Wellbeing
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💛 Building Empathy at Home
Empathy is the ability to understand and care about how someone else might be feeling. It is an important skill that helps children build strong friendships, resolve disagreements and show kindness to others.
At Le Page Primary School, we encourage our students to develop empathy as part of our Leader in Me journey. Empathy helps children to pause, listen and consider another person’s feelings and perspective before responding.
🌱 Simple Ways to Build Empathy at Home
👂 Listen and notice
When your child is telling you about their day, give them your full attention. Ask questions such as, “How do you think they were feeling?” or “What do you think might have been happening for them?”
💭 Look beyond the behaviours
If someone has been unkind or upset, encourage your child to think about what might be happening underneath the behaviour. This doesn't mean excusing unkind behaviour — it helps children understand that everyone has feelings and challenges.
❤️ Name feelings
Help children build their emotional vocabulary by talking about feelings throughout the day. “You look disappointed that the game ended. Is that how you're feeling?” Being able to recognise their own emotions makes it easier to recognise emotions in others.
👀 Try another perspective
When disagreements happen, ask, “What do you think they might say happened?” Encourage your child to consider that two people can experience the same situation very differently.
🤝 Look for opportunities to help
Small acts of kindness are wonderful opportunities to practise empathy — helping a sibling, checking on a friend, including someone in a game or simply asking, “Are you okay?”
⭐ A Leader in Me Connection
Empathy connects beautifully with Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood. We encourage children to listen with the intention of understanding rather than simply waiting for their turn to speak.
You can try this at home by asking:
“Have you really listened to what the other person is saying?”“How do you think they might be feeling?”“What could you do to show them that you understand?”
When children learn to stop, listen and see things from another person's perspective, they are developing a lifelong skill that helps them become kind, caring and responsible leaders — at school, at home and in the wider community. 💛
💚Your Family Challenge
Notice someone who might need a little kindness this week — and do something about it.
It could be:
- Including someone in a game
- Helping a family member without being asked
- Checking in on someone who is having a hard day
- Giving someone a genuine compliment
- Listening when someone needs to talk
- Saying sorry and trying to understand how your actions made someone else feel
At the end of the week, ask:
“How did showing empathy make you feel?”
