I had the pleasure of accompanying our Head Boy, Cason Ho and our Head Girl, Christina Koutsoukos on a youth leadership conference last week. These two impressive young people are prime examples of skills to which I refer. We had not even landed in Canberra, and I had a lady seek me out on the plane to positively gush about what wonderful ambassadors these two young people were for the school. The impact their personal skills and values had on those around them was palpable. This continued throughout the conference. This naturally is a great credit to these students in their own right and certainly to their families but I like to believe that the impact of a caring well rounded education played its part
too. What are some of the simple behaviours that we can work on with all our children to help build their social confidence beyond their peer group. - Naturally modeling the desired interactions is an obvious strategy we all use.
- Perhaps encourage children to initiate a
handshake when greeting a person they do not see daily.
- Prime and prepare children for social situations they are likely to find intimidating or overwhelming.
- Role play social interactions at home.
- Encourage full sentence answers to questions from others and try to practice initiating reciprocal questions.
- Remember that failure to demonstrate these behaviours often stems from shyness and lack of confidence and that
building these skills is a process.
Strong communication skills are among the most important skills students can acquire. At Ellenbrook we will always endeavor to make this a core part of what we offer our students. Attendance
I would like to remind all parents about the importance of regular attendance at school. Naturally illness will occur and such absence is expected. Avoidable absence such as missing school due to holidays being taken during term time should be avoided as it has a negative impact on student learning. If your child is absent for whatever reason, please ensure that you communicate that to the school as early as possible. Celebrations
I would like to congratulate Alex Robinson on being selected to represent Western Australia in Australian Canoeing National Spring Championships. We wish him every success. Declan Hoskin qualified to participate in the Golf WA Amateur Championship of Western Australia, we congratulate him and wish him every success. We also congratulate Kaitlyn Jacques on being offered a placement as a peer mentor with Fusion Australia on the Uluru Pilgrimage. Annual College Members Meeting
We look forward to seeing a good turn out at the Annual College Members Meeting this Tuesday 15 March. The current College Committee serving member positions will be declared vacant and College Members will have the opportunity to vote on new nominees. I will introduce the Key Leadership Team for Ellenbrook. The meeting commences at 7:00pm in the Library (previously called the Venn). “A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books.
“ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Justin Krause
Principal
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