Wellbeing

Hi St Mary’s Families,

I thought I would share some information this week from Bron Grieve’s talk at the Library last night (as advertised through the Newsletter) titled ‘Parenting in the Modern World: The Emotional World of Primary School Kids’. As always, Bron spoke candidly, with authority and some humour thrown in. She has worked with our students at St Mary’s over the years presenting programs such as ‘Make Friends With Worry’ and Preparation for Puberty or P4P. It was also great to see some St Mary’s parents in attendance. 

Some of the topics and information covered were emotions, anxiety, worries and how the brain develops in primary aged students. Bron also had some great tools and strategies to work with big emotions in little kids. One of the main points Bron made was that between our kid’s development during the younger years and the sometimes tumultuous period of being a teenager is a very important developmental time where we as parents have a great opportunity to help manage and understand emotions and why this period of time can be challenging. Some of the time as parents we think there is a lull in development and we sit back and wait for the teenage years to hit, when in fact this is a very opportune time to connect and prepare our children. 

Have a great weekend.

Mark O'Sullivan

P.S

Some quotes to ponder and reflect on for now…………..

-Beneath every behaviour there is a feeling. And beneath every feeling is a need. When we meet that need rather than focus on the behaviour, we begin to deal with the cause and not the symptom.

- The kids who need the most love will ask for it in the most unloving ways.

Also..............