When to Step Back: Navigating Children’s Squabbles Outside of School Hours

As parents, it’s natural to want to protect our children and help them navigate social challenges. However, not every disagreement or squabble between children calls for adult intervention—especially outside of school hours. While some situations may require attention, many are part of normal childhood development and can be resolved without parental involvement.

Understanding the Nature of Childhood Disputes

Children are learning how to express themselves, manage emotions, and navigate relationships. Disagreements are a normal part of that learning process. Often, what seems like a major issue one day can be forgotten the next. When adults step in too quickly, it can interfere with children’s ability to develop important conflict-resolution skills on their own.

 Why It's Best Not to Get Involved Outside of School

1. Children's Perspectives Are Still Forming: What your child tells you may only be one part of the story. Jumping to conclusions can create unnecessary tension with other parents or families.
2. Escalation Risks: Involving other parents directly can escalate minor issues into adult conflicts, which can strain relationships within your community or school.
3. Missed Learning Opportunities: By stepping back, you allow your child to build resilience, independence, and interpersonal skills.

 When to Step In

Of course, there are times when adult support is necessary:

• If there is bullying, ongoing exclusion, or threats to physical or emotional safety
• If the conflict is recurring and your child is struggling to cope
• If the situation is impacting your child’s mental health or school performance

In such cases, it’s best to communicate with the school, who can mediate in a neutral and supportive way. 

Healthy Ways to Support Your Child

• Listen calmly and validate their feelings without immediately offering solutions.
• Ask guiding questions: “What happened before X did that?”, “What do you think you could do next time?” or “How do you think they felt?”
• Encourage empathy and perspective-taking.
• Model conflict resolution in your own interactions. 

A Final Word

Parenting is full of difficult judgment calls, and it’s only natural to want to defend and protect your child. But when it comes to minor disputes outside of school, a little space can go a long way. By allowing your child to navigate their social world with your guidance—but not your direct involvement—you empower them to grow into confident, capable individuals.

regards Ken and Jayne

Thank you to everyone in our school community for supporting the preparation of our Community Garden.

We’d like to give a special shout-out to the families who have generously helped out with assembling the garden beds and donated cardboard and leaves.

It’s a big job, and your support is truly appreciated!

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Within our school community there are students who shine brightly, displaying exemplary dedication and academic talent. They deserve to be recognised and this year we are again giving them the opportunity to showcase and celebrate their talents in the world-renowned ICAS competition.

What is ICAS?  

ICAS is an online academic competition that gives students the opportunity to challenge their higher order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Writing, Spelling Bee, and Digital Technologies.

ICAS results are in-depth and meaningful, and ICAS evaluates student performance against other competition entrants across the state and nation. The data reveals student strengths and weaknesses and can help you recognise and support your child's academic journey.    

 Learn more about ICAS here: (icasassessments.com/products-icas/).

ICAS results and certificate
Every student who participates is celebrated and recognised with a printed certificate in each subject area, and an online results report to track development each year. Top performers are eligible for one of the highly coveted ICAS medals.

How to participate in ICAS  

This year, Bonbeach Primary School is offering ICAS assessments for students in years 3-6 in the subjects of Writing, English, Spelling Bee and Mathematics. If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, please go to the Parent Portal to register for your chosen subjects.

You can do this in one of two ways:

1. Direct login link – faster!

Use this link to log directly into the shop and start registering:

https://shop.icasassessments.com/pages/parent-payment/MKE427

2. Log in using the PPS code

Visit our shop and use our PPS code to log in:

Shop link: https://shop.icasassessments.com/pages/pps

PPS code: MKE427

Registration for all subject areas closes on Monday 28 July 2025. LATE ENTRIES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

 The 2025 ICAS Assessments will be held in Term 3 at Bonbeach Primary School for the following assessments:

Please note, we cannot facilitate refunds or make alterations as all money is paid directly to ICAS Assessments.

Read the terms and conditions here: (icasassessments.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023-ICAS-Assessments-Schools-TsCs_S2023.V6-1.pdf). 

Privacy collection statement  
The following information is a privacy notification about how your child’s data is kept private and secure.

ICAS Assessment is owned by Janison Solutions Pty Ltd (We, Us, Our).

To deliver assessment products, Janison will require your child’s School to obtain your consent to provide Janison with certain personal information of students. Janison will collect, store, use, disclose and otherwise deal with such personal information in accordance with its privacy policy (below). We are aware of our responsibility to protect personal information related to children and students from being disclosed when we deliver an ICAS Assessments product. Unless you, as the child’s legal guardian consents, we will not:

• collect any personal information or data of children other than the information we need for the successful completion of an assessment, test, or exam.
• transfer any personal information we obtain from a child in the delivery of assessments and tests to any jurisdiction outside of Australia.
• share any personal information relating to children with any third parties (except for those third parties necessary for us to carry out our Services or provide our Products e.g., medal engraving).
• use any personal information or data relating to children for marketing purposes.

You can view our full privacy policy at https://www.janison.com/privacy-policy/.

We may retain personal information and data relevant to a child for their future purposes or for research purposes by Janison for the duration of the school life cycle of the child. However, if you or your child at any time wish to have their personal information or data removed from our systems, they or you may opt out by simply contacting our Privacy Officer at privacy@janison.com or by contacting icasassessments@janison.com.

We are proud to be offering ICAS to our students this year and encourage you to consider entering your child. Please do not hesitate to contact the school office if you have any questions.  

Kind regards,

Jacqui Turner (ICAS Coordinator)