Social and Emotional Learning

Dear Parents, Family and Friends,

In today’s newsletter I am going to share some information and helpful tips for parents about building resilience in your child. Before I get to this, I would like to thank Year 6 Green and Mrs Binutti-Wilson who did a fantastic job on Monday presenting their assembly on resilience. This term, all students in our school are learning about resilience in class. It was wonderful to see the Year 6 leaders share practical strategies and helpful tips for the students to use at school. Some of the key messages the Year 6 students shared were:

• Tough times/sad times don’t last forever
• Everyone in the world makes mistakes
• Mistakes helps us learn
• Be grateful for what you have… there are so many children around the world who are suffering
• We all have strengths and growth areas in our lives
• Being self-less and helping others helps build your resilience

How can you help your child to be resilient?

It is important for your child to learn the personal and social skills that will help them to become more resilient and cope with problems and difficult situations that may come their way.

Encourage your child to talk about things that are bothering them.

Learning to seek help when a problem cannot be solved is an important lifelong skill. Let your child know that unhappy or difficult times are a normal part of life and do not usually last for long.

Encourage your child to re-phrase unhelpful comments.

Teach your child to turn words such as – “I’m stupid”, or “He/She hates me” into more helpful and optimistic comments – “I made a mistake”, “everyone makes mistakes”, or “He/She doesn’t hate me he/she just feels like playing with someone else today”.

Taking responsibility.

Encourage your child to take responsibility for the things they have or have not done that may have contributed to an unhappy situation or setback. It is very important for parents to model this responsibility, not blame other children, but look at the role your child played in the situation. Talking openly about other children’s actions can often enable children to play the victim and not take responsibility for their actions. Focus on what you can control, that is your child’s behaviour.

Be a positive role model for your child.

• Talk your problems through with others and look for different solutions.
• Use optimistic thinking and say things out loud, such as – Things will get better soon.
• Talk about how you may have managed strong emotions in a calm way.
• Talk about your goals and how you hope to achieve them.
• Show appreciation to others for their friendship.
• Share examples of issues/challenges you faced as a child. Talk about the strategies you used and how you solved the issue in a positive manner.

Let your child make mistakes.

By having to overcome normal challenges for their age and understanding that no one is perfect, your child will learn how to bounce back and be more resourceful. By over-protecting your child and doing things for them, you deny your child important opportunities for developing resilience.

Do not fight your child’s battles.

Resilience skills to share with your child

Getting a reality check when you feel unhappy or worried

Talk to someone else to:

• Make sure you have your facts right and haven’t made a mistake.
• Get more facts so you can understand the problem.
• Get a second opinion on your thinking. Are you mind reading? Are you exaggerating the problem?
• Look for evidence to confirm or contradict your thinking.

Turn gloomy to glad – ABCDE of happiness

Active – physical activity can help you feel good. Play a game, walk, run, dance.

Belong – make sure you connect with people around you – classmates, team mates, family, friends, your teacher.

Commit – try to commit to doing something new or set a challenge. Learn a new game, read a new book, make a new friend.

Do something for someone else – it makes you feel good.

Express gratitude – take time to notice and appreciate things – the food you eat, the people who are kind to you.

Good ways to deal with disagreements  

• Ignore or walk away but only if the disagreement is unimportant. If it is important, then you need to stand up for yourself and deal with the problem. Talk to a teacher and ask for help if needed.
• Agreeing to disagree can be helpful if you do not need to make important decisions. Sometimes you just have different ideas about something and both people can be right.
• Asking someone else to help you sort things out is sometimes necessary. Do this only as a last resort. Try to deal with a disagreement by yourself first.
• Being assertive means speaking up about what you think is not fair or correct without being angry or nasty. Start what you say with the words ‘I feel’ or ‘I think’.
• Apologise if you have been unfair or done something wrong to someone, even if only some of the disagreement was your fault.
• Problem-solving and negotiating is the best way to deal with a disagreement. Negotiating means that you try to work out a solution that is fair to both of you and is one that you can both live with. You should both feel that you have achieved some of what you wanted.

Remember:

• It takes courage to sort out a disagreement.
• Calm down first and then plan how to solve your disagreement.
• Focus on the problem that caused your disagreement not the person – look at what you already agree on.
• Listen to their views and don’t interrupt. There are always two sides to a disagreement.

(https://healthyfamilies.beyondblue.org.au/healthy-homes/building-resilience)

(https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/)

Kind regards

Brendon Pye

If you have any questions or would like some more resources. Please email- brendon.pye@cg.catholic.edu.au

In the coming weeks I will be inviting students, teachers and parents to provide feedback on their experience of our school using an online survey. The surveys are an important part of our whole school evaluation and planning process. Across our Archdiocese,  schools will be asking stakeholders to complete the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Partners in Learning survey, introduced last year.  As we value the role of parents and carers within our school community we would greatly appreciate your feedback. The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and at Holy Trinity.   I will give more information about this when the link to the survey is sent out to parents and Year 5 and 6 students.  An important reminder is that the survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.

Have a wonderful weekend and a peace-filled week ahead with your beautiful families. Please do not hesitate to reach out for anything at all and continue to stay safe.