"Parenting teenagers is a bit like whitewater rafting - but I want you to have both sides of the picture. Scary, hectic, and uncomfortable - yes; but also thrilling, stimulating, challenging and ultimately very rewarding”.
- Ian Grant.

“Of all the natural events that occur in the family life cycle, the emergence of adolescence is the one most likely to test parental flexibility and tolerance.” Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg1

Final letter home to Parents of Snowy River Campus Students Term 4,
- 6 December 2021

Letter Snapshot...

Hello again and for the last time this term.
There are still many important tasks for us all to attend to, and I welcome the greater independence and personal drive I witness in our students, your sons and daughters. It is a delight to work with young people in our environment and see them “doing”! They just get on with the job now, for the most part, and set their goals and review their outcomes. They are finalising their Community Learning Project (CLP) work for when they return home and the presentation day. I hope you can all cope with these skills and abilities upon their return, and that your sons and daughters use these skills appropriately?

At the end of my letter is a two-page document detailing the learning areas undertaken by your son or daughter, and their relationship with other curriculum areas. The SRC trust that this document also provides another way for you to understand the complexity and depth of learning undertaken in this truly excellent educational program and location.

I wish you all the best for the future and for the holidays. Enjoy the return of your wonderful sons, daughters or siblings who HAVE grown so much! Be immersed in and enjoy the “white-water rafting years” ahead with them. I also highly recommend Michael Carr–Gregg’s books, Surviving Adolescents and The Princess Bitchface Syndrome, details and brief synopsis provided below. If this is your daughter, and our teenage girls all display some of these characteristics, you must read this book!

DEPARTURE DAY

Thank you for contributing to the Term 4 Snowy River Campus for 2021. The “Separation Phase” of the Snowy River Campus Experience concludes for the community of Term 4, 2021 on Saturday, 11 December signalling the beginning of the “Return Ready Phase”!

Join us for our pre departure ceremony on departure day and delight in their physical, emotional and personal growth over the last nine weeks. Every student will have a significant and important opportunity to share in front of you and all the other parents. The ceremony starts at 9.30 am sharp so please do not be late. Arrive between 9.00 - 9.30 am so that you can give your child a welcoming hug and have a bit of a reunion before the ceremony begins so that they can focus on their presentation.

If you are not going to be able to be at the departure ceremony, please advise your son/daughter via email. There is nothing more despondent than a student waiting for their parent to arrive when everyone else’s parents or guardians are here! They will understand if you are unable to be here by 9.30am if you communicate this to them - it is the not knowing that they struggle with!

If any other travel arrangements have been made, please advise us immediately because until you assume in writing responsibility of your son/daughter again, we are entrusted with their care.

[This is a snapshot of the most recent letter - please download and read the letter for full information]

• VIEW: FINAL LETTER HOME- 06/12/2021