From the Principal

School is in full swing! Students are engaged in learning at their various stages and in many guises. One thing we try hard to teach at St Mary’s College is resilience. It is one of our four 'R's and it came to be one because teachers could see there was a decline in the resilience of students.

There is a great deal written on building resilience and a good place to start reading would be our Counsellors’ blog on our website. Two key ways to help others when you sense the person is lacking resilience is to one, help them re-frame their thinking—to see themselves as a force within the dynamic, or even as a fighter and not a victim; and another is to provide prompts to focus on what is within their control and intervening at that place.

Resilience is a life skill and it is a critical factor in learning. We need to be able to hear critical feedback and to endure failure if we are going to be good learners. Think about how a child learns to ride a bike; they need the critical feedback, to be told to keep the pace up or look in the direction they want to steer. We can’t keep telling them they are doing a great job and ignore those issues. 

I remember the last time I had a bike accident. I forgot to look right approaching a junction and I got hit by another bike. I am now excellent at remembering to look right!

As the term progresses and your child or children get some critical feedback, try and help them hear it and put it into practice in their learning. 

There are many parent nights coming up. I hope you are able to attend the evenings pertinent to your child or children. It is a strong first step in our partnership in your child’s education this year. I hope to see many of you at the College tonight at our Families Welcome Evening. Food, alcohol and other drinks are compliments of the Parents and Friends' fund!

A beautiful passage from the Christian Scriptures on resilience:

'We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed' (Corinthians 4:8–9).

Image: https://bit.ly/2HttYZo

Helen Spencer

Principal