Middle Years
Flourishing
I have admired the writing of Martin Seligman for over a decade and his positive psychology ideas have shaped our current Positive Education programme. Each year we start the year with a service and I would like to share a reading which resonates with me as a parent and educator. Here are two quotes that I would like to share with you, from “Flourish” 2011 by Martin Seligman.
“We want more for our children than healthy bodies. We want our children to have lives filled with friendship and love and high deeds. We want them to be eager to learn and be willing to confront challenges. We want our children to be grateful for what they receive from us, but proud of their own accomplishments. We want them to grow up with confidence in the future, a love of adventure, a sense of justice and courage to act on that sense of justice. We want them to be resilient in the face of setbacks and failures that growing up always brings. And when the time comes, we want them to be good parents. Our fondest hope is that the quality of their lives will be better than our own, and our inner most prayer is that our children will have all of our strengths and few of our weaknesses. All this we should be able to achieve”.
“Happiness turns out to be more contagious than depression, an upward spiral is around positive goals will occur. We can all say yes to more positive emotion. We can all say yes to more engagement. We can all say yes to better relationships. We can also use to meaning in life. We can all say yes to more positive accomplishment. We can also use more well-being”.
What are the characteristics of flourishing people? Seligman suggests these traits are shown by flourishing people.
- They are highly engaged with family, work and the community.
- They are driven by a sense of purpose, they know why they get up in the morning. It’s about doing something valuable with your day and with your life.
- They understand themselves and their future; they look for their ‘best possible future’.
If we are flourishing then we can help our children flourish.
Mrs Julia Winter Cooke
Year 6 Sports Achievements
At the beginning of Term 2, College was represented at District Athletics in Warrnambool by four Year 6 Students – Jack Austin, Phoebe Russell, Ella Churchill and Lachlan Rees. All of them put in an amazing effort and showed the skill of our young, up and coming athletes and their willingness to put themselves up against some of the best athletes in our district. Below is a breakdown of the events they competed in and the outcome of each.
Ella Churchill:
- 5th in 200m
- 5th in hurdles
- 4th in high jump
Lachlan Rees:
- 5th in hurdles
- 5th in shot put
Jack Austin
- 7th in 800m
Phoebe Russell
- 9th in 800m
We would also like to congratulate Lachlan Rees for being selected to go to the State Swimming Championships in Melbourne. It is an incredible achievement to be able to compete at such a high level and we are very proud of Lachlan representing College and putting his best foot forward. He completed in both the 50m Butterfly and the 50m freestyle events and placed 7th and 8th respectively. Well done Lachlan!
Mrs Elisha Nettleton