Well Being News
Dear Parents and Carers,
Kindness is Cool
This week I have been thinking a lot about the value of Kindness. It is very easy to define kindness by checking the definition in the dictionary.
Kindness means different things to different people. The meaning for you will be in the way you choose to show it and receive it.
There are endless possibilities and ways to demonstrate kindness.
Generosity is giving of our time, attention and resources freely.
Selflessness is a true form of Kindness where we are motivated by a genuine need to help, and to help without expecting anything in return.
Consideration is about being aware of the feelings and needs of others and showing respect.
When we show empathy and compassion, we are showing understanding and our kind words and actions are offered as a way to help someone.
Random acts of Kindness are something talked about a lot. Small expressions of support and generosity; a smile, a helping hand, a wave, a simple ‘Good Morning’ to someone.
At St Kevin’s, Kindness is highly valued even though it is not one of our three main values. We see Kindness incorporated into our value of Respect.
At school we seek to give our students reminders of how to show Kindness and the importance of this value. Through our morning ‘Welcome Circles’, the daily PA announcements from our student leaders and positive modelling from our staff and students, we remember that Kindness is:
- asking other students to join our games and letting someone go first in a game
- listening respectfully to others’ opinions and ideas
- offering help to our learning partners
- seeing a need and doing something about it
- greeting people in the morning
- making good choices about the words we use when speaking to others
- sharing our school resources with everyone
- showing gratitude to our teachers, peers and friends
- being inclusive.
If you would like to discuss Kindness more at home, these are some interesting books to share as a family:
- Here We Are by Oliver
- Horton Hears A Who by Dr Seus
- Have You Filled A Bucket Today by Carol McCloud
- I am Human: A book about Empathy by Susan Verde
- Kindness is Cooler, Mrs Ruler by Marhery Cuyler
- We’re All Wonders by R. J. Palacio
- Crumbs by Phil Cummings and Shan Devries
- The Kindness Project by Deborah Abela
PBL Expected Value for Weeks 10 and 11 of Term 2
For our last two weeks of term, we will be focusing on ‘I learn from my mistakes’. This expected behaviour is connected to the value of Resilience. When we focus on learning from our mistakes we:
- We can try again
- We learn that it is ok to make a mistake
- We learn that everyone makes mistakes
- Know that making a mistake may make me feel sad, frustrated or angry
- Have an opportunity to try again
I hope that everyone enjoys the up-and-coming school holidays and finds opportunities to care for yourself and others during this time.
Fiona George
Wellbeing Leader