A message from the Head of Primary School
Welcome back to term two. I trust that all families had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday together. I am sure I will hear many stories this coming week about adventures and travels that the students undertook from Busselton to Bali and beyond. These shared activities create great experiences for families to share together.
During the holidays I happened to have lunch with an old friend who now has university aged children, and he was lamenting that despite the extensive travels that his children enjoyed whilst they were at school, his children now could not remember anything at all about the family trips. He could recall all the details but the memories were very vague to his children. This reminded me of something that I only see every few years now but has a great impact on this.
Like most adults who grew up in the film camera age, I can remember as a child we had family photo albums that were not just filled with pictures from when I was young but also black and white photos from my father in his youth. These photos now appear genuinely ancient, bound in thick photo albums and displayed on a white card backing with a transparent plastic covering. I am sure many parents may remember these. An unappreciated part of that antiquated photo album was that it had a space below each picture that was there to be able to write a description, a date and a location of the image. I can look at the picture of my grandparents and their children, black and white of course, but know that it was taken at the Longreach stock sales in 1958.
It has occurred to me that although we take many more photographs than in years gone by, the majority of these are left in digital format. Some may be printed for a frame or canvas at home but the when and where is soon lost to the memories of the children and admittedly, adults too as I have gotten older. The written description that goes along with the photos helps prompt the memory when children go back through these pictures years later. It helps them remember the adventures they had and the wonderful experiences and opportunities their parents gave them. And the older they get, the more nostalgic those memories become.
I encourage all families who caught up with loved ones, or went away for a vacation, to think about printing some of these photographs and having their children write the description next to the picture. In years to come, when they look back through the photographs, the children will read their own thoughts as to what the photo represented and marvel at how much they have grown in the time since the pictures were taken.
Uniforms
I would like to thank parents for their support of the uniform requirements of our school. We are now wearing winter uniforms and our students had a sense of pride this morning as they wore the more formal look. I am sure they will look perfect with school photos only just around the corner. For information, Uniform shop opening hours are as follows:
- Mondays: 7.45am - 11.15am
- Wednesdays: 7.45am - 11.15am
- Thursdays: 1.00pm - 4.30pm
Mark Douglas
Head of Primary School