SCOOP - TERM 2016

BROUGHT TO YOU BY DOUBLE BAY PUBLIC SCHOOL P&C

P&C
President’s Report
Welcome to the first edition of SCOOP! for 2016!
Term 2 has been busy and exciting!
The Mothers Day Breakfast was a highlight for the P&C with Fiona, Rea and Caroline
co-ordinating what was a lovely morning for mothers and children, and a huge success
for P&C fundraising. Thank you for your support of this terrific event!
The long awaited sunshade should be up over the next few weeks. We have had a
couple of issues to finalise through Council and feel positive they should be resolved
very shortly.
DATES for the DIARY:
Election Day Stalls: We look forward to a fun day on Saturday 2nd July. Please
come to school to vote and enjoy the activities on offer: face painting, jumping castle,
cake stall, White Elephant stall, sausage sizzle and coffee cart.
We need your CAKE DONATIONS on Friday 1st July - please drop them to the front
office.
DBPS Band & Choir Night: The school Bands and Choirs will be peforming on
Thurs 30th June 6pm, at Ascham School, together with Glenmore Road Public School.
The Bands and Choirs have been practising very hard, and it will be a wonderful night.
Garden Working Bee: please put Sunday 7th August in your diary for the
Garden Working Bee at school. We need as many volunteers as possible!
Thank you: to Nicole Westbury who is doing a wonderful job leading fundraising
for the P&C
Next P&C Meeting: Wed 27th July, 6pm Everyone is welcome, please come along
and be involved!
The P&C wish everyone a safe, happy and relaxing holiday,
Best Wishes,
Georgia Powell
P&C President

What Parents Need to Know about Aussie Teenagers:
10 ways to help your kids thrive
4
Pornography, peer pressure, perfectionism to
conform to social media, split families, self-harm,
parental pressure to succeed, cyber bullying
and gaming are all concerns of teenagers today,
according to the ABC 4Corners documentary Our
Kids.
In a telling episode, Australian kids from the age of 12
year to 19 years shared a glimpse of their inner world and
what their hopes, fears and dreams are for the future.
While many of the concerns are not dissimilar to
previous generation of teenagers, the explosion
of social media has expanded the horizons of our
teenagers and is having a dire impact on their selfimage,
increased exposure to world events such as
terrorism and over use of technology.
Cyber bullying is wreaking havoc with teenage
girls as well as the pressure to conform to the
perfection that girls are seeing their friends on
Instagram, Snapchat or Tumblr. A twelve year old
girl in the program told of her need to belong to
the ‘in group’ and used social media to compare
herself to others – to make sure she had the latest
white converse, the triangle bikini and Marc Jacob
jeans and watch.
Another concern for teenagers was the added
pressure of parents wanting their kids to do well
at school. These kids were concerned that their
parents are putting huge, unnecessary pressure on
kids to succeed at school as well as to participate
in an ever increasing amount of extracurricular
activities and tutoring. One girl talked about how
she was in the top maths group but her mum
doubted her. ‘I’m going to fail every test according
to mum’.
An alarming statistic in the program revealed that
30 per cent of 11-17 year old boys spend up to
3 hours a day gaming – more on weekends and
it is affecting boys ability to use their time well.
One boy said ‘I don’t have time for homework’.
They are mostly playing the game ‘call of duty’
against each other in virtual online worlds and
while gaming can have positive ramifications to
help kids think outside the box, problem solve
and build a community, there needs to be strong
boundaries and rules in place from the parents
to balance it with other activities, including
homework and sport.
The major concern for this age group, especially
among girls is the widespread use of self-harm.
Self-harm is dubbed the ‘new anorexia’ and
scarily enough this age group do not see it as
dysfunctional because it is so rife. Around 135,000
kids have self-harmed this past year. It is strongly
related to poor mental health and can take its toll
on all aspects of the teenager’s life.
Mental health in our teenagers today is at an alltime
low with one in four teens currently have
a mental health condition (including anxiety,
depression and substance abuse) and a quarter
also saying they are unhappy with their lives.
Access to pornography is altering the view boys
have of girls. By the age of 10, every boy will have
seen porn online and this is impacting on sexual
relationships and intimacy between boys and girls.
The common thread throughout the episode that
relieved stresses and pressures in teenager’s lives
was physical activity and strong relationships.
So what role can parents play in the lives of their children
to ensure they thrive though the teenage years?
1. Start early
By the time your child is a teenager, you have
already sown the seeds of independence,
love, trust, respect, good mental health,
resilience, confidence, self-esteem and habits
around technology. You have already built
your relationship and while none of these are
irreparable with a teenagers, they are easier to
develop from the moment our children are born,
than to suddenly input when your children are
teenagers.
2. Build a solid relationship from the start
Extensive and widespread research shows that
building a strong parent-child bond early is the
number one factor to raising a resilient child.
When a child feels loved, nurtured and a sense
of significance and belonging from just one
adult (ideally a parent or parent figure), they
have stronger mechanisms to bounce back from
adverse situations than their counterparts who
have formed negative or no relationships with an
adult and to make good decisions. The relationship
starts the very moment you hold your child in your
arms and it looks at you. Right from that moment,
you are forming an important bond that will last
a lifetime. Like any relationship, it needs to be
nurtured and effort needs to be fed into it to make
it work. One on one time is important, speaking
respectfully, building the relationships on love and
cuddles, creating micro moments of connection
and acknowledging how special your child is
to you, are all important in building a strong
relationships.

