WISHING OUR PRETORIA-EAST COMMUNITY WELL FOR 2023

Dear fellow Pretoria-East Community Members,



I hope you enjoyed a restful and joyful time over the festive period, with those of you who worked through December still managing to enjoy quality time with family and friends during the public holidays. May 2023 be a year filled with peace and the successful accomplishment of goals, while we all hope that our economy becomes more stable. I wish you and your family all the best for 2023.

The start of a new year is one filled with new year’s resolutions for countless people (many of whom have probably already broken a resolution or two. Never mind, just keep going!). It is a time of reflection for most, where we look back on our successes and failures, joys and sorrows of the year gone by. The new year marks the possibility of a fresh start, the turning over of a new leaf in some instances and a sense of hope and possibility for the year ahead.

For those of you with children at school and for the older students, I would like to share a few points to consider in order to start the year off well, and keep going strong until the end:

• Aim to have all the stationery and textbooks that are required at the start of the school year.
• Create and/or maintain a routine for bedtime, wakeup time and homework, including time for leisure and relaxation.
• Older students should set academic goals for themselves, based on their achievements the previous year and what they want to or need to achieve in 2023 for their future academic success.
• Ensure that students get enough sleep. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, children aged 6–12 years should regularly sleep 9 12 hours per 24 hours and teenagers aged 13–18 years should sleep 8–10 hours per 24 hours.
• Children, including teenagers, should have their mobiles on silent or off when they go to sleep, to avoid the temptation of late-night communication with friends, which leaves them exhausted during the day. If need be, have a routine where phones are left charging in the kitchen or put away in one place. Many children and teenagers struggle with self-control when it comes to parting with their devices at night, which has huge repercussions when it comes to their ability to focus and function at school. Stricter parental control may be necessary within some homes.
• Managing homework and study can be extremely stressful for parents and children alike. Try to develop a partnership where parents assume a supportive role and where children assume responsibility and take ownership of their homework and studies. As far as possible, use positive reinforcement rather than punitive measures to encourage your children to achieve to the best of their ability. Punitive measures tend to have a negative effect on children’s interest in their schoolwork and their attitude towards their studies, leaving them with negative feelings towards their educational journey (and causing untold unhappiness and frustration in the home). If you are at your wits’ end, enlist the assistance of your child’s teachers and, where appropriate, the help of an Educational Psychologist.

Finally, I wish all students and their parents the very best for the 2023 academic year. May you rise to the challenges and enjoy the good times.