Wellbeing 

The Resilience Project – Part 3: Empathy & Kindness.

Students at PHS are participating in the Resilience Project in Health and Wellbeing lessons. Below is part 3 of the Parent Program with Martin.

Empathy is the ability to understand another person’s thoughts and feelings from their perspective. 

Brain imaging data shows that being kind to others registers in the brain as more like eating chocolate than like fulfilling an obligation to do what’s right (e.g., eating brussel sprouts)!

Research shows that practicing empathy such as performing acts of kindness, taps into our brain’s ‘mirror neurons’, builds compassion and our behaviour becomes more social and community-based. 

View Part 3: Empathy of the series here: https://theresilienceproject.com.au/parent-and-carer-hub/

Here’s an activity to practise empathy and kindness:

1. Reflect on someone in your life who could benefit from an act of kindness today. It could be a friend who would love some affirmation about their work, your pet who deserves an extra treat, or a family member who would love a phone call or text message. 
2. Make a plan for who you are going to gift an act of kindness to, and what you are going to do. 
3. If you want to add accountability to your plan, share it with someone else and encourage them to do the same thing.
4. Follow up with each other in a few days time, to ask how it went! 

Sources: Psychology Today, UC Berkeley, Greater Good Science

For mental health resources and support information, visit The Resilience Project’s Support Page.

PHS Lunch Clubs

This term we will be launching PHS Lunch Clubs. The aim of this initiative is to provide meaningful activities for our students to engage in during break times and increase connectedness to their peers and school. Staff and Student Leaders will be volunteering their lunchtimes to host these activities. This term we will have sporting activities, gaming, arts and crafts, music practice, mindfulness, magazine committee and more! We look forward to sharing some of these activities with you over the term!

Wadna Jata Room

Recently, the wellbeing staff at Peterborough High School were given the opportunity to update our wellbeing space. A great deal of effort from staff and students was put into purchasing and building furniture, preparing resources and updating the decor of the room to make the space welcoming for students. 

The Wadna Jata program has begun in conjunction with these developments; operating in lessons 5 and 6 everyday to provide easily accessible and consistent support for students. Our program was named by the PHS ATSI students and staff, using a combination of two Ngadjuri words, meaning ‘Boomerang Ground’. The intention behind the name was to symbolise that students will come to this space and use it as a resting place to apply strategies to help them become ready to learn, before staff help them to return confidently back to their classes, in a manner similar to a Boomerang. 

So far the room has been a great success and we look forward to it continuing to help students in the future!