Wellbeing News

Welcome to the 2019 school year, and a special welcome to our new students and their families to the school community. We had many new boys begin in Year 7 and 8 in the Secondary School. By this point we hope, that through a range of orientation sessions, boys have settled in to the routines of a new school and relationships with peers and staff will continue to build. I have outlined below a few tips for our parents and carers for helping boys settle in a new environment:

Support your son to be organised and prepared for school each day. It will continue to be challenging to have different rooms to go to and different teachers to meet. Encourage your son to plan the night before (lunch ready, homework completed, bag packed) to ease the stress in the morning. Please don’t do it for them though…

Encourage independence as it builds resilience, if they can do it themselves, allow them to do it themselves.
Listen to your son, he may come home and vent after a frustrating day. That is ok. Listen, be supportive and encourage him to reflect on ways he can manage the situation. Avoid probing with questions and trying to fix the problem for him.
Become familiar with SEQTA Engage so you can be across their school work and communicate with teachers.
Discuss with your son the positive things that are happening for him at school (new friends, enjoyable classes etc.) Sometimes when there is a big change, and it is very stressful, students can focus on the little things that go wrong (eg. my locker won’t open, I forgot my hat etc.) and allow a relatively minor issue to consume their whole day and miss many positive moments.
Let your son know that he will make mistakes at school and that is ok. A mistake is always a big learning opportunity. Sometimes it will have a consequence, however, the key from the mistake is that we reflect, repair if required and learn for the next opportunity. Doing this will encourage honesty in situations and allow for ongoing improvement as a young person.

The Year 8 students will attend the Kangaroo Island Camps in Weeks 4 and 5 of this term from Tuesday morning until Friday evening. These camps will be a great opportunity to build relationships.

Mr Brett Knowles

Assistant Deputy Principal: Wellbeing (Secondary)