28 August 2016

I was at a concert a while ago and the band's front man said,"There are two really hard things to do when performing live. The first is deciding what song to start with and other is what to end with". I have given this first post a bit of thought  and have come to the conclusion that I'll keep the content related as closely as possible to your children and the school they go to. I will, when appropriate, provide links to others work which will be thought provoking and might be the base for further discussion. I am looking forward to having those discussions with you.

My first 'song' is about school culture, in my mind one of the hardest things to define, but one of the most important things to have. After talking to many of you there are some consistent messages I am getting clearly. It seems that what many of you value about Chatsworth East is the closeness that can really only be achieved in a smaller school. The fact that your children know many of the other students across different levels and are influenced by a range of adults in a familiar, caring context is appreciated. From my experience a positive school culture, which Chatsworth East certainly has, is easier to develop in smaller schools. I have however, visited many small schools in the past that have struggled to achieve the degree of positivity, respect and oneness that occurs when things go well. I suppose the message is: culture is something we  all have  to continually work at and we all need to play our part. For all of us, including the children, it means showing and modelling respect as well as expecting it from others around us. It means understanding what we all believe in and brings us together and working purposefully towards that end collectively. Lastly for our kids, who are our focus here, it means understanding how they operate, what they value and providing an environment they love to be part of and where they can be successful and happy learners.

On that note I took the camera out during the Early Years Colours Mini Olympics and took a few pictures which show this process in action. Unfortunately because of the haze we had to postpone the junior's event which we will hold at the first opportunity.

Adrian Smith