Student Well-being
Community Spotlight: Year 3/4
Focus: Returning to School
This term in the Year 3/4 Learning Community, our wellbeing has been focused on being socially active with each other. We are making sure we actively participate in conversations and most importantly preparing for the big return to school this week!
In Google Meets, we have been doing lots of fun things to keep students engaged and provide opportunities to be together but experience some downtime from doing school work. Activities include Kahoots, Blooket, sharing our best jokes and riddles as well as doing some old school ‘show and tell!’
We have also made it a priority to provide social stories to our students regarding what things might look and feel like when they enter the classroom again. With the implementation of masks whilst indoors and remembering to use sanitiser each time we enter the classroom we understand that this might take some getting used to!
We look forward to having everyone back in our learning space in the next few days!
Daily lessons in resilience for kids
A simple, yet profound resilience lesson to her three-year-old...
The toddler fell into his dog’s bowl, saturating his t-shirt and giving himself a fright. His mum quickly helped him saying, “Oh well!” The three-year-old bravely parroted his mother, saying, “Oh well!” and dashed off to play.
Every day there are opportunities for parents to give their children lessons in resilience. Promoting personal resilience focuses on helping kids cope with life’s hurts, disappointments and challenges in the present, while building strengths for the future.
Adult reactions matter
It’s in our reactions to these and other every day mistakes, mess-ups, muck-ups and hurts where the big lessons in resilience are taught and reinforced.
The lessons for the three-year-old were simple but profound. “Oh well” meant:
- Stuff happens
- Don’t look for fault or blame
- Keep your perspective
- Pick yourself off and continue with what you were doing
How to react
The resilience lesson for this mother was equally as profound. When a minor mishap with a child or teenager occurs:
- Match your response to the incident
- Stay calm and be positive
- Don’t look for fault or blame
- Remember, stuff happens
Resilience lesson for parents – “Oh well”
Every day there are opportunities for parents to give their children lessons in resilience. Here are some examples:
- A child misses being picked for a team that he had his heart set on joining. “Oh well. Let’s see how you go next time.”
- When a boy experiences rejection in the playground at school. “Oh well. You’ll find that some people don’t want to be your friend.”
- When a teenager isn’t happy with the mark she gets for an assignment. “Oh well. Sometimes we don’t get the marks we think we deserve.”
Match your response to the challenge to promote resilience
There are times when “Oh well” won’t cut it. Here are some examples:
When a child is bullied he needs your continued support.
- When a student’s continuous efforts at improvement are constantly met with criticism then you may need to act on his behalf and meet with a teacher
- When a child always struggles to make the grade and is never picked for a team then you may need to help him make different choices
These types of situations also present opportunities for daily lessons in resilience, but they require more parental support and teaching. The resilience lessons learned are deeper and include concepts such as ‘things will eventually go your way,’ ‘there are times when you need to seek help’ and ‘this too shall pass.’
Promoting personal resilience focuses on helping kids cope with life’s hurts, disappointments and challenges in the present, while building strengths for the future. Daily lessons in resilience are everywhere. You need to be ready to make the most of these valuable lessons when they come your way.
Take care and stay safe,
Lauren Borg
Student Well-being Leader