From the Leadership Team

Lucas Collins, Head of Junior School 

Bringing the value of perseverance to life

Our recently launched School values of Respect, Curiosity, Perseverance and Compassion reflect the ways in which we aim to think, act and become, both as individuals and as a community. 

However, without shared and agreed-upon understandings of the mindsets and behaviours required to bring our values to life, each is nothing more than a word on a page or a sticker on a window.

Each day, educators across our School encourage the learners in our classes and the schoolyard to show perseverance – to stick at things when they aren’t initially ‘easy’, to try again if success isn’t immediately forthcoming, and to consider a different strategy if their first plan is not working. 

We promote this message as we believe that of all the values, skills and dispositions our students will develop perseverance and resilience hold a place of crucial importance in a world where predictability and stability have become increasingly less common. 

Yet, without a solid sense of existing wellbeing, each individual’s ability to positively persevere is significantly impacted - as the old parable states, 'one cannot build an enduring house on shifting sands'.

A FRAMEWORK FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING - PERMA 

A helpful research-based framework which outlines some of the key building blocks of psychological wellbeing is PERMA,short for Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, 

Meaning, and Accomplishment. 

Martin Seligman, the recognised American academic and positive psychologist behind the model of PERMA, has said that each individual will require and experience each of these attributes to varying degrees; however, all five of these building blocks need to be present in an individual's life for them to flourish and thrive at a psychological level.

At Kilvington, we work at building upon our community’s collective psychological wellbeing levels via our strategic pillars of Character and Care. Underpinning these two pillars are our daily experiences and focused programs, such our sequential Social and Emotional Learning Curriculum and GEM (Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness) time in the Junior School and Character Days and House events in the Senior School. 

Perseverance, as most of us are aware, is an easy concept to promote and encourage, but a much harder one to implement. Through nurturing a culture and climate of character, care and wellbeing, underpinned by the messages and methodology of positive psychology, we aim to provide an environment in which perseverance is not an unrealistic or unachievable ideal – instead, it is just another feature of ‘the way we are’ at Kilvington.