Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope this message finds you well. Please allow me to extend my thanks to the parent community for all of their support, feedback, patience, vigilance and proactivity. Your advocacy for your children is admirable and it is a pleasure to be working alongside you towards the common goals of promoting student learning and well-being. I wanted to let you know that the Prem Executive leadership team are giving our full attention to the recent and on-going health concerns that have been impacting our community and the world beyond. We recognize that this is a source of stress and discomfort for our families. Our children are our everything, and to see them unwell, or to think that they might become unwell, can be painful. It is with recognition of this that we are working as best we can to make informed and intentional decisions to best ensure our children’s health and safety.  

Here are a few things for you to know:

ISA Testing 

In September 2019 our grade 3 to 5 students participated in the International Schools’ Assessment (ISA), a program developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and designed specifically for international schools. The ISA assesses students in the three learning areas of Mathematical Literacy, Reading and Writing. Your child’s results on this assessment will be coming home today. Please remember that it is important to consider the results of this assessment in the context of other information about your child’s achievement provided by teachers and the school. 

Masks

This is a kind reminder that all students in the Junior School are required to have masks at school. While play times will be indoors in purified environments when AQI levels exceed 150, students will still need to travel outdoors to get between specialist classes. Our students’ health and safety is our number one priority and your support with this is very much appreciated. 

Parenting Workshop

We are offering a parenting workshop for Junior School parents this upcoming Monday, January 27th. Emotion coaching is informed by neuroscience and operates on the basic premise that children are able to develop their ability to self-regulate their emotions and, therefore, their behavior, through co-regulation from significant adults. This workshop provides a practical and straightforward approach that will inform your parenting. 

Please join Akane Yoshida, our MYP Learning Support teacher, on January 27th from 8:30-10:00 am in the Library (second floor) for what is sure to be an informative and empowering presentation.

Junior School Behaviour Procedures (reviewed and revised)

Our Junior School Behaviour Procedures were recently reviewed and revised. Please log into the Parent Portal on the Prem website to see the updated version. 

In synopsis, at Prem we expect all of our students to exhibit behaviours that demonstrate a: 

• respect for self.
• respect for learning. 
• respect for the community (people, property and the natural environment). 

The goals of the Prem Junior School Student Behaviour Procedures are to create a safe, compassionate and respectful environment that is conducive to learning; to develop an awareness of our own personal responses and reactions to situations; and to understand how our actions affect others and the overall school community.

Our behaviour procedures are split into three core sections: 

• Acknowledging positive and appropriate behaviour

 i.e. verbal praise, public reinforcement 

• Restorative practices 

 i.e. mediation with other students, emotion coaching 

• Interventions 

 i.e. timeout, suspension

At Prem we promote a caring and positive approach to behaviour management with a strong focus on acknowledgement of positive behaviours and the development of individualised support processes to assist all students to engage in such behaviours. Although there is a strong focus on the positive, we understand that a clear framework of interventions for inappropriate behaviour is also needed.

Respectfully yours,

A.Justin Jarman