No Images? Click here Dear friend of PLC At the Principal’s Assembly last Friday, Head Prefect, Rieley Stewart, discussed the importance of making and learning from our mistakes. "It is well to cultivate a friendly feeling towards error, to treat it as a companion inseparable from our lives, as something having a purpose, which it truly has." Maria Montessori - 1870 to 1952. Maria Montessori was an inspirational Italian physician and educator who advocated individuality, independence and experimentation. At the core of experimentation is the willingness to embrace and understand our mistakes. Mistakes are an important part of the learning process. They are positive, enabling us to progress our understanding, overcome our fears and to make courageous decisions. In order to learn from our mistakes, however, we must first reflect on our errors and subsequently extract the lessons. Mistakes are not however created equal. In Why Understanding These Four Types of Mistakes Can Help us Learn, mistakes are classified into four categories as a way of developing a better understanding about mistakes.
As we head towards the examination season, I encourage you to take the time to better understand your mistakes as a way of further developing your self-understanding and efficacy as a learner. - Dr Andrew Cousins, Deputy Principal Friday 18 AugustMid-Term Break (please note the School will be closed) STEM in Schools virtual classroom, 9.15 am - 11.40 am, Junior School Swim and Recreation Centre Monday 21 AugustMid-Term Break (please note the School will be closed) Sunday 27 AugustPerth City to Surf, Dads@PLC are leading Team PLC in the City to Surf. Find out more and join the team here. PLC OCA Annual General Meeting, 4.30 pm - 5.00 pm, Scorgie House Boardroom Wednesday 30 AugustSpring Concert, 7.00 pm - 8.30 pm, Hazel Day Drama Centre Friday 1 SeptemberDads@PLC Father's Day Breakfast, 7.30 am - 8.30 am, PLC Cafeteria and Deck Wednesday 13 SeptemberEmbrace documentary screening, 7.00 pm, Hazel Day Drama Centre, $10, book now. For the seventh year in a row, Mission Australia’s 2016 National Youth Survey has indicated that body image is among the top three personal concerns for young people. The recently released Netflix movie To The Bone highlights the journey of a young woman grappling with an eating disorder. While I always have concerns when movies display the means with which to adopt unhealthy or dangerous behaviours, I certainly give the movie credit in that it did not glorify having an eating disorder and showed the benefits of help-seeking and therapy. One of the barriers to girls having positive body image is the constant commentary on appearance and body shaming of women, this is truly toxic. Couple this with the challenges for young people of living in an online world where they unwittingly view the uploaded images of others as a normal representation of their lives, instead of the carefully staged and selected highlight reel that it is. It’s not surprising to read that Instagram is considered the worst social media site for your mental health. As we consider how we can empower girls to be more body positive, I was gratefully contacted by two PLC parents who asked if we would host a screening of the documentary Embrace. This film shares the journey of Taryn as she travels the globe conducting interviews to better understand the alarming rates of body image issues that are seen in people of all body types. We felt that the greatest success for screening this documentary was to provide the opportunity for parents and their daughters to watch it together, and the rich conversations that could occur subsequent to this. As such, I warmly invite you to come along and watch this documentary with your daughter as we inspire every girl (and parent) to embrace who they are and love the body that they are in. Embrace documentary screening - Laura Allison, Director of Wellbeing Following the terrific success of our Languages Week celebrations we were delighted to learn that our girls had won additional prizes at the state-wide Languages Week Awards. Congratulations to the following girls who won prizes, and also to those girls who were finalists in their categories: Languages in our Landscape Primary Category:
Languages in our Landscape Middle Category:
Side by Side Winners:
Let me tell you a story (bilingual Ebook)
Language of Friendship WorkshopLast week we were thrilled to have 32 families involved in the URStrong Language of Friendship workshop. This was a wonderful opportunity for students and their parents and carers to discuss common friendship issues and to practise how best to respond. Our facilitator, Deb Perich, talked through the four Friendship Facts and students had the chance to participate in role plays with trusted adults. The four Friendship Facts are:
Deb also showed the girls techniques for standing up for themselves, and the steps one might take when another person is being mean on purpose. One of the big messages from the evening was that students need to be supported through difficult social situations and they can do that most effectively with their parents and carers. We will continue to reinforce some of these strategies and develop understandings about friendship in class, and look forward to your support from home. - Louise Peyton, Head of Junior School Book Day ReminderRemember next Tuesday 22 August (first day back after Mid-Term break) is Book Day! Junior School students are invited to come to school dressed in costume and parents are welcome to join us for the Book Day Parade at 9.40 am in the Swim and Recreation Centre. Sock Appeal for UnitingCare West next weekDuring Arts Week, the Junior School will be collecting new women’s socks for UnitingCare West, to donate to women experiencing homelessness. Sock donations can be taken to the “Sock Tree” located at the Junior School Reception. Students are also invited to come to school on Wednesday 23 August (Grandparents and Special Friends Day), dressed in crazy socks. Our special visitors on that day are also encouraged to wear crazy socks and/or bring in a pair of socks for donation. Tinkering BenchWe are setting up a “Tinkering Bench” in the Junior School and are looking for donations of unused appliances to pull apart and repurpose. Items such as small appliances, radios, hairdryers, computers, fans, old power tools, screwdrivers, spanners, allen keys and hammers would be greatly appreciated. Items can be left at Junior School Reception. Please email Lesley Brady, Lesley.Brady@plc.wa.edu.au if you have any queries. JUNIOR SCHOOL KEY EVENTSTerm 3 Week 5 Parent BulletinDownload the latest Parent Bulletin STEM in Schools Virtual ClassroomDate: Friday 18 August (during Mid-Term break) Mid-Term BreakFriday 18 August - Monday 21 August Junior School Arts WeekBook Day
