Student Wellbeing

We know the importance of promoting positive Mental Health and Wellbeing. Happy, safe and comfortable students are students who are ready to learn and be at their best. Resilience plays a large part to a person’s wellbeing. It is an important skill that helps us bounce back from challenges and tough times. At Greenhills, when we approach a challenge we are having difficulty with, we promote a growth mindset and use the saying, “We haven’t got it yet!” Just like muscles in your body, you can strengthen your resilience with practice, overcoming challenges and obstacles is all a part of this learning.

It is so important for our students to develop resilience, as it is the ability to adapt and overcome difficulties. It's like having a superpower that helps you stay strong when faced with problems, changes, or setbacks. As parents and teachers, we need to let our children/students fail, have setbacks and give them a chance to overcome these.

Our School’s GREAT value Grit is an example of resilience building. We want all our students to persevere, enjoy the challenge and find ways to overcome that challenge.

Below are some strategies to Build and promote Resilience:

Positive thinking: Always try to see the bright side of things. When you face a problem, think about the good that can come from it. Even in tough situations, you can find something positive.

Set goals: Set achievable goals for yourself. Break big tasks into smaller, manageable steps. Celebrate your successes along the way. At school, this includes Literacy, Numeracy and personal learning goals. At home it could be an artistic, musical or sporting goal. Celebrate these successes as a family.

Learn from our mistakes: Instead of being upset by mistakes, view them as opportunities to learn and grow. Everyone makes mistakes, and they are a natural part of life. Whilst mistakes are great, part of learning is working out what could be changes to improve it. We don’t want to do the same thing over and over again. We want to try something new to improve.

Practice Patience: Sometimes, problems take time to solve. Be patient with yourself and the process. Some of our best achievements will take days, weeks or even years. Acknowledging this and celebrating that achievement is important.

Remember, building resilience is a journey, and it's okay to have ups and downs along the way. Every obstacle or challenge we overcome makes us stronger, more resilient and better equipped for what life throws us next.

Janine Hough - janine.hough@education.vic.gov.au

Brad Ryan - bradley.ryan@education.vic.gov.au

Janine and Brad.