Wellbeing Report 

Year 8 Incursion – Thinking Traps

Last week our Year 8 students took part in a mental health and wellbeing incursion. The program was delivered by Toolbox Education, who specialise in presenting preventative mental health workshops for schools. Their engaging and relatable programs teach students how to apply tools from cognitive behavioural therapy, in a simple and easy to understand way.

‘THINKING TRAPS’ are the unhelpful thoughts our mind delivers us throughout the day which often lead to anxiety, self-doubt and disengagement. By using the relatable analogy of our phone APPS, the presenters had the students explicitly thinking about their mind as also having apps which negatively influence our thought processes, sending us ‘notifications’ all through the day. 

Common thinking traps our students learnt about were:

By being aware of these thinking traps, we can start to notice when they are having a negative impact, reassess the situation and challenge them with more positive thoughts.

We will continue to discuss the ideas presented in the workshop during our Extended Pastoral Social Emotional Learning sessions in the coming weeks, practicing being critical of our thought processes and coming up with new ways of thinking.

When you see and/or hear your child having these negative thoughts, you could talk them through these thoughts with questions like:

• What evidence is there that this thought is true and not true? 
• What evidence are you ignoring? 
• What is a new balanced thought?

Ms Jackie Kol

Director of Wellbeing