cup. Time is so precious but we have to make time.
Andrew Simpson guided us to think about filling our own cups in an attitude of gratitude.
While this year has been really difficult, it has taught us so much and built a tremendous amount of resilience. I’m truly grateful for so many things and within the school context my JP colleagues have been phenomenal in modeling an exemplary work ethic and sisterhood of support. The JP pupils have shown such courage and bravery and have ignited a spirit of joyful energy. How blessed we are to work in our school setting. The backdrop of the mountain is really breathtaking.
I recommend you spend some time at the end of each day thinking about the things you are grateful for. I often ask the JP girls to think about what they are grateful for and I am amazed at the simple yet profound things they share. So while teaching the core curriculum is essential, teaching the soft skills are just as important.
I’d like to share this link : The Gratitude Experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5lZBjWDR_c
A Moving Story About Gratitude - get a glimpse of what we experience on a daily basis.
Have a great week and remain mindful of what fills you with gratitude.
MISS STUBBS
Head of Junior Primary
Gratitude is the healthiest of all emotions.
KAREN SMITH
Head of Senior Primary
Dear Springfield Families
Thank you for your patience with the haphazard process of planning and organizing the 2020 Peer Support Talent Show. Please continue to be mindful that this is a show planned, organised and executed by a group of 12 year old Grade 7 girls. We are trying our best to effectively communicate auditions and results of who is in the show - a task which is very hard with no shared break times or assemblies where effective communication can take place! The Grade 1, 2, 3 and 4 Talent shows take place on the 23rd of November and the Grade 5, 6, 7 events on the 27th November. This is a child centered event - unfortunately no adults invited! As always, you are welcome to email me on gcloete@springfieldconvent.co.za should you have questions or concerns about the show.
4 Questions to gauge your child’s mental health during the Covid-19 Pandemic
I found this article by Catherine Pearson on HuffPost interesting and have tried the questions out with a few girls - it is a great exercise and gives one good insight into how the child is coping. Tweak them a little to make them work for your child…...
Kids have been through a lot since the COVID-19 pandemic began: school closures, massive changes to how they socialize and unrelenting uncertainty about what comes next.
Fortunately, mental health experts are quick to note, children are, on the whole, resilient. But there are plenty who are struggling. In one study, 60% of teens said they’re feeling lonely and 50% said they’re feeling anxious. Up to one-third of parents say they’ve noticed their children’s mental health get worse since March.
There are many ways parents and caregivers can help children cope with the pandemic and everything it has brought about. One of the simplest is just to ask. But those conversations can be difficult, particularly if they’re new for your family or if your child isn’t particularly talkative.
Here are four simple, expert-recommended questions to get you started.
1. What do you think about what’s happening right now?
“Parents have to keep in mind that kids aren’t necessarily thinking about everything that is happening right now in the exact same way they’re thinking about it,” explained Jill Emanuele, clinical director of the Child Mind Institute’s Mood Disorders Center. “It’s really important to start with general, open questions.”
So just ask your child what they think or feel about what is happening right now. Maybe don’t even mention the COVID-19 pandemic.
Part of what this kind of broad question — and others like it — does well is help give you a sense of what your child thinks he or she knows about what’s happening in the world around them. If they’ve picked up false information, this can be a good way to talk to them about it. You can also be honest with them about what you don’t know.
2. How do you think your friends are dealing with everything?
Some kids might respond really openly to big, open-ended questions. Others might not have much to say at all. For those children in particular, it can be helpful to use their friends — or maybe even characters from a TV show they like — to back into the conversation, said Isaiah Pickens, a clinical psychologist and the CEO of iOpening Enterprises.
“You can say, ‘How do you think your friends feel about the coronavirus?’” he suggested.
Another variation of this tactic can be to gather your family — whatever your family looks like — and say something like, “Hey, let’s have a group conversation. How are we all doing with this right now?”
“If you frame it as a family conversation, the ‘heat’ is not all on the kid,” said Emanuele.
The bottom line is that some kids aren’t big talkers. That’s OK, but it doesn’t mean you should totally give up. Try and sneak it in however you can, Emanuele said — maybe not daily, or even weekly, but definitely try. She also noted that if your child used to be really responsive to conversations and now they are much more reserved, that’s something to pay attention to.
3. I’m feeling [try a bunch of different adjectives here]. How about you?
While open-ended questions are valuable — and you certainly don’t want to fall into the trap of projecting your fears and feelings on your child — it can be helpful to lead with yourself, both experts said. It helps normalize the fact that people are coping with a lot of different feelings right now. Just keep it age and developmentally appropriate.
When you start by identifying how you’re feeling, it can really help to have a lot of adjectives at your disposal, particularly if your child is younger and is just learning how to identify and put words to what they are feeling, Pickens said.
“What’s making you feel worried/nervous/excited/embarrassed to talk about?” he offered as an example.
You want to make room for your child to open up to you about different experiences and emotions, and to use a variety of language so you can help them translate what they are experiencing internally.
4. What’s got you excited right now? What are you really loving?
Another way to get a sense of how well your child is coping right now is to ask them about what they’re enjoying. You’re really getting at: How is my child coping? Pickens explained.
You could ask: “What’s giving you energy?” he said. “What’s making you happy?”
Those types of questions are also a good barometer of your child’s current mental and emotional well-being, and whether they are in any kind of distress. Parents should be on the lookout for sustained changes in their behavior, including diminished enthusiasm for activities and things they once loved.
“Any change in behavior or routine that’s not like your child and that seems like it is becoming a pattern is a red flag,” Emanuele said.
As always, let me know if you need to discuss anything.
With warm regards to you all,
GABBY CLOETE
Junior School Counsellor
The magic spell is Ctrl+Alt+Del. With some configurations of Windows, you need this to login, but its usefulness is far beyond that. Once you have logged in, Ctrl+Alt+Del will unlock these 10 items.
Lock – Anytime you walk away from your screen, you should lock your system. Locking your screen prevents anyone that does not know your password from accessing your personal or sensitive data. It also prevents accidental system modifications by furry coworkers.
Switch User – Windows has long had the ability to have more than one user log in at a time. This keeps your data safe, while your co-worker or other user on the machine can have their data safe. Just click Switch User from the Ctrl+Alt+Del screen and have the other person log in.
Sign Out – Done with your computer for the day? Sign out. Signing out is also a good troubleshooting step when something is not quite working right.
Change a Password – Many security experts recommend changing your password often and some industries require it.
Task Manager – Task manager shows you with its basic view which applications are open, and how much of your computer’s resources those applications and processes use with More Details. If you are comfortable with it, you could close an unresponsive application from this window.
There is a wealth of other information available in Task Manager, but that’s another Tech Tip for another week.
See the buttons in the bottom corner of the screen (some devices show keyboard language options in use)👉
Network
this allows you to change your wireless network or even turn on Airplane mode
7. Ease of Access – This allows you to change Ease of Access features, like Narrator, High Contrast, etc.
8. Power: this button is 3 in 1:
a. Sleep
b. Shut down
c. Restart
This special key combination; Ctrl+Alt+Del, is useful when the computer has frozen up due to a program crash, but as you can tell, it has many other applicable uses as well.
Kindest regards,
MERRILL VELENSKY
Junior School IT Teacher