Chaplain's Chat

Hi everyone, 

It is great to see all our students back and ready to learn! It’s been a weird term, but I’ve been very impressed with the amount of resilience our students have shown. 

Resilience is defined as the ability to cope when things go wrong. It can be described as bouncing back after a difficult time and being able to shrug off the bad things life throws at you. An important part of being resilient is the ability to look at or problems in our lives and being able to grow instead of letting them get us down. This is part of having a growth mindset. 

At the start of the year, we discussed how to have a growth mindset in our TRIBES classes and it has especially been relevant for Term 2. When a person grows it means they change, mature and develop. Every living thing grows including plants, animals and people. A mindset is the way our brain perceives ourselves and the world, and it helps us look at our problems in a positive way. So when we combine the words, we get a growth mindset. It is believing in the power of yourself and your brain in a positive way.

When we try hard things, having a growth mindset means not giving up and continuing to try and get better. We can choose to look at the world in a way that makes us feel strong and happy or in a way that makes us feel frustrated and weak. People with a growth mindset know they can get better by working hard and never giving up. They don't let a difficult situation keep them from trying their best to achieve.

Having a growth mindset can improve engagement in children and lead to better success as adults. It helps children develop the self-motivation required for continued learning and progress throughout their lives.

So with all the hard things going on at the moment, it is a great time to practice our growth mindsets! You can practice having a growth mindset by replacing these negative thoughts about ourselves with positive ones. Sometimes you might need to say some positive ones out loud until they stick!