22 August 2025

When you think back to your own primary school days, what stands out? And perhaps more importantly the big question – was your schooling preparing you for the world you were stepping into, or the one your parents had known?

You will be aware that education requirements are in a state of flux and like other schools we are doing our very best to keep all balls in the air, whatever shape, colour or texture.

Research in child development and neuroscience tells us these primary years are a critical window for building skills. At this time the brain is in a stage of remarkable “plasticity” where it is constantly wiring and rewiring itself based on experiences. The prefrontal cortex, which supports planning, self-control, and decision-making, is still developing well into early adulthood. So the opportunity to try new things in primary schooling is literally shaping the architecture of your child’s brain. Eek – scary if you linger on that thought – the responsibility that home and school plays now for the future.

I don’t know about you but it’s pretty hard to keep up with the pace of change happening out there. Every second email I get seems to be about AI. Because of this pace and complexity it’s hard to ascertain the world current Worser Bay children will be in in another 10–20 years’ time. It’s a question I keep thinking about.

It was a pretty clean path ‘back in my day’. You learned X and if you were interested in Y you took a Y path. I recall going to a ‘careers’ day at Secondary – for me it was Social Work, Teaching or Physiotherapy. Physiotherapy? Where did that come from? Well I really fancied the cool pant suits that were worn by physios at the time. I recall being told – well you don’t really seem to enjoy physics that much so that won’t be for you! There may have been an element of truth – but I was definitely put in a box. Ok I went to Uni at 16 years old – they told me I was too young for Social Work and wouldn’t have enough life experience at 20. Also probably fair enough. So teaching it was – and I have zero regrets. But it was so basic and straightforward! (Not always such a good thing!)

So, as you think back on your own primary years, please ask yourself: What kind of education will best serve our children — one that prepares them for the past, or one that equips them for the future they will create and we have no idea what yet?

You are invited to dream big with us as we check in on our strategic direction based on these types of questions. The staffroom area will be alive with large pieces of brown paper the week of the Arts Celebration. I will be in the staffroom on the morning of Thursday 10 September between 8.30–10am and that afternoon 2–3.30pm to chat through the process of collecting your wisdom and inputting into the future for our children. We have the opportunity to continue to create something unique here and remain tightly bound to wider national requirements. This is the community piece in a community school. The local curriculum, the local flavour.

Come, grab a cuppa and have a walk through the large brown pieces of paper!