Assistant Principal's Report

BEING A GOOD FRIEND

I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to have many amazing conversations with parents and students this year. Whenever I have this opportunity, these conversations are often centred around how both Glen Waverley Primary School (GWPS) and families can support our students in a variety of ways. 

One of the frequent topics for discussion is about friendship. Our wonderful students often ask me for advice about making a new friend, sorting out a disagreement or how to play a game that everyone likes. One of the resources we often refer to at GWPS is the Parenting Ideas website. In the article titled ‘How to help your child be a good friend’ it states that in order to be a good friend it is very important to know what a good friend is. Being a good friend involves values such as trust, empathy and loyalty. We know a good friend requires great listening skills, being forgiving and patient. Although these are all essential factors in a healthy friendship, how do we support our students at home and school in the art of friendship?

Parenting Ideas suggests that teaching your child friendship values such as empathy, honesty and respect and modelling social skills through conversations, family games and role play is a great start. In the Welsh household, Saturday Family Game Night is a feature of our week. We often use these nights to work on resilience and persistence, especially if there is a disagreement about the rules. 

Empowering our children to be able to negotiate a friendship issue and find their own solutions are also an integral aspect to being a good friend. One effective strategy that can be used involves a social story or role play where your children might be working out how to solve a playground disagreement. I often use a social story with my own children when helping them with a tricky playground situation. My six year old Angus loves stories and these are great ways to build on his social skills. 

I know that from my daily conversations with parents that there are some fantastic strategies and skills that are being taught at home to help GWPS students become good friends. I hope that these suggestions help to further develop friendship skills across the school.

Mr Welsh 

Assistant Principal Wellbeing