Wellbeing

Character Education

This week the children will be attending "The NED Show" online.  NED's Mindset Mission is a character education program. It centres around three important messages that have lifelong relevance:

N = Never give up

E = Encourage others

D = Do your best.

During the show, the children will learn about the importance of these three life skills while also enjoying storytelling, magic, humour and yoyo tricks. 

As you saw in the letter that went home last week, schools have the opportunity to host the NED show through the pay it forward concept. What does 'pay-it-forward' mean for children, and how do we teach them this concept?  Simply put, it means to repay a kindness received with a good deed to someone else.  

The video below demonstrates this concept beautifully, without any words.  At Holy Family, we see children pay it forward through their small kindnesses towards others - from bending down to help a Prep child tie their shoelaces and teaching someone to shoot a basketball to offering to help a teacher carry something or open a door.  Carrying out small acts of kindness without a thought of something in return is a way children demonstrate two of our HEART values - respect and empathy. 

Personal Space - Respecting Others

In some classrooms, children learn about their 'personal' space bubbles and the importance of consent. Marnie Newbound introduced this concept to the Prep children early in the school year, and our youngest children are very adept at asking others if they would like a hug rather than assuming or rushing up and touching others.  This early teaching will also help children to understand concepts such as keeping our hands to ourselves and the dignity and rights of everyone. Accompanied by the teaching of STOP as part of our Stop, Think, Do program, children also learn that they have the right to say STOP if they feel uncomfortable about someone getting into their space bubble.

This is a sample page of one of the social stories we have adapted to demonstrate the importance of personal space and consent, and below is a short video about personal space. 

Learning about personal space also helps children to understand that we can respect others by keeping our hands and feet to ourselves, as the Wondergrove kids teach us in this video. 

Connie Drossaert

Wellbeing Leader