3. Set clear boundaries and expectations
Just like adults, children are creatures of habit and
love to follow rules when they are young. If you
can set clear boundaries and expectations early,
they will know exactly where they stand with you
and in their environment. You will help them make
sense of the world around them, form good habits
and ideally make good choices when faced with
everyday problems. When you set the boundaries
and expectations, be consistent. Follow through on
what you say and let your child feel safe and secure
in their environment with you.
4. Be the role model
As a parent, you are your child’s first role model.
If you have watched your children closely for a
few hours or listened to them speak, you will hear
and see snippets of your most common sayings
or mannerism come out in their play time or voice
as they mimic you. Provide your child with an
environment and role model that is upbeat and
gives your child hope and a positive attitude to
move through their day. Young children react to
whatever mood or state of mind you are in. If you
are always stressed and in a hurry, they will pick
up the vibe and develop a similar habit. Take time
to stop and be with your kids. Have fun with them
at the park or at the beach. Take them on nature
walks. Think of who you needed around you when
you were a child and be that person.
5. Meet children in the moment
Children live in the moment so meet them there.
Don’t overload them with your own stresses and
worries we carry with us as adults, both past and
present. A child’s biggest concern in their day are
generally meeting their own basic needs – food,
water, sleep, safety and love. Meet your kids there.
6. Don’t over catastrophize the situation
The part of the child’s brain that deals with
emotions and rational decision making is
underdeveloped. The prefrontal cortex doesn’t
fully develop until the age of 22. However, as adults
we already have a fully functioning rational brain.
We need to use our skills to calm a situation down
and don’t over catastrophize it. Because of an
underdeveloped brain as a child, their response is
irrational and so through words, actions and role
modelling we can use our rational brain to invoke
calm and coping strategies for certain situations
that doesn’t result in a full blown catastrophe.
7. Let children experience disappointment
Our natural propensity as a parent is the ‘fix’.
However, if we continue to fix every disappointment
our child faces, they are not going to develop their
own strategies to cope with the ups and downs
of life and the disappointment that results from
that. So ‘be’ with your child when they experience
disappointment and tell them how much is sux that
they didn’t get into the cricket team or the choir.
Problem solve ways to help them get over it.
8. Recognise emotions and strategies to deal with them
By helping a child recognise their own emotions
and develop strategies to deal with them, we are
allowing them to again navigate the ups and downs
of life. The big emotions that press parent’s buttons
are anger, frustration and sadness that generally
result in an emotional outburst in some form from
our child. Let your child experience these emotions,
name them and put strategies in place to deal with
them. Assure your child it is OK if they feel these
emotions as long as they know how to move on
from them.
9. Shape a positive inner critic
For good mental health, we need to help our
children develop a positive inner critic. They
need to be self-confident and self-assured to
back themselves in difficult situations and to
make good choices. By teaching our children
to love themselves and be kind to themselves,
we are setting them up for being able to deal
with setbacks, making mistakes and failure. To
encourage self-confidence, our children need to
feel a sense of significance. Let them perform that
dance concert with bad dance moves and terrible
music. Let them experience new things and take
risks. Let them say no and assert themselves and
learn from that experience. And use positive selftalk
yourself – don’t criticize yourself in front of
your children.
10. Discipline with respect and love
Every children will need discipline at some point
and some more than others. When you are
disciplining your child, remember it is the behaviour
you are correcting – not the child. Don’t shame
them or criticize them as a person. Speak to your
child like you would talk to your best friend or your
work colleague – with respect. Give lots of cuddles
and use discipline as a teachable moment to learn
from rather than a time to berate or shame.
Anna Partridge is a Parent Education, School Teacher and Mother to
3 kids. She is passionate about working with families to help them
raise confident and resilient children.
http://www.annapartridge.com
About Anna:
Anna Partridge is
a certified Positive
Discipline Parent
Educator, a school
teacher and a mother to
three highly spirited, beautiful children. She
loves nothing more than helping parents
raise resilient and confident children, build
strong and connected family relationships
and strive for calm, fun and happy families.
http: /annapartridge.com/

