A Message from the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

Today I would like to share with you some information about why it is important to foster Resilience in our students. Resilience is the ability to bounce back after experiencing disappointment, frustration or fear. Michael Grose, one of Australia’s leading parenting educators, offers these suggestions on how parents can help their children handle rejection and disappointment.

“Whether it is a case of not receiving an invitation to a classmate’s birthday party or a school playground snub, most children experience some type of rejection from their peers throughout childhood. Most children recover from such rejection. They move on and form constructive, worthwhile relationships but some children need help. They often take rejection personally, blaming themselves. As a parent it is useful to challenge children’s unhelpful thinking and encourage them to look for new friendship opportunities. Parents can help children understand that rejection may happen for any number of reasons that are unrelated to them.

In the course of a school day children will meet with a number of challenges and even setbacks. They may struggle with some schoolwork. They may not do well in a test and they may not be picked for a game that they wanted to play. Children grow stronger when they overcome their difficulties. The challenge for parents is to build and maintain children’s confidence to help them get through the rough times.

One way to help children deal with rejection and disappointment is to talk through problems or difficulties, recognising and accepting their feelings. Talk about various scenarios, discussing possible outcomes. The age of the child will determine the amount of detail. Keep things simple and avoid burdening a younger child with concepts he or she doesn’t understand.

Your attitude can make a huge difference to how a child reacts. If you see rejection or disappointments as problems then your child will be hamstrung by this view. See them as challenges then your child will, in all likelihood, pick up your upbeat view and deal with disappointments easily. After all, confidence is catching!

To help children handle rejection and disappointment try the following four strategies:

1. Model optimism. Watch how you present the world to children, as they will pick up your view.
2. Tell children how you handle disappointment and rejection. Not only is it reassuring for children to know that their parents understand how they feel but they can learn a great deal by how their parents handle situations.
3. Help children recognise times in the past when they bounced back from disappointment. Help them recognise those strategies can be used again.
4. Laugh together. Humour is a great coping mechanism. It helps put disappointment in perspective. It helps them understand that things will get better. They always do!”

Michael Grose has a free website where you can read about a wide range of parenting topics.  https://www.parentingideas.com.au/parent-resources/

Last week Father Tuan arrived in Quirindi to assist Fr Vic in our parish. On behalf of our school community I welcome Father Tuan and hope he enjoys his time with us.

We also welcome Sarah Hamparsum, a student teacher from the University of New England - Armidale Campus. Sarah will be working with Wendy Rheinberger in Kindergarten for the English and Mathematics blocks and with all of the Infants students in the afternoon sessions. 

I will be at a Principals' meeting in Tamworth on Thursday and Friday this week with all the Principals from our diocese. I look forward to sharing what I learn with you in next week's newsletter.

We have a number of cases of chickenpox in the school. Please note people are infectious from one or two days before the rash appears (that is, during the runny nose phase) and up to five days after (when the blisters have formed crusts or scabs). Please keep your children home if they develop a rash and have this checked by a doctor.

Have a happy week,

Take care and be safe.

Pauline Long

Principal