Teams

Working as a team is imperative to the success of any school. The current situation we find ourselves in challenges even the best of teams. The ability to work together, take turns and contribute means the school will ultimately achieve an end goal and that relies heavily on teamwork.

The Junior School staff are an example of a hard-working team. Each of the sub-schools are equally as capable but being able to watch a strong team in action is truly pleasing to witness and a privilege to lead. I have been in awe watching the staff work together, share resources and ensure that they are ready for any decision to be made whilst offering comfort to each other, as things are feeling slightly daunting.

Teams are found in every class and these same principles apply to the boys. In Academic Support, the boys that come in early, arrive on time and bring their equipment shows a great display of how ready they are for their session and keenness to make sure they play their part in the group. Boys preparing their equipment before school also assists and helps out their classroom team. Managing themselves and getting organised for the day sets them up for success.

No matter your age, you are a contributor if you are part of a group or team. All of the younger students in the Early Learning Centre are a team. The students from Pre-Kindergarten to Pre-Primary have been working as a team to ensure they are all thinking about their safety. This includes all types of safety; playing safely, hand hygiene safety, protective behaviour safety and what to do in each of these situations. Each of the boys have established who are their top five people that they can turn to if they are feeling unsafe.

Similarly, when the boys play together, they form a team. We see this through the various playground games whether it be handball, chasey, soccer or cricket. Similarly, the JPSSA sport afternoons promote teamwork and how teams can succeed despite the various capabilities of the individuals. This certainly came through with the efforts in the Inter-School swimming carnivals.

Similarly, when students come together to represent the school this is classified as a team, for example our boys going on excursions together. The Year 3's displayed great teamwork on their excursion to Penguin Island at the beginning of the year. The Year 2's went to the Constable Care School and the Year 4's recently went to Sculptures by the Sea. All of these excursions are an example of teamwork where they represented the Junior School beautifully to the outside community.

Recently the Year 5 Captains, who make up the Junior School leadership team for Semester 1, were joined by one of the most influential teams in the Senior School – the Year 12 leadership team. The Year 12 leaders planned a fun morning with the boys where they discussed leadership, played a few team games as well as sharing and swapping emails.

We are extremely privileged to have such wonderful teams in our school and the need for teams is now greater than ever. I challenge the boys and the whole community to think about how they can contribute as a team to ensure we work our way through this challenging time as a society.