Greetings,

