The value of persisisting

At PDS we have continued to shine the spotlight on our focus value of Growth and what it takes to grow as a learner and as a person.  When I asked students at the Green Penguin meeting this week what they thought persistence meant Safiri shared that ‘persistence is when you keep trying and trying when it’s really hard.” She was absolutely spot on.

After listening to our students and staff it has become obvious that Growth doesn’t happen when we continue doing comfortable things. The best feelings come from failing at something, persisting and finally achieving.  When we feel stretched, unsure, or even ready to give up, that is when real learning happens.  Whether you are a student learning a new concept, a teacher adapting to change, or a family member navigating challenges together, growth doesn’t just happen by chance, we need to persist. 

Every time our students are asked to persist and overcome a challenge we talk about them demonstrating a “Can do” attitude and “Growth Mindset.”  Even the smallest improvements boost confidence and prepare them for overcoming bigger challenges in the future. 

I know I’ve said this before in our school newsletter, but I challenge us all to embrace doing “hard stuff,” continuing to embrace that feeling of being uncomfortable and persisting at things until we achieve that personal Growth we all crave.  When we support our kids to persist at hard things, we build more than just knowledge, we build resilience, character and grit.

Finally, worthwhile goals that are meaningful to us will sometimes take a long time to achieve, and that is ok.  By demonstrating persistence, it ensures we are always moving forward, even if sometimes the progress feels slow.  By ensuring our students/children don’t give up and keep persisting ensures that we are giving them the skills that they require to succeed in life, so keep on persisting! 

MND Fundraiser

Yesterday we had our culminating MND fundraising event.  Thankyou to our student board, Mrs Popowski, Mrs Blair and all our staff that were willing to be “hosed down” in support of MND research.  Neale Daniher has not only demonstrated the value of persistence over a long period of time, but he has been an inspiration to us all by continuing to “show up” even when things have been incredibly hard. We are really proud to have supported this cause and by doing our bit we raised over $2500.00.  Congratulations and thankyou to everyone who has either donated or been involved in the event.

Primary Communicating with Families meetings

Thankyou to all our families that spent time celebrating their child’s learning journey last week.  We are grateful to have had nearly 300 meetings take place over the week. I would like to thank our staff for the hours they invested in supporting our students with EOL’s and spending times with families.  Our staff continue to go above and beyond in supporting our students-thankyou.

Brixhibition

Our little lego legends have been hard at it again this year and their level of creativity has been outstanding.  When we talk about demonstrating persistence, lego building is a process that requires the creator to not only persist, but modify, change and often rebuild from scratch. Thank you to Mrs McAuliffe for coordinating and to all our students that entered.  

Mid Year Reports

Our mid-term reports will be sent home on Friday July 4.

Shout Outs

• Huge shout out to our support staff eg, Eloise, Helen, Cat, Alex, Bek, Ainsley and Zac for all the work they do in the background supporting our students and families.  We would be lost without them.
• Good luck to Mrs Lusted and our Vivace Choir who will be performing at the Burnie Eisteddfod next Wednesday (June 25).  Our Boys and Girls Choir will be performing at the Devonport Eisteddfod later in the year.
• Kerson for giving some positive and well considered feedback to other students and Mrs Haberle during reading groups in recent times.
• Congratulations to our Cross Country teams who did us proud at Symmons Plains over the last two weeks.
• Congratulations to Mrs Van Essen on her being awarded the Burnie Netball Association Volunteering Award  - Very well deserved.
• Mrs Popowski, Mrs Blair and our student board for organising our MND fundraiser.

 Yours in partnership

 Adrian Beard (Assistant Principal – Primary)