We change our behavior when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Consequences give us the pain that motivates us to change.”  ― Henry Cloud

If you haven’t read any of the ‘Boundary’ books from Cloud and Townsend – I highly recommend them. As parents and teachers we often take the easy road and just do it for our children and students. For example: they need a new timetable – we print another, they haven’t made their lunch we quickly make it, they left their PE uniform at home, we jump in the car at a break from work and bring it to school. I have done this also as a parent. However, at other times I took the hard road: with one of my children I wrote a note regarding an uniform issue, “(Son’s name) does not have the right uniform today as they did not put it in the wash, please give him a detention if needed.” …”Oh mum!” was his response, but he grinned cheekily at me and knew he deserved this. And, as a teacher, I need to discipline myself not to give all the answers or help those students struggling.

Organisation and encouraging independence in our younger people is crucial AND hard work at this time of the year. As Cloud states – it’s painful – but we do need to make the ‘pain of staying the same’ harder. I’m not at all encouraging corporal punishment, pain can be from your child wasting their ‘play time’ reprinting their timetable themselves, making their own lunch and feeling the pressure of running late to school etc. Let’s work to train them to become more independent and responsible for their learning and lives.

Important Dates for Middle School

Every Thursday:   Homework Club at school from 3.00 – 4.00pm

Term 1

9   Feb Monday 1st period Full School Dedication Assembly
11 Feb Wednesday 5.30pm Parent Info night – begins in church at 5.30pm
20 Feb Friday Middle School Photos
24 Feb Tuesday 10.00am Middle School Leaders Induction Assembly
27 Feb Friday Legacy Cup Clean Up morning (House competition)
2 March Monday Year 7 and 8 Study Skills and Time Management Seminar
Year 8 Vaccinations
6 March Friday Year 9 Leaders – Leadership Conference
2 April Full School Easter Assembly

Term 2
Week 1 Camps
Monday Year 9 Higher Ground camp
Tuesday Year 8 Walk to Water Excursion
Wednesday Year 7 – Canberra Camp
Year 8 – Mary Valley Camp
29/20 April Student/Parent Conferences 3.30 – 7.30pm

I highly encourage you to attend the Parent Info Night next Wednesday. It is invaluable for a student if their parent meets with the Pastoral Care teacher. We will also be covering important information specific to Year 7, 8 and 9 at Glasshouse on this evening.

Communication

Please contact us and communicate regarding all and any aspects of your child’s journey while at our school. Here are some dot points regarding the best way to communicate at GCCC:

• We find emails an effective way to communicate – email addresses of particular teachers are on our school web.
• The Pastoral Care teacher is the best – first point of contact, followed by the Year level coordinator.
• Contact the Head of Middle School for any major concerns
• Give us 24 – 48 hours to sort it out – of course if it is urgent we will deal with it directly
• If you need to ring – use school hours to talk directly with the relevant person – if we’re busy we will ring you back as soon as we can.
• You can meet with us face to face – either by making an appointment or a quick chat at the end of the school day.

Connect and iLearn – What are they?

Connect – subject related information such as class work, homework, assessments, Handbooks, Forms if there are concerns such as bullying or someone is not going well.

iLearn – timetables, reports, specific documents related just to your child.

Homework Expectations for Middle School

Now is the time to start the habits and put in place a study timetable at home that suits your child’s after school programs and family times.

This is an excerpt from the Parent Handbook which can be found on Connect which may be helpful in setting this up

The following tables are guidelines of homework expectations and allocations to subjects:

Year	Hours of homework per night
7	70 minutes
8	80 minutes
9	90  minutes

 

Year Level	Year 7	Year 8	Year 9
Homework Allocation	70 minutes/day	80 minutes/day	90 minutes/day
Maths	30 min x 3 times/week	40 min x 3/week	40 min x 3/week
Science	30 min/ x 2 times/week	30 min x 2/week	40 min  x 2/week
Humanities	30 min x 3 times/week	40 min x 3/week	40 min x 3/week
French	30 minutes x 2 times/week	30 min x 2/week	60 min/week
Electives Christian St., HPE	50 min/week	40-50  min/week	70 min/week

Jacqualina Vreeling, Head of Middle School