PRINCIPAL'S NEWS
The world in which we live is complex and ever changing as the pandemic continues to throw challenges at us. Our recent lockdown has prompted me to look at some self-care strategies for all of us.
Kids Helpline tells us self-care is about meeting our basic needs so we can be physically and mentally healthy. When we feel stressed, overwhelmed or burnt out, we can start to neglect the basics of looking after ourselves. Our nutrition, movement and sleep health all affect our brain and mental health. Sometimes, the term ‘self-care’ is misused to describe things you might buy - like a manicure or a smoothie. Whilst these things are often pleasant, they don’t necessarily add up to self-care.
Nutrition is very important for brain health and mental health and we can only get nutrients from food. Our brain needs a lot of energy to function. In fact, 20% of the nutrients we eat are used by our brain as energy. Of the many reasons healthy eating is important for your brain, one is that nutrition plays a key role in the production of serotonin in your brain. Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter (chemical messenger) for regulating your moods and eating the right foods play a key role in preventing and treating mental health issues.
Movement – did you know that 9 out of every 10 young people in Australia don’t move enough? Young people should do at least 60 minutes of exercise every day for optimal health. You need to work out what’s right for you but you could try – playing sport, dancing, swimming, walking the dog, doing an at-home workout, riding a bike or walking to your destination.
Sleep and rest – adolescents need about 8-10 hours of sleep each night, which can be harder to get than it sounds, because the body clocks of teenagers and young adults naturally keep them up later at night and make them want to sleep until mid-morning. Sleep is only one type of rest we need – there are also many others including physical rest (lounging on the couch, deep breathing, stretching, relaxation), mental rest (mindfulness, meditation, escapism such as gaming or reading) and sensory rest (silence, being in nature, turning off all screens).
Support Staff Week
This week is Support Staff Week, which provides an opportunity for us to appreciate the people we have in these important roles and highlight what they do. In case you are wondering what they do, they answer the phones, look after students who are sick, keep our IT running, support students with their learning, keep the finances in order, organise the Science lab, provide support in the library, maintain our grounds to look amazing and a million other things that would take me all day to write. The short version is, they help do all of the things we need to keep the school running and we genuinely could not function without them. We are thankful for the high quality operators we have at our school.
Staffing Update
Miss Kimberly Walker has been appointed to our Wellbeing Senior Leader position for the next (not quite) 12 months to backfill the position behind Lucy Thiel whilst she is on maternity leave. Kimberly is a BHS graduate and currently works at Avenues College. Kimberly has some commitments at her current school, including going on Op Flinders this week, so she will start here on Thursday 26th August. We are very pleased to welcome her and her experience to this wellbeing role.
Mrs Laura Hadley has been appointed to BHS in a permanent teaching position from next year. Laura has been in a leadership role at Burra Community School for a number of years and she brings a wealth of knowledge with her, specifically relating to Year 7s. She will play a key role in our new middle school structure and we look forward to benefiting from her expertise.
Miss Anthea Papagiannis has now won a 5 year leadership position at Parafield Gardens HS, which means she will not return to us. We suspected this might happen when Miss P left us earlier in the year and it has now been confirmed. We had to put in a short term solution of teaching Spanish this year as we could not get a French teacher and we had a Spanish speaking teacher on staff but we hope to reintroduce French to BHS next year.
Student Free Days and School Closure Day
Governing Council has approved the following student free days and school closure day, as well as cancelling one planned for next week. Please update your diaries accordingly.
Cancelled Student Free Day
Tuesday Week 6 Term 2, 24th August
New Student Free Days
- Friday Week 7 Term 3, 3rd September
- Monday Week 3 Term 4, 25th October
- Friday Week 6 Term 4, 19th November
School Closure Day
- Monday Week 8 Term 3, 6th September
It’s hard to believe that there are only 5 weeks of this term to go but we look forward to packing those five weeks full of learning opportunities. As always, I am available to speak to parents about any issues or concerns or to discuss any aspect of their child’s learning. I can be contacted at the school via Daymap, email Sonia.Pringle235@schools.sa.edu.au or phone 8862 0600 where you can speak to me directly or make a time to come and see me.
Sonia Pringle
Principal