School Wide Positive Behaviour (SWPBS)

Wellbeing/SWPBS Team at CSPS

(From left to right: Elizabeth Sadler, Craig Higgins, Stephanie Spitzer, Labreni Pappas, Georgia Despotellis, Prue Reynolds, Jordan Kappa)

Building Resilience at School: How CSPS is Using the Catastrophe Scale

At Caulfield South Primary School, we believe that emotional resilience is just as important as academic success. That’s why we’ve embraced a whole-school approach to teaching resilience and one of our most effective tools is the Catastrophe Scale.

You might be wondering: What is the Catastrophe Scale? Simply put, it’s a visual tool that helps children learn to rate the size of their problems. It encourages them to pause, reflect, and ask themselves: Is this a small problem, a medium one, or a big one? By doing this, they begin to understand that not every challenge is a catastrophe and that they have the skills to cope.

As an occupational therapist, I’ve seen firsthand how this scale empowers young people to regulate their emotions. It gives them language to express how they feel and helps them develop perspective. For example, losing a pencil might feel like a “Big problem” in the moment, but with support, a child can learn to reframe it as a “Tiny Problem or inconvenience.”

A Whole-School Approach

What makes this initiative so assuring is that it won’t just happen in the therapy room it will happen everywhere. Teachers can use the scale during lessons, and playground staff can refer to it during recess. This consistency is expected to help children feel safe, supported, and understood.

We’re also in the process of integrating the Catastrophe Scale into our social-emotional learning curriculum, using stories, role-play, and visual aids to make it accessible for all ages. 

How Families Can Support

We encourage families to use the Catastrophe Scale at home too! Try asking your child, “What is the size of this problem?” and talk through ways to manage it together. This helps reinforce the idea that feelings are valid, but problems can be solved. Please see our Catastrophe Scale Visual below.

Abigail Simcoe (OT) and Labreni Pappas (Wellbeing)