Wellbeing

Wellbeing Literacy Leader - Emily Murcott

Resilience

When was the last time your child showed resilience?  How can we build resilience in our children? The one million dollar question. 

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from stress, adversity, failure, challenges, or even trauma. It's not something that kids either have or don't have; it's a skill that kids develop as they grow. 

We describe someone as resilient if they are doing better than we would expect given the challenges that they are facing. 

Your relationship with them is the foundation of resilience. Children learn to be resilient in the context of supportive relationships with caring adults, who treat them respectfully, and compassionately, offering emotional support when they’re struggling while at the same time treating them as competent, capable people.

There are many ways of building resilience in children and I will share with you just 8:

1. Let them experience disappointment so they learn sadness, disappointment doesn’t last forever. So on occasions when you play a card game or you run against your child it is ok to win. The movie Inside Out is a great movie to watch with children because it speaks of the importance of acknowledging sadness, not trying to run away from it all the time.
2. Validate their fears and help them make plans to do things even if they’re scared. Let them know that it is ok to feel scared by saying, ‘It’s OK to feel scared. Let’s make a plan for how to do it anyway.’
3. Let them take reasonable risks and experience natural consequences.
4. Encourage them to try new things, make mistakes, and learn from their mistakes.
5. Give them opportunities to make their own decisions and help them problem solve.
6. Tell stories of people who faced hard times, persevered, and grew stronger as a result. Some examples are: Dr Seuss, JK Rowling, Ed Sheeran, Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey.
7. Reframe challenges as short-term problems and opportunities for learning.
8. Remind them that although we can’t control everything that happens to us, we can control how we respond.

House Athletics is occurring on Tuesday of next week and this is a perfect opportunity to chat with your child/children about resilience. Discuss with them the many emotions which they may feel throughout the day; whether that be excited, nervous, disappointed, energised, thrilled, unhappy, frustrated, angry.  Chat about the different ways in which they may respond to the emotions. You may wish to suggest some strategies which you believe are the most appropriate way to respond.

Click on the picture below to watch an incredibly resilient 16-year-old, Gabriel Neris, overcome some challenges in his life to end up racing in a competition in São Paulo, Brazil. Under tremendous pain, he reached the finish line. This is an inspiring short 4 minutes profile of his life and athletic philosophy. 

Happy Holidays

As school holidays approach please take this opportunity to connect with your children; enjoy playing board games, go out for a milkshake, go for a bike ride, have a movie night, catch up with them over a themed dinner, build cubbies, build Lego, cook dinner or bake something sweet, or take the dog for a walk and play tiggy along the way.   Enjoy the school holidays.

Kindness Corner

In each edition of the newsletter, we would like to share with you a story of kindness that has occurred within our community. If you experience someone’s kindness or hear of any acts of kindness, please contact Emily Murcott (emily.murcott@education.vic.gov.au) so we can share these stories with the school community. Following is a beautiful start to the Kindness Corner. 

There have been numerous students who have shown kindness throughout the past few weeks that it makes it so hard to choose who to add to the newsletter. I have included 3 students who I believe show varied ways to show kindness.

Lily (56H) and was recognised as a student who always looks out for the Prep students in the yard and helps them to find their way back to their friends or to a play area.

Yasmine (1LP) has been showering her friends and class teacher with kindness by writing gratitude letters to them and expressing how much she appreciates their friendship. Yasmine uses her initiative by placing her messages in envelopes then seals them with a sticker and delivers them. What a wonderful act of kindness. It would be great to see more of this!

Linley (3/4) shows kindness regularly by volunteering to be helpful and shows consideration towards others. For example, on yard duty, Linley’s friend was feeling unwell and she made sure that she got help. She then continued to show kindness and consideration by ensuring her friend's personal belongings were collected from the basketball court.