Wellbeing - Middle School

What happens when worry stacks up?

All our lives are incredibly busy. When we attempt to get too much done all at once, we’re at risk of letting everything overwhelm us, and we’re open to developing stress and anxiety. Well, your sons are the same - they are incredibly busy, and the stress can easily mount. 

In the work I do with teachers, Year Coordinators and counsellors, the smallest of issues can escalate into something larger for them. In the moment, their behaviour may have seemed over the top, but their anxious response may not be as excessive as we may initially think. This compounding effect results in an overwhelming sense of anxiety or stress, that for them, can seem more like an emergency.

So, it is really about the importance of having realistic expectations about what they can and can’t do in a day or during the week. This is where you can encourage them to be organised and do their best and prioritise the important tasks. With so much on their to-do list, and always ever growing, it can feel impossible to avoid overloading themselves but picking one thing to focus on at a time and to prioritise. 

Things come out way during the day that need to go to the top of the list and others we can relegate further down. This is a message I will continue to reiterate to them as Term 3 starts to pick up again with learning tasks, assessments, homework and co-curricular.

Middle School Assembly- Friday 2nd August

Last Term, Year 6 students created a Ted-Talk style speech on the topic 'Power'. The speech had to be about an idea that is worth sharing. Two students were chosen from each Year 6 class to present their speech in front of the cohort. Jacob Tran's speech on 'The Power of Change' had the most impact on the judges and he had an opportunity to share at last week’s assembly.

Well, what is change? Is it a cruel thing that happens? Or is it something that’s good? But what is it really? Well, you are probably thinking change is what helps us move on in life or you can’t describe what it is because change is just change. Well, let me tell you change is humongous, almost too big to imagine but what it does matters.

There are five stages of change: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. What do they mean? Ok here is a short example. 

Here is Bobby Oops - Bobby fell, and he is bleeding. But don’t tell him that because he doesn’t know, this is pre-contemplation. Who said that? Well now Bobby knows but he doesn’t know what to do. This is contemplation.

Here is Jeffrey - Jeffrey saw this so now he is getting a band aid, this is preparation.  Jeffrey has now got a band aid and is now putting it on Bobby, this is action. Jeffrey, that's a bit too much. Yay Bobby has a band aid, but he must leave it on otherwise his wounds won’t heal this is maintenance.

What is change and is it good or bad? Change is neutral, it can be both positive and negative. Change has many pros and cons but in all it is how we harness it. As change is an ongoing thing change has help from other things the power of influence discoveries, action and many more. How? For example, influence - influence is involved in starting preparation and well action is involved in action.

Change can be hard to deal with so here is Bobby again. Who remembers their first day of Year 5 at St Pat’s? Well, I do! It was scary, hard and heartbreaking that you moved to another school knowing no one and losing your best friends. “Jeffrey noooo” Bobby hates school and it couldn't get worse on the third day of school when Mr Jeffrey was about to say the basketball results. On top of that Bobby’s Grandpa dropped him off at the wrong school and if it couldn’t get any worse it was a girls’ school! A year has passed, and Bobby is in Year 6 Bobby has many friends but what the Year 5 Bobby didn’t realise was that the change was going to be good. That things would get better. But was change really bad? No change makes us become a better person. It may be hard but there is always an upside. 

It is amazing what change can do like how caterpillars transform into butterflies. As one of my friends said, “it doesn’t matter if the start wasn’t good, just make it a good ending.”

Jacob Tran | Year 6 Red

Finally, a huge congratulations to Raymond Sleiman (Year 7 Hickey 2) who was presented with an award from St Vincent De Paul Society for his contribution to Social Justice. Well done. 

Alexandros Sinadinos

Director of Middle School