From the Principal Team

Gratitude: It’s Just So Important.

The Resilience Project and its’ practices are well under way in our classrooms. The main mission of the resilience project is to teach positive mental health strategies to help people become happier.

Gratitude, or appreciation for the good things that happen in life, is an essential part of building happiness and there are many benefits that can be gained from working gratitude into your everyday life.

One of the messages from the resilience project student workshops was to be grateful for what you have rather than what you don’t.   One of the ways we at Oatlands PS are practicing gratitude is by -

Keeping a gratitude journal / verbal gratitude sharing - Students take five minutes a day to think of and write down things that have happened that they are glad for or glad they have experienced. This puts the focus on the good things we have and helps us to appreciate and be thankful for the positives in our lives.

21 days of gratitude journal writing can rewire the brain to search for the positive aspects of life. The aim of the journal is to help people appreciate what they have, be present and think of others. 

Richmond FC 2017 Premiership Player and Brownlow Medallist Dustin Martin kept a Gratitude Journal in 2017. He said “It’s helped me to feel grateful for all I’ve got … for the opportunity to play footy for a club like Richmond.”

Research shows clearly that young people learn by observing. Young people who grow up watching adults around them practicing gratitude in daily life are most likely to internalize those concepts and adopt that kind of practice.

Chat regularly with your kids at home about:

-    something you’re grateful for on that particular day

-    someone you’re grateful for and why.

Deanne Morgan 

Assistant Principal