The Australian community was recently reminded of the roles of resilience and responsibility by Richard Harris and Craig Challen, two of the famed rescuers of the soccer team trapped in a Thai cave. Named as joint Australians of Year and accepting his award, Harris said he feared that “kids today who live in a risk adverse society will not learn to challenge themselves and to earn grazed knees and the stubbed toes that really are necessary to build resilience and confidence”.
In an interview for The Australian, Harris told reporter Janet Albrechtsen that he felt there is a “link between being more physically robust, confident and resilient, and being mentally fit. That includes being more intellectually open to hearing other ideas”.
Most pertinent is his belief that we are living in a society that people fear offending other people. He was quoted as stating “kids do not seem to be robust, they are more fragile in terms of being prepared to enter into a robust debate in case they offend someone or upset someone”.
Through our Pastoral Care Programs and daily interactions, the teachers help students build social and emotional growth. In a safe psychological environment that doesn’t allow for ‘put downs’, students learn to stand up for their beliefs, communicate with respectful disagreement and are encouraged to be accepting of differences.
Challen supported Harris’ comments and encouraged parents “to expose their kids to risks and challenges to build resilience in them. Kids need to learn the skills to live with a bit of discomfort. Everything is not going to be sweet in their lives”.
As our students in the Primary school learn, we encourage discomfort, as feeling uncomfortable when learning, is learning. The analogy of the learning pit is a way for our girls to develop the dispositions or attitudes and habits of mind. Many of the dispositions associated with the learning pit require resilience.
On the back of these brave words spoken by two heroes, parents and teachers have a responsibility to teach and model resilience to the children in our care. The different environments students belong to, need to promote resilience; the school environment of peer and teacher, the family and community. These environments help build a sense of connectedness which also leads to resilience.
Resilience is a trait that all people possess as it involves behaviours, thoughts and actions that can be learned and developed in anyone. As a school we are committed to teaching the skills associated with resilience. We encourage parents to work in partnership with us so that students will be more likely to attain resilience and therefore greater emotional wellbeing. The skills we focus on and build include the following:
Personal coping skills
Coping skills provide the cognition, behaviours and attitudes for making students' lives in the classroom and playground happier and more productive. They are also given life skills for coping with difficult times in their future careers and relationships. The skills include:
- Optimistic thinking
- Having a sense of purpose and future
- Normalising negative events rather than personalising
Using helpful thinking/evidence-based rational thinking
Resilience builds a stronger sense of self confidence in dealing with problems (resourcefulness and adaptivity):
- Talking to trusted people to check perceptions, seek assistance with problem solving
- No one is perfect
- Powerful feelings can be managed
- Taking responsibility for own actions and the part you contributed
Social Skills
- Well-developed social skills, students are more likely to be resilient
- Relationships really matter – starting point of social skills, friendship skills, conflict management skills, help-seeking skills
Emotional Literacy
- Recognise, name and manage own emotions and other people’s
- Responding empathically to others
Healthy self-esteem: a sense of personal competence and self-knowledge
“Resilience makes it easier for us to navigate the difficult and dark times. It empowers us to sift the important from the bucket-load of trivial, to work out what we can control, what we can and should take responsibility for.”
Janet Albrechtsen (The Australian, January 30, 2019).
Angela Drysdale
Oral Language – The Importance of Talk
As parents and teachers, we have all observed young children listen and speak well before they can read and write. Children learn to manipulate their environment with spoken word before they learn to do so with written words.
Oral language (talk) functions as a foundation for literacy and encompasses both informal and academic contexts and as such, requires focussed attention.
Academic discourse has always been a part of the classroom. Traditionally, teachers talked for most of the instructional day while students listened and followed directions. However, as educators we now understand that talk is constructive in optimising learning and for assessing children’s understanding. It is important for language to be modelled in both the home context and the classroom environment. The melding of home ‘talk’ with classroom discussion, assists in facilitating the growth of academic language.
Through discussion or talk, children gain a deeper understanding of the material they are engaging with because it involves the exchange of ideas where important things are learnt from each other. Talk assists students to learn about and develop their ideas, vocabulary and higher level grammatical structures needed to improve their writing. If a child can speak about something they can write about it.
James Nottingham (The 樱桃福利视频 Pit) has discussed the importance of setting home preparation; as distinctly different from homework. Home preparation or preview, has an effect size of .09; this is almost double the expected rate of progress. Preview allows students to have an insight into what is coming so they feel prepared. Preview permits students time to investigate, research, discuss or consider what they know, or want to know more about any given topic. Preview allows parents to know how to support and help their children. It gives students an advantage; by coming to school armed with information to share with others.
Our aim, as parents and teachers, is to enhance our children’s ‘talk’ because understanding student talk is key to analysis of what students know, how they understand, and what teaching moves would be useful. In a nutshell, we can transform student learning by the conversations that happen inside and outside of the classroom. So, what are you talking about tonight?
Cathy Cox
Assistant Head of Primary
Upcoming Events
Thursday 14 February: Class Parent Representative Morning Tea, Primary Library, 8:30-10am
Thursday 21 February: Primary Parent Interviews, Atrium, 3:45-6pm
Friday 22 February: Primary Parent Interviews, Atrium, 1:15-6pm
Wednesday 27 February to Friday 1March: Year 4 Camp, Alexandra Park Conference Centre, Alexandra Headland
Thursday 28 February: Years 1 and 2 Excursion, Northey Street, Herston
Friday 1 March: P&F Mothers’ Luncheon, 11:30am-3pm