Celebrations - Tuesday 22 August, parade at 9.40 am (parents welcome) Dads@PLC Father's Day BreakfastDate: Friday 1 September From the Director of LearningNAPLAN Online TrialWe have now completed the online trial for NAPLAN thanks to approximately 25 girls in Years 7 and 9. Here are two examples of feedback I have received from the girls who kindly assisted with the trial. “I generally thought that it was a lot easier and less stressful using our laptops. I also found that typing was a lot easier than writing on paper.” “I much preferred the online NAPLAN. It was easier to understand and it made it harder to make silly mistakes, which I think is good because silly mistakes don’t really show how good you are academically.” This augurs well for the future. Being a laptop school, the girls are used to their devices and were comfortable with the process. The supervisor sent by ACARA was impressed with our students and said it was the only school she had supervised where all girls completed the test fully and did so in record time. However, some girls did find the reading section a little hard. It will be interesting to see the feedback that ACARA provides back to the School. NAPLAN Results 2017The NAPLAN results for this year have been provided to the School through AISWA. The individual reports are yet to arrive and when they do, we will be sending them to parents. However, I can say that the School performed above similar schools, schools in WA and nationally in all areas, and all years. This is an outstanding achievement and a credit to our teaching staff who work hard to meet each girl’s learning needs. We are busy analysing the results at the moment and are looking at areas of strengths and weakness. This will help us determine where we can tweak our teaching programmes, as we use the results to guide our teaching and for continuous improvement. - Neesha Flint, Director of Learning Winter School UniformA reminder that the new winter uniform items (waterproof jacket and fleece hoodie) are allowed to be worn at the following times:
The new items may not be worn at the following times:
Parents are also able to purchase and wear these items. Student AchievementsCongratulations to Elizabeth Crawford (Year 9) who has been selected to represent Australia in karate at the IGKA World Championships in Vancouver, Canada next month. Congratulations to Jasmine Aitken (Year 8) who also made it into the U13 State Hockey team. Apologies that we missed Jasmine when congratulating the three other girls who made the team last week. Senior School Art ExhibitionThe Visual Arts and Technology & Enterprise Departments invite all Year 7 - 12 art students and their parents to the 2017 Senior School "Embodiment" Exhibition Official Opening Night with Tessa McOnie (2008). Opening Night The exhibition will be open to the PLC community on the following dates: Community & Service LearningRSPCA Cupcake Day - Wednesday 23 AugustAt lunchtime on Wednesday 23 August, House Tutor Group 8 Ross will lead an initiative to develop teamwork and raise awareness for one of our many partnerships. RSPCA Cupcake Day is an annual event where every dollar raised will change the lives of animals in need by providing shelter, nourishment, veterinary treatment and rehabilitation. View the poster. Wear it Purple Day - Friday 25 AugustOn Friday 25 August PLC will celebrate Wear it Purple Day. Staff and students are invited to wear an article of purple clothing (eg hat, jumper, tights, shoes) in support of sexuality and gender diverse young people. Career NewsInterested in studying at UWA? UWA is running a campus tour for Year 12 students on Monday 25 September (Queen's Birthday public holiday) from 9.00 am. Register now. For more career-related news, download this week's Career News below. Boarding House NewsKristen Smith, 2018 Senior Boarder, being congratulated by other boarders from Year 11. There are more photos in this week's Boarding House news. SENIOR SCHOOL KEY EVENTSMid-Term BreakFriday 18 August - Monday 21 August Wear it Purple DayDate: Friday 25 August Principal's AssemblyDate: Friday 25 August Year 12 Boarders' FarewellDate: Sunday 27 August Spring ConcertDate: Wednesday 30 August Senior Music ShowcaseDate: Saturday 2 September Dads@PLC City to Surf - next SundayDads@PLC extend a warm invitation to all parents, daughters and siblings to join Team PLC for the 2017 Perth City to Surf on Sunday 27 August. Team PLC t-shirts for parents are available for purchase from the PLC Uniform Shop next Wednesday 23 August and Thursday 24 August. Find out more and join the team here. Open DayOpen Day is coming up on Thursday 14 September. If you know a family who would be interested in visiting our School, please let them know so they can discover why at PLC, it's personal. The day will feature traditional School tours led by students, as well as break-out presentations by speakers from all faculties including Wellbeing, Teaching & Learning, International Baccalaureate, Junior School programmes and much more. Date: Thursday 14 September Dads@PLC Father's Day BreakfastSave the date for the annual Dads@PLC Father's Day Breakfast. More details will be released shortly. Date: Friday 1 September |