Open Letter to Parents!

I will openly admit that after my experiences this past year with one of my children’s classes, I was nervous about what was to happen for next year. I met with Wendy when the notes for preferences were handed out and it was then that the idea of the multi level classes was put forward to me. My initial thought was that it sounded awesome.


My thoughts now, I still think that it will be awesome.

The way each class has been allocated means that those that are at the higher end of a bandwidth will continue to excel, those that are struggling will be gaining the extra help that they deserve and those that are on par with their own year level will keep gaining strength. All of these classes have been hand picked by the teachers that have had those students this past year and the teacher for next year as well as the principals. I won’t get into the academic side of that, I am not qualified to do so and therefore simply cannot and will not judge the decisions being made here.

I know there has been lots of talk about social behaviours amongst students. If you take the example of the 4/5/6 classes, which incidentally I have 2 children in 2 separate classes here, you will have year 4 students looking up to their peers, you will have year 5 students blending together with year 6 students and you will have year 6 students showing leadership qualities towards the younger kids in their class. To me this screams that bullying will be stamped out and I personally will raise a glass to that!

The way I look at it is, together, I am sure that the teaching staff here at Howard Springs Primary school has in excess of 100 years teaching capabilities. The staff here also spends 6 and a half hours a day with my kids, so over 30 hours a week with them. Through the week, I spend a total of 25 hours with them. During that time, they are off playing, eating, showering etc so my one on one time diminishes greatly and remember I have 5 of them. Of course I am excluding weekends here but what I am trying to say is that these teachers, know our kids, perhaps they may even know them better than we do in some instances and I honestly believe that by devising this plan of class structures for next year that they do in fact have all of our children’s best interests in mind.

I have had children at school for the past 14 years both here and in Queensland, I have confidence in all the staff here and I have been in a lot of classes over the past 3 and a half years and have never doubted any of the teaching staff here at Howard Springs.

No one likes change, normally I don’t either but this time, there is too much at stake and I know that Wendy would not set her students, her staff or herself up to fail.

I really think that this will work but we need to stand together as a community and show our support to not only Wendy but all of her staff here, we need to show our children that this is a great school that they will succeed in better outcomes and no doubt be much happier in class.

Have belief that this will be a positive outcome, give it a go, I am sure that you will see progress immediately.



**I would also like to add that after last nights meeting, I was appalled by the behaviour of some parents, I felt that I should be beating my head against a brick wall continuously!