Good afternoon.
It was wonderful to welcome our Year 1 students to campus this week. Today marked the first day with all 120 smiling and eager children in. Watching their wonder and amazement at entering Discovery College was a privilege. I have to say this was the smoothest transition into school I’ve seen in my time in education.
A huge thank you to our Year 1 team, specialists and all those involved here at school for making this week a memorable and magical one.
I’d also like to say a huge thank you to you. This week marks an important milestone for us as a community as we welcome the students back to DC. We recognise and acknowledge there have been challenges along the way but we as a community are resilient, respectful and believe in open-communication. Our conversations have helped get us to where we are today.
This week reminded me of the wonder that is a child.
With so much going on globally, locally and personally it is sometimes easy to miss the things that are right in front of us.
Children have a magical way of always being present and in the moment without the worries and stresses we have as adults. They are experiencing firsts more often than we do and we get to relive moments of our youth through them. Children jump in head first to new experiences without the fear and hesitation we often harbour from our pasts.
Children act and engage in ways to learn and test theories. This process of finding out, inquiring and seeking to understand is ongoing throughout childhood.
My challenge to us, as a community of adults, is to remember, as our children come home after school or as we sit around the dinner table, to ask questions that bring their wonder, their experiences to the surface.
Questions to find out more about the school day could include:
- Tell me about the best part of your day.
- What was the hardest thing you had to do today?
- Did any of your classmates do anything funny?
- Tell me about what you read in class.
- Who did you play with today? What did you play?
- Do you think math [or any subject] is too easy or too hard?
- What’s the biggest difference between this year and last year?
- What rules are different at school than our rules at home? Do you think they’re fair?
- Who did you sit with at lunch?
- Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?*
These aren’t to be read as a grocery list but a starting point. Often the most common question is ‘How was school?’ FINE! or ‘What did you do today?’ NOTHING!. The above questions provide the opportunity to go deeper.
Along those same lines, throwing in some ‘wondering’ questions around the dinner table might surprise you.
Questions like…
If you could ask a wild animal any question, what would you ask?
What makes someone smart?
What makes you feel loved?
What’s a memory that makes you happy?
What’s your superhero name and what powers do you have?*
The importance doesn’t lie in the question but in the conversation and interaction that is a result of asking the question in the first place.
The start of face to face school is an excellent opportunity to build questions like these into your routines. It’s a chance to keep the wonder growing.
Have a wonderful weekend and we look forward to welcoming the Year 2 and 3 students Wednesday 23 September 2020.
Josh Blue
Head of Primary