Deputy Principal, Wellbeing 

My soon to be 95 year old Nanna, Nanna Val (as my children call her) is an amazing mentor.  She has lived through two pandemics, the Great Depression, many wars and conflicts and loves talking to her grandchildren about life when she was their age. My kids find it fascinating that she only had three changes of clothes; her school clothes, church clothes and one other outfit. She also recalls having few toys, and my kids’ favourite…that there was the cane at school for punishment (which they think is a made-up story).  Two very sage pieces of parenting advice she has passed on to me are that:

1. Kids need to feel everything, if they feel bored this makes them develop creative skills, if they feel scared, they need to muster up courage and if they are sad this is natural and okay. 
2. Don’t interfere - kids will generally find a way to solve conflict and problems themselves, and we are doing them a disservice by trying to step in and solve issues for them. 

In the current times of uncertainty, anxiety and change, it is natural to feel so many different emotions. My advice to students (and parents) is to acknowledge and recognise those feelings and to sit with them, think about why this emotion is present, what it feels like in the body and then to discover ways to keep this emotion or to let it go. The visual below from the Big Life Journal is so important right now. We all want our children to be happy, though the visual at the bottom shows what children really need and that that is okay. 

Kate Couchman

School Counsellor

Wellness Week

Our students certainly enjoyed a fun week of activities lead by our Vice Captains Alyssa Hocking and Eren Zehir, and our SRC committee.

After missing out last year, it was great for our students to be re-connecting and thinking about their own health and wellbeing.

Students ate, danced, did Science experiments, painted, enjoyed House competitions, wrote kindness notes, made friendship bracelets and much much more.

Thankyou to everyone who helped organise and to the students who got involved. It was great to see everyone smiling and interacting.

Kristen Waldron

Deputy Principal Wellbeing