School Counsellor News

<<BACK

Week 3 Term 1.

This week at staff meeting, small groups are gathering to plan how to best deliver an exciting and worthwhile education to the children in our care.  I will be working with the Wellbeing group, and look forward to the ideas that Russell Smyth, Paula Bucon and Emily Wilson wish to plan and pursue with the whole school community. This involves new ideas and valued previous programs and ideas.

There have been considerable recent national surveys on the stress levels of students at school; and the findings revealed that everything communities do to support healthy emotional and social well being is well worthwhile.  We cannot provide an environment in which children will only encounter success and supportive friendship.  However school and families can be mindful of supporting students in a way that enables them to be resilient, that involves looking beyond initial difficulties and bouncing back into life and learning with zest, hope and determination.


ABC Health and Wellbeing magazine has many useful articles, so I provide the following website for your interest. http://abcmail.net.au/t/80306/602821/1707/0/

The following article lists characteristics of resilience, so important in maintaining wellbeing and enjoyment of life.  They are characteristics that caring adults can model and help to foster.


What makes kids more resilient?

  • Emotional competence: the ability to name and manage their own emotions, and develop empathy for others
  • Sustaining attachment relationships, including family and peers
  • Healthy self esteem: a sense of personal competence, and realistic knowledge of their own strengths and limitations
  • The opportunity to feel valued, respected and listened to
  • The ability to organise themselves and set goals
  • A feeling of belongingness at school
  • Family and school being engaged and working together
  • A relationship with a caring adult who is not a parent or sibling
  • Opportunities for positive community involvement, e.g. sport, art, drama, youth groups
  • The ability to put negative experiences in perspective and try again
  • The ability to find the positive in negative situations
  • The ability to perceive that bad situations are temporary and don't have to take over
  • The ability to accept that life has ups and downs, and that not everything is their fault
  • The ability to distance from distressing or unalterable situations.