R&W DOUBLE BAY
DATE MARKET WRAP UP
by James Dunn R&W Double Bay
Double Bay Public School Newsletter
June 2016
Here we are wrapping up the first half of
2016………… it’s hard to believe, that we
are already half way through the calendar
year.
What an interesting year it’s been, council
amalgamations, federal election and the
Brexit referendum. Despite any negative
commentary around any of these local and
global influencers the real estate market
continues its upward trend.
The Core Logic May Home Value Index
reported a 1.6% rise in capital city dwelling
values over the month, taking values 5.0%
higher of the calendar year to date. The
strong May numbers were largely the result
of a surge in Sydney dwelling values which
were up 3.1% over the month. A rise in all
other capital cities except for Perth were
recorded.
After such a strong performance across the
Sydney housing market, the annual rate of
growth has moved substantially higher to
reach 13.1% per annum.
The local real estate market has definitely
been the classic scenario of low supply and
high demand leading to strong results in all
sectors of residential homes and units. Our
auction results for the year have run at 92%
success rate with the past three months
seeing a 100% results in either under the
hammer sales or sold prior to the auction.
We are finding buyers very keen to secure a
home before it “gets to market” and have
made 20% of sales from our database of
qualified buyers. Buyers are keenly coming
forward with strong pre-auction offers and
this has resulted in a lot of quick sales and
great results for our vendors.
Those properties that have gone to auction
have indeed been competitive and bold
biding showing the determination of buyers
to secure the prize! Of course there has also
been quite a lot of activity with off shore
interest, but generally we have found that
the majority of the sales are to local buyers.
We are very pleased to say that one of the
Double Bay families bought a beautiful
renovated family home though us in a very
competitive auction recently and we are sure
they are very excited about moving in soon.
At the welcome cocktail party earlier in the
year we are happy to have donated a further
two Ipads to the lucky winner and we look
forward to a further donation of another
Ipad with the Art competition coming up
next month.
Last week the team of Directors from our
office and our partners enjoyed the spoil
of Manu cooking us dinner at home having
purchased the prize at the school Studio 54
fundraiser almost two years ago. Yes, it’s
a long time ago but it has taken this long
for us and Manu to get a time that worked
R&W
together. But let me tell you, it was worth
the wait. A fun night, he is not only a great
chef, but very entertaining. A memorable
experience.
So now we get ready for the winter months,
but we are not hibernating, rather we are
enjoying the chance to communicate more
with our buyers, landlords and sellers and
preparing for the Spring. If you are selling,
don’t think you have to wait for the Spring,
as in winter months there is less competition
and still the need for people to buy property,
whether for investment, upsizing or
downsizing, inclement weather doesn’t stop
the need. Call me if you would like to catch
up for a coffee and need some real estate
advice.
James Dunn
Partner
Richardson & Wrench Double Bay
6

Parking
Parents/Caregivers must obey the parking
restrictions that are in place around the school.
They are there for the safety of the children. It
is particularly important when the sport buses
return and have to off-load 60 children safely.
It is very dangerous if cars are parked in the
bus zones. Most parents are very mindful of
the situation and we are appreciative of their
cooperation. Parents/caregivers must not park
over residents’ driveways when dropping off and
picking up children. Under no circumstances
are parents/caregivers allowed to park in the
school grounds. Parents and students must not
enter or exit the school grounds via the school
car park. I would like to remind parents/
caregivers that you MUST NOT STOP in the
bus zone outside the school when dropping
off or picking up your children. This can incur
a fine. Parents are reminded that the ‘Drop off
Area’ is only a ‘Drop off Area’ – you cannot
park there. Please view and take note of the
map below:
DOUBLE BAY PUBLIC SCHOOL PARKING PLAN
This plan is the quickest, most efficient way for us to pick up.
Please remember – MOVE ON quickly, DO NOT double park, DO NOT park in the bus zone, WALK if you live close!
¥ Circulate around the block if you can’t get a park straight away.
¥ William Street: QUICK PICK-­‐UP ZONE – pre-­‐arrange with your children to come out quickly to you on that side.
¥ Cross Street P5 ZONE (Kindy/Yr 1) -­‐ quickly come in to get your child and immediately come out and move on.
¥ If you need to go into the school for more than a few minutes park in the P2/meters/Cosmopolitan or Cross St Car Parks.
¥ If everyone is quick then in just a few circulaPons around the block we should be able to get a park.
CROSS ST
BAY ST
P5 ZONE -­‐ to take younger children
into school and pick them up but do
not stop to talk – move fast to get
your child and move your car, other
parents are waiPng for that spot.
SCHOOL
Use the 2 hour spots
if you need to go
into the school for
any length of Pme.
WILLIAM ST
NP ZONE – QUICK PICK UP zone
for dropping off and picking up
older children quickly without
you geGng out of the car.
STEYNE PARK
BUS STOP
NO PARKING
OCEAN AVE

