Wellbeing

The Resilience Project

Empathy involves understanding others’ feelings and perspectives and is practised through kindness, compassion and curiosity. Developing empathy fosters deeper connections, increase our likelihood of acting kindly, and helps us experience positive emotions. 

 🌟 Strength and Gentleness in Supporting Healthy Relationships 

At our school, we are committed to nurturing a community where children learn to relate to one another with both strength and gentleness. Part of this commitment is helping students recognise when behaviours in friendships or peer groups become controlling rather than caring. Controlling behaviour can limit a child’s confidence, independence, or sense of safety, and we take a proactive approach to teaching students what healthy, respectful relationships look like. By working closely with families, we aim to ensure every child feels empowered to speak up, seek help, and build connections grounded in kindness and mutual respect. 

🚦 Examples of controlling behaviour that is not considerate of others 

Controlling behaviour can appear in many forms, especially when a child is trying to dominate a situation or another person without thinking about their feelings or rights. This may include: 

• Repeated unkind behaviour — actions or comments that consistently put another child down or make them feel unsure of themselves. 
• Hurtful or dismissive remarks — words that cause ongoing upset or make a child feel small or powerless. 
• Mocking or belittling — making fun of someone again and again to influence how they feel or behave. 
• Interfering with belongings — taking, hiding, or controlling another child’s things to assert power or get their way. 
• Excluding others on purpose — deciding who can and cannot join in, or encouraging others to leave someone out. 
• Using physical actions to control — pushing, grabbing, blocking, or other behaviours meant to influence or intimidate. 
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We are noticing some controlling behaviour among some students at the moment, and we are actively supporting all children to understand why cooperation and respect matter. 

One way we are doing this is by helping students learn to share spaces fairly in the yard. This might look like taking turns on the oval — for example, football one break and soccer the next — or rotating activities in the pavilion, such as basketball one break and netball the next. There are plenty of spaces to play a variety of games.

Compromise is a skill that grows with practice, and just like reading or counting, if children haven’t yet learned how to compromise or share spaces, it becomes our responsibility to teach and guide them. 

Attendance – Attend today, Achieve Tomorrow 

In Learning Conversations, your child's teacher speaks to you about how attendance is linked to progress in learning.

• 100% attendance = Best chance for progress in learning with this attendance. 
• 96.99% attendance = Less chance for progress in learning with this attendance. 
• 92.99% = Harder to make progress in learning with this attendance. 
• 90% and below = It is extremely difficult to make progress in learning with this attendance

Please consider the following which will help your child progress in their learning:

• Holidays outside of school holiday times
• Make appointments after 12.40 or after school has finished
• Rest helps children prepare for learning