Lavender Learning

I hope the school year is off to a great start for everyone and I’m looking forward to seeing lots of smiling faces back in the tutoring office this week! 😊

Together, we will make this a year of amazing effort and progress. 💪

Wishing all my Lavender Learners a very happy New Year! I’m looking forward to supporting you to achieve your goals this year.

The 2026 timetable is a work in progress. Current families, please let me know your availability (if you haven’t already). I hope to have the timetable locked in before the term begins and sessions resume in WEEK 2.

Unfortunately there are no vacancies for new students this year, but I’m happy to provide recommendations if needed.

Enjoy the rest of the school holidays - and here’s to a great year ahead! 😊

It’s ‘back to school’ time! 🏫 Have a great week, Lavender Learners!

Tutoring sessions resume next week. See you then! 😊

…And that’s a wrap for 2024! Everyone should feel extremely proud of their hard work and progress this year. Enjoy a well-deserved break now and I’ll be in touch in mid-January to get the ball rolling for 2025!

✏️ Start of 2024 update: 📚

- Sessions for continuing students will resume in Week 2 (with the exception of Saturday students, who start at the end of Week 1).

- Most session times remain the same as 2023 and where they have changed, I have been in touch.

- Please ensure your Term 4 fees are paid before the start of Term 1.

- All weekday/weeknight sessions have been filled. There are a couple of vacancies on Saturday mornings and I’m currently working my way down the waiting list to fill those.

☀️ Wishing all the very best to every Lavender Learner as the new school year commences and thinking especially of those starting a new season in a different school or the next stage of their education. I hope everyone has a great first week and I can’t wait to see your smiling faces back in the office in Week 2! 😊

- Jane

Wishing all my Lavender Learners a very happy Christmas! Hope you are having a wonderful day, enjoying the break from routine and making many happy memories!🎄

We’ve come again to ‘awards season’, a time that is difficult for a lot of kids who have worked hard all year, but who won’t receive formal recognition of that effort. Here are some important things to keep in mind:

1. No school award defines you or your potential. It’s just someone’s opinion based on their observations and values, or it’s based on a particular set of assessment tasks. Remembering this will help you keep things in perspective.

2. Hard work produces results. Some of the kids who receive awards will have worked very hard for them. Reflect on whether you have done the same, consistently. If not, then perhaps that’s something you can try next year. If you have worked hard and given your best all the time, the good news is that you will have made progress, whether it is recognised with an award or not. That’s what really counts.

3. School awards don’t recognise what’s truly important in life. There’s very rarely a resilience award, a persistence award or a selflessness award. There’s not an award for generosity, compassion, courage or setting healthy boundaries. School awards only recognise a very small sliver of what it will take to be successful in life.

If you are getting an award - congratulations! You’ve clearly done some wonderful things. If you’re not - congratulations! You’ve no doubt got a lot to be proud of and you’ve now got another year of schooling under your belt.

Celebrate your progress. We don’t need validation from others to know when we’ve done a good job. Look at how far you’ve come and feel proud. 😊

Welcome to Term 4. Let’s finish the year well!

Sessions resume tomorrow. 😊

Hi everyone,

One of my personal goals has always been to give back to the community. In light of the current teacher shortage, I’ve been considering ways to support classroom teachers by connecting them with the expertise and experience of previously-registered teachers who are no longer teaching.

In 2024, Lavender Learning will start coordinating a database to connect previously-registered teachers with volunteer opportunities in schools.

If you would be interested in being involved in any of the following ways, please reach out to me at [email protected]:

1. Volunteering: Previously-registered teachers (retirees, parents on leave, teachers in other careers) are invited to express interest in adding their availability and areas of interest to the database. Volunteers will be able to specify availability (regular, ad-hoc, defined dates), subject areas of expertise, and passion project mentoring interests.

2. Utilising volunteers: Schools and teachers who would appreciate access to the volunteer database are invited to add their names to a notification list.

3. Supporting database creation and maintenance: Anyone with expertise in database creation is welcome to reach out. This is not my area of expertise and I’m trying to make this project as user-friendly and self-managing as possible. Advice gratefully received. 🙏

I’ll take the school holidays to compile details and will be in touch at the start of Term 4. I’m anticipating this will start small, but if I get a lot of interest, I’ll put out a call for help!

Hoping this project will bring support, connection and meaningful volunteer opportunities to our community,

Jane

We are 1/5 of the way through this term and already I can see some great habits forming. 😊 Students are diligently completing homework and revision, which will really help when we get to end-of-term assessment. Here are a few tips to stay on top of things this term:

1. If you are away from school for any reason, make sure you try to catch up on the work you missed.

2. If you have a set text, make sure you read it! (Movie adaptations often leave out important details.)

3. Hand in complete drafts that represent your best work. Consider the draft due dates like final due dates. That way, you’re only making changes based on your teacher’s feedback, which will improve your results. It also removes pressure at the end of term, when you are juggling study for exams and often feel more tired.

Let’s keep this term going the way it has started! 💪

I hope everyone enjoyed a refreshing break. Just a reminder that sessions resume this week. Let’s make it a great Term 3! 📝

Another school term complete!

Congratulations to each and every one of my students. You gave your best this term and I’m so proud of you! 🌟

The end of this semester marks a quarter of a century of tutoring for me. (Now I feel old!) For some of those years, I tutored while I had other day jobs, and in some seasons, I was a volunteer tutor in a community tuition program. I have lost track of the number of students I’ve worked with, but what I do know is that supporting motivated young people to achieve their goals has always filled my cup and continues to do so. ☺️ THANK YOU to every family who has engaged me over the years. It has truly been a privilege to work with your children.

Enjoy the break, everyone, and I’ll see all my current students back in Week 1 of Term 3!