School Gardens
We would like to thank Lynley
(Scarlett KD, Jesse 2PC & Oliver
4PF) for organising the Student
Representative Council (SRC)
‘Herb Garden Bed’ outside
classroom 4D. Collette (Edward
1L, Tom 3A & Sean 5/6A) also
gave up her time to help with
the planting. The SRC enjoyed
the experience and look forward
to seeing the herbs grow into
healthy plants. Sean did an
amazing job! Mrs Workman and
Miss Fanning
9

Why we should be worried about our kid’s mental health:
Insights from Education and Parenting Leaders
10
At the Sydney Positive Schools Conference on
Thursday 9th June 2016, well known parenting
expert, psychologist and educator, Michael Carr-
Gregg said that on average 8 kids in every class
in Australian schools is currently experiencing a
mental health issue. Alarm bells should be ringing.
If that’s not enough, coupled with this statistic is the
research that shows 41 per cent of Year 12 students
experience some form of anxiety and 31 per cent
have major depressive disorders. Australia is also
experiencing it’s highest rate of suicide in 13 years.
For girls aged between 16 and 19 years, suicide rates
have doubled since 2008. Right now, 8 people every
day in Australia are taking their own lives.
‘Imagine if this was a skin eating virus in Sydney
that was claiming 8 lives per day. Do you think the
government might take it seriously then?’, Mr Carr-
Gregg said.
Michael Carr-Gregg went on to say that the major
concerns affecting the mental health of our
teenagers are coping with stress, schoolwork and
body image. These concerns are not dissimilar to the
concerns teenagers had 25 years ago.
So why are these concerns having such a huge impact on
our kids mental health in 2016?
The Positive Schools Conference was focused on
the social and emotional wellbeing of our schoolaged
children and was attended by more than 500
educators, psychologists, counselors and parenting
educators. As a summary of the two-day conference
presentations, these are the reasons our kids are
now suffering.
Communities have dwindled. There is no longer the
aunt, uncle, mother best, long-time friend for the
kids to talk to. That lovely neighbour who knows
the family who watched out for the kids is no longer
there. There is no village raising our kids and so the
crucial conversations are not taking place. There is
peer-to-peer talk happening without guidance and
reassurance.
Kids are less exposed to risk. Being allowed to climb
a tree, play in the creek or ride bikes around the
neighbourhood are a thing of the past. When doing
these activities there were valuable opportunities
to learn to bounce back from adversity and develop
intrinsic coping mechanisms. Now, our playgrounds
are too safe. We are so concerned our kids might
hurt themselves; we have built soft fall playgrounds
everywhere and low monkey bars. There are no
seesaws to smack you in the chin and no swings to
go as high as you could.
The pressure to be perfect is heightened. There is little
opportunity for our kids to make mistakes and
improve. We are so focused on how our kids are
doing in NAPLAN that we forget to see how they
are doing socially and emotionally. Our kids are
conforming to perfection and not taking risks to
fail and learn. When they are so focused on doing it
right, they loose the drive to do it at all.
We live in a ‘hurry up’ culture. The pace of our lives has
increased. We are constantly on a treadmill from one
place to the next. For kids, who naturally live in the
moment, there is little time to play, learn and for us
to teach. The number of children who can no longer
tie their shoelace at the age of 6 is alarming. Parents
have no time to teach their kids to tie shoelaces.
More importantly, there is reduced time for the
crucial conversations with our kids because we are
running around so much. It is a rush to get the kids
home, fed, bathed and into bed before we wake the
next morning to start again on the treadmill.
How can we as parents and teachers support our kids in
this generation?
Here are 8 insights from the leaders on education
and parenting from the Conference.
1. Build respectful relationships based on love and care
Our kids thrive in environments where they feel
significant and loved. They are more likely to have
the crucial conversations with the people who
make them feel special and loved. Well known
Australian parent educator, Maggie Dent coined
the term ‘micro moments of connection’ which are
those special, little moments like a wink, high five,
spontaneous dance in the kitchen or the ‘I love
you’ symbol you make up with your kids are more
important for building a relationship than scheduled
one on one time once a month. It is not just the
responsibility of parents and teachers to build these
relationships; it is the responsibility of anyone who
is in the lives of a child. Build these relationships to
broaden their community of trusted people. Bring
back the village.

