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Mrs Heather Norton
Principal
Qualifications: Dip.Teach., B.Ed., M.Ed.Admin., MACE, MACEL
Subjects: Design and Technology (Primary & Secondary) & Studies of Religion
Stories from Mrs Heather Norton
Tough Love
Michael Grose in his website http://www.parentingideas.com.au discusses the concept of Tough Love.
Tough Love is the concept of a firm but fair approach to parenting with the premise that our children need us to be 'the parent' rather than a good friend or mate. Research has shown that this approach develops resilient and confident children.
20th Nov is not a Pupil Free Day for Secondary Students
There seems to be some confusion regarding the concept of a pupil free day for Secondary students on the 20th November.
Our Habits Can Shape Our Children's Character
The internet has become an integral part of life for people of all ages. It provides access to a myriad of information and enables people to research, create, and communicate in new and exciting ways.
Every Move We Make
In a recent Sydney Morning Herald article (July 22nd 2009) journalist Adele Horn discussed the importance of positive parent behaviour at the sporting field. In her article she outlined research which links outbursts of parent anger to the anger expressed in road rage. An interesting connection!
The Online School Calendar
This article describes how the website will be used as an exciting communications tool to keep you informed as to what is going on at the School throughout the year, through the online Subscriptions function (don't worry - it's free!)
Welcome to Term 4
Welcome back to the final term of 2009. A very busy term lies ahead as we fly through the next 8 weeks of learning!! I do hope that your three weeks of holiday time gave you time to rest and to rejuvenate with your family, and you too are embracing the new term with gusto.
A New Era of News and Communication!
As this is the final week for the paper version of the Scots News, I am sending out this reminder that in order to keep up to date and fully informed with what is going on at the School, you will need to activate your logins on the website in addition to viewing the weekly E-News.
2010 Secondary School Leaders
Congratulations to the students selected as 2010 Secondary School Leaders in the categories of House Captains, Prefects, School Captains and Boarding Captains. Student selections are based on CV, interview and the voting process. The complete list of the 2010 recipients is as follows:
Mental Health and Growing Up
"Much of the advice is extremely useful as a first point of reference for parents and professionals, particularly with regard to difficulties which may fall outside the teacher or parent's experience."
Special (Journal of the National Association for Special Educational Needs)
The 'Mental Health and Growing Up' factsheets, produced by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, cover the main emotional, behavioural and mental health problems that can affect children and young people.
Website Logins
Thank you to the very positive responses we have had to our new website. Current parents of the School community who have provided their email addresses to the School, are now able to login to the new website. This will enable you to access the Year Level portals (where the School forms are now located) as well as the information under the Current Parents button, plus all events in the online School Calendar. Over 500 parent emails have been loaded onto our site to enable this function.
How do you do this?
Swine Flu Information Update
Australia is entering a new phase of the H1N1 Influenza 09 response, known as PROTECT. The change in approach is because the virus strain is currently not as virulent as anticipated.
2010 Scholarships
During Term 2 we commenced the process of awarding the 2010 Scholarships. These are awarded to students in three categories: Academic, Music and Boarding.
This year I interviewed all candidates and enjoyed meeting and assessing them. I congratulate them for their attention to detail, the outstanding manner in which they presented themselves and their confident approach to the process.
Naming of the Health Clinic
At the close of the 2007 school year Scots said goodbye to two of the school's long-serving personalities, the School's doctor, Dr. Francis Couldridge and the School Nurse, Rose Couldridge.
Both had been with the School for a considerable number of years. Dr Couldridge having taken up his appointment in 1977 and Rose as School Nurse in 1985.
2009 Debutante Ball
The Debutante Ball is one which is has stood the test of time in many schools and communities across the world. It continues to be part of our society, despite being much maligned as an outdated anachronistic rite of passage.
And I ask myself why?
International Marketing
During Week 8 and 9 The Director of Enrolments, Mr Doug Evans and I visited nine International Education Agents in both Hong Kong and China. These visits provided us with the opportunity to make valuable contacts with these agents, who will be instrumental in the success of our International Student programme.
We feel confident that we have established links with a range of reputable agents who will increase our presence in these Asian Countries.
So Much More Than a Website
Welcome to the new Scots website which is set to revolutionise communications at the School. What you can now see are the basic tools of the website - our static promotional information (top navigational buttons) and the new format for our weekly newsletter - presented through a dynamic "media" style home page. The home page will soon replace our weekly The Scots News newsletter, with each edition available on the website for easy referral (navigate to: News/News Editions).
Building Project to Commence
The Scots School Albury is pleased to announce the commencement of their latest building project - the Indoor Sports Centre. This multi million-dollar project has been generously supported by a $2 million grant from the Federal Government as part of their Building the Education Revolution program (http://www.buildingtheeducationrevolution.gov.au/) . This grant has given us the opportunity to complete this project by December 2010 - well before our planned date.
Student Achievers
William Arpke (Year 9)
Swine Flu Update
The school exclusion policy to limit the spread of human swine flu introduced ten days ago has been working effectively. We can advise that while there is no evidence of community transmission of human swine influenza in NSW, there have been several cases of school children in NSW who have tested positive to the virus. Parents of students at these schools have been advised of these situations.
There has been an important change to the definition of the areas of concern in the school exclusion policy: