Wellbeing
Building Emotional Resilience (support seeking or talking with an adult is not snitching)
As we approach the end of the school year, a time filled with excitement, change, and sometimes a few big feelings, it’s important to support our children in building the emotional resilience they need to finish strong.
This time of year can bring tired minds, stretched friendships, and worries about what’s next. Helping children name their emotions (“I’m frustrated,” “I’m nervous,” “I’m proud”) is a simple first step in strengthening their ability to cope. When children can identify what they’re feeling, they’re more able to choose a healthy response, taking a breath, asking for help, walking away, or trying again.
Talking to a trusted adult when something is wrong is not “snitching”, it’s an important act of courage, safety, and problem-solving. As we support children to navigate friendships, conflicts, and big emotions, it helps to remind them that adults are here to guide, protect, and help them make good choices. Encouraging your child to speak up early, whether they’re feeling unsure, uncomfortable, or worried about someone else, teaches them that seeking help is a strength, not a weakness. These conversations build confidence, emotional safety, and resilience, and they reassure children that they never have to manage tricky situations on their own.
Self-respect plays a vital role too. Encouraging children to speak kindly to themselves, celebrate their efforts, and recognise their own strengths builds confidence and independence. Small reminders such as, You can do hard things, Mistakes help you learn, You showed great persistence today, go a long way.
As families, modelling calm problem-solving and acknowledging our own emotions helps children see that big feelings are normal and manageable. Together, we can guide them to use strategies such as:
- Taking slow, deep breaths
- Counting to ten before responding
- Using positive self-talk
- Seeking support from a trusted adult
Finding a quiet space to reset
By nurturing resilience now, we set our children up not only for a smooth end to the year, but for a confident, capable start to the next. With patience, empathy, and practice, our students learn that they are strong, valued, and ready for whatever comes next.