2. Let kids experience risk
The risk obviously needs to be age appropriate and
calculated like climbing a tree at the age of 3 or 4
or learning to surf at 7 or 8 years of age. When we
are less fearful about the world, our kids will be. We
need to let them go little by little so by the age of 18
or 19, they are independent enough to leave home
and make good choices.
3. Give our kids mechanisms to cope
Our kids have fewer mechanisms to cope than we
did. Maybe it is because they don’t experience the
risk to develop these mechanisms or maybe it is
because we don’t teach it to them. Developing
emotional intelligence and understanding and
recognizing their own emotions in important. As
is having strategies to deal with their emotions.
Knowing how to get of the treadmill of our ‘hurry up’
culture is a valuable mechanism to cope with stress
and might be through mindfulness, meditation,
guided visualization or something like using the
‘Smiling Minds app’ regularly. By the age of 10, kids
should have at least 5 strategies they can do to cope
with stress. These strategies will change as they
change their interest and circumstances.
4. Find what your child loves and do it often
This may change often but whatever it is they
love, find it and do it often. Is it a sport, musical
instrument, going to the beach to swim or reading
a book? If a child loves something AND is good at
it, this is what boosts their self-confidence and selfimage.
5. Encourage mistakes
Mistakes are a way to fail, bounce back and is
where true learning happens. When children make
mistakes, they build resilience, develop a have a
go attitude and it encourages our children to really
interact with the world without fear of failure. Get
rid of erasers in the classroom and at home. Provide
opportunities for kids to make mistakes and get
back up again, like riding a bike.
6. Encourage optimism.
Having a positive outlook on life helps kids bounce
back when they hit a hard time or have negative
emotions. This is based on positive psychology
where a positive mindset goes along way towards
warding off depression. If we teach optimism, our
kids will ultimately know that the world is a good
place. This might be through keeping a gratitude
diary together – my 11-year-old daughter and I
write in ours each night and share it with each
other. It might be having a ritual at the dinner
table of sharing ‘My favourite part of the day is…’
where everyone has a turn. It might be as simple as
appreciating nature, seeing the rainbows, playing in
the leaves in autumn, feeling the snow in winter or
watching out for the new baby animals in spring. Or
it might be playing inspirational songs in the car like
‘What a wonderful world’ by Louis Armstrong and
talking about what is good about life.
7. Physical health is important.
Kids need to eat well, sleep well and exercise daily.
They need to see their parents doing the same.
Doing all these things will help fight disease and
illness and also is the beginning of a good habit for
the rest of their lives.
8. Life is meant to be fun!
Using humour and having fun relies on positive
psychology to help kids combat stress. Every time
we laugh or achieve something good, we release
a bit of the happy chemical, dopamine. This makes
us feel good. It is important to have fun together as
a family. Read joke books. Take brain breaks in the
classroom that are fun and break up learning. Dance
in the kitchen. Go on spontaneous outings to have
fun. Plan holidays together that are fun for everyone.
Laugh. Pull silly faces. Create time for fun.
The main message from our leaders in education and
parenting: now is the time we need to focus on the
social and emotional wellbeing of our children and
help them to develop the skills to navigate the ups and
downs of life.
Anna Partridge is a Parent Education, School Teacher and
Mother to 3 kids. She is passionate about working with
families to help them raise confident and resilient children.
http://www.annapartridge.com
About Anna:
Anna Partridge is
a certified Positive
Discipline Parent
Educator, a school
teacher and a mother to
three highly spirited, beautiful children. She
loves nothing more than helping parents
raise resilient and confident children, build
strong and connected family relationships
and strive for calm, fun and happy families.
http: /annapartridge.com/