Wellbeing MATTERS!

Dear Families,

During primary school children go through many stages of making friends and along the way will experience some difficulty with them at some stage. It is very normal for children to experience difficulty from time to time as this is a way for children to discover what works with friends and what doesn’t – put simply children are developing their social and emotional skills. Some children may get confused when they have a disagreement with another child and may call this “bullying”. There is a great difference between a disagreement and bullying and here is a simple way to differentiate between them: Misunderstanding – usually problems around communication. Disagreement – do not agree on something and both want their own way. Conflict – people usually want to solve the problem. Can be over a period of time if not sorted properly. Bullying – threatening, repetitive, targeted, deliberating wanting to harm, abusive, no attempt to resolve issue. If your child does experience conflict or disagreements, this is a wonderful teaching moment to guide them and help them learn about how to get along with others. Sometimes children can resolve the difficulty themselves, particularly as they grow into the upper years of primary, but when they are young they may need guidance (from home and school), and most importantly emotional support (from home and school). The best way to give emotional support is to use ‘reflective listening’. When we practice this type of listening, we listen to the content of what the child is saying and listen for the emotion and then we reflect back what they are saying e.g. “it sounds as though you disagreed with the other children, how does that make you feel”. We can then try to help them solve the problem or situation by giving them lots of opportunities to brainstorm a range of solutions and then guiding them to choose an appropriate and positive solution to the problem. Conflict can teach kids:

How to give and take
How to come to an agreement
How to compromise
How to solve problems
To build empathy
To understand others and their needs
How to get along in a group
How to develop successful, loving and healthy relationships as adults.

(ref. https//wellbeingforkids.com.au)

At Sacred Heart our “Resilience Rights, Respectful Relationships” (RRRR) program teaches our students ‘Social and Emotional Learning and Respectful Relationships’ from Foundation to Grade 6. Students are taught explicitly about emotions (theirs and others); personal strengths; positive coping; problem solving; stress management; help seeking; their individuality and positive relationships. It covers the curriculum areas of Health and Physical Education, Critical and Creative Thinking and the Personal Social Capability through a range of collaborative learning activities such as paired sharing, small group problem solving, scenario-based discussions, skill development exercises, role plays, story telling, games, experiential activities and class discussions. It is a dynamic and powerful learning resource that our teachers and students share together throughout their primary school journey.

At Sacred Heart our Graduate Outcomes seek to educate all our students to

Be inspired by Christ
Live an active and healthy lifestyle
Be discerning and adaptable lifelong learners in a contemporary world
Have a social conscience and respect for life, self, others and the environment
Be optimistic, resilient and confident to take their own path and reach their potential
Have the ability to work as an individual, and as part of a team

The RRRR program is the tool for us all to achieve our best and help our students to be the best they can be!

Please feel free to contact me if you have any concerns or queries.

Debbie Turvey

Pastoral Wellbeing & Learning Diversity Leader

dturvey@shtatura.catholic.edu.au

(03) 5824 1841

Stay tuned in our school newsletter for more ideas and conversations around promoting wellbeing and learning in our school community.

Have a great week, make the choice, be your best!