The focus for the fortnight is: Be safe in all Environments – I am safe and respectful when using the toilet.

This fortnight we have been talking with students about using the toilets safely and respectfully. We have discussed with students what goes in the toilets and what doesn’t, what we do when we go to the toilet and what we don’t, and we are now appealing to you to help us.

We are hoping you can remind your child about the following simple rules about using the toilets:

Be Safe - Use the toilets to do your business, and then leave. We have discussed that we go, flush, wash hands and leave. We do not play in the toilets, and we definitely do not eat in the toilets. We also wash our hands after, and when drying our hands we use one piece of paper towel and make sure it goes in the bin.

Be Respectful - We should always aim to leave the toilet cleaner than how we found it. Check the rim of the seat after you use it to make sure you haven’t left any surprises. We also flush! We do not put foreign objects down the toilet. It causes blockages and costs us extra money! We NEVER look over the stall to see what someone else is doing, we RESPECT each other’s privacy.

Sometimes we may have an accident. That’s okay, but you need to come and let us know. Great people to come and report accidents to are Courtney, Kerrie and Jade at the office.

While staff are handing out classroom points to encourage children to make strong decisions in the classroom, and gotchas for demonstrating strong independent behaviours in and around the toilets, conversations on the home front would take the support full circle. 

The SEL focus for the term is: Emotional Literacy

Emotional literacy is the ability to understand and express feelings. This includes learning how to get along with each other, share and understand our feelings.

Learning to recognise and identify their own emotions and how to respond to the feelings of others is a core part of a child’s social development. This is the foundation for developing friendships.

Emotional literacy is based on the words a child uses. Even before they learn to talk, children begin to learn this vocabulary.

So how can you support your child’s emotional development?

• Be a positive role model of what you would like your child to do.
• Name feelings for your child and refer to them regularly.
• Talk to children about your own feelings.
• Read stories about being a friend, happy feelings, sad feelings, problem solving, self-confidence, etc.
• Talk about things other people do and how they might feel.
• Build up a language of pro-social behaviour by talking about taking turns, sharing, helping, looking after others, etc.
• Explore the range of facial expressions to act out stories and explore problem solving.
• Praise your child when you notice your child is making an effort to get along with other children.