Moving Forward & Friendship Wheels

There’s a delightful buzz around the school at the moment. Children are reconnecting

with one another and their teachers. On Wednesday, our first day back together, everyone participated in a whole school wellbeing activity.

Using a bike analogy, I explained that a bike can only move forward if all the parts work together. A bike without a frame is just a pile of parts, a bike without handlebars is hard to steer, a bike without brakes means we can’t stop when we need to, and a bike without wheels means that our journey can be really slow going. I then connected parts of the bike to people in our lives who help us move forward - parents, as children’s first and most important educators, the teachers in a school, the friends who support us and ourselves - our own attitudes and actions.

Going back to the image of the bike, we took one part - the wheels - and in groups, children created FRIENDSHIP WHEELS. I chose the wheel concept because it can represent many things - our journey over the past few months, connectedness and cycles. We have gone through a challenging period together and now we are moving forward as a school community together again in one space.

The juniors received a fraction of a circle and drew images of meaningful things such as family, pets and favourite foods; the seniors collaborated by working together in friendship groups and listening to one another’s ideas about things that interest them. When you see some of the Senior pictures, you will notice that part of one person’s picture joins another person’s image.

Take a look at some of the work that children started doing as well as their feedback.

I thought it was really creative. Everyone tried their best to work as a team and everyone was very kind in the process. - Gurpreet, Year 4It was cool. It taught me about not excluding people. I made friends with new people by doing the activity. - William, Year 4It was fun. I liked working with my group because we could connect things together like our favourite sports. Mine was swimming and Jessica’s was basketball. -Deborah, Year 3I

I think the purpose was for people to get to know each other. We got to know what other people love. - Ethan, Year 5It was fun how we connected the circles because it was really creative. I liked how the juniors drew what they liked on the circles. We found out about each other’s interests and hobbies. - Sanjana, Year 6

Keep journeying on everyone.

Connie Drossaert

Student Wellbeing

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