Wellbeing

Emily Murcott - Wellbeing Literacy Leader

Creating a kinder world by empowering kids with friendship skills - URSTRONG

On occasion, I find myself in a challenging situation when it comes to friendships even as an adult. Have I done or said something wrong? Have I not done or said something I should have? Have I upset a friend? It can be challenging for adults to maintain healthy friendships, do you remember how challenging it was when you were a child?

If you were anything like me, the advice I received was to just give them space, just walk away and it will go away. You will be alright. Be tough! These strategies were not very useful. I was never feeling empowered or satisfied. Sometimes, people I thought were friends would be unkind for a few weeks.

We, at Rolling Hills Primary School, have introduced a focus on Friendology. We are introducing a whole-school strategy that empowers students with friendship skills to create communities of kindness in schools.

Relationships are the heart of social-emotional wellbeing! This focus will give students language and self-confidence to be better friends and develop healthier friendships. Using a kid-friendly approach, we will teach a simple framework to support and coach students towards positive relationships.

We will explicitly teach students how to develop healthy friendships and manage conflict in a respectful way is the key to creating a safe, caring learning environment and inspire kinder happier children.

We want students to know the 4 Friendship Facts:

We would like children to recognise whether their friendships with other people are healthy or unhealthy and then they can surround themselves with healthy friendships. 

We want our students to understand that having Friendship Fires actually make your friendships stronger when you Talk-it-out!    

If you would like to know more about Friendology click here https://urstrong.com/parents/ then scroll down and become a URSTRONG family.

Later in the year, a parent information evening will be offered. It will be a fun-filled evening where you can participate in activities that your children will undertake at school and begin to understand the concepts of Friendology. So stay tuned!