From the Wellness Centre

Year Eight Mental Health First Aid 

As flagged in a previous Anchor, this interesting and relevant training will take place during Health Education classes in Weeks Nine and Ten. To remind you, the course upskills young people in having conversations of concern with friends whom they might have noticed are struggling, and linking their friend with a trusted adult. Letters will be sent home in the next fortnight with more details and also with an invitation to contact me if you are concerned about the emotional capacity of your young person to participate. 

Exam Season

Over the years of secondary education, we – parents, educators, youth 'cheer leaders' and supporters – hope the young people in our lives manage the manifold demands associated with school life, from assessments, to balancing multifarious commitments, to feeling socially comfortable and happy, to imagining futures of contentment and purpose, and also, when required, to achieve in exam conditions. 

It is indeed a challenging time at present here at GSG for staff and our senior students: our Year Twelves, Tens and Elevens are (or soon will be) ensconced in the sturm and drang/storm and stress of this exacting series of tasks. Many people find this distillation of knowledge within limited slabs of time (from two to three hours) to be a fine vehicle that can demonstrate and reflect course understanding, application and synthesis. However, others find these times to be excoriatingly stressful and not at all indicative of knowledge and skill. So, with that in mind, please absorb and enjoy the letter below with which you may be already familiar; however, contextually it holds much gravitas I believe.

While emphasis is often placed on how well students perform on tests, a Principal at an unnamed school wrote a letter to parents urging them to worry less about scores, and that their children's future success isn't completely tied to how well they perform in exams. The Principal wrote:

"Dear parents, The exams of your child are to start soon. I know you are all really anxious for your child to do well. But, please do remember, amongst the students who will be sitting for the exams there is an artist, who doesn’t need to understand Math… There is an entrepreneur, who doesn’t care about History or English literature…There is a musician, whose Chemistry marks won’t matter…There’s an athlete…whose physical fitness is more important than Physics… If your child does get top marks, that’s great! But if they don’t…please don’t take away their self-confidence and dignity. Tell them it’s OK, it’s just an exam! They are cut out for much bigger things in life. Tell them, no matter what they score…you love them and will not judge them. Please do this, and when you do… watch your children conquer the world. One exam or low mark won’t take away…their dreams and talent. And please, do not think that doctors and engineers…are the only happy people in the world."

We well-informed members of the GSG community know that there are numerous pathways forward post-school. And meanwhile, in a galaxy not so far away, indeed ours, astronomers see a 6,000 mile water vapour plume blasting from Enceladus, a moon of Saturn.

Speaking of tests and questions

Questions can increase anxiety in some children and young people. Adults can make deeper connections with our young people by reframing. Lindsay Braman has some cool reframes, which will deepen connections by demonstrating your sincere interest, eliciting more than one-word responses and showing up, paying attention, at a mutually agreeable time/place. 

Ms Sheryl Moncur | School Counsellor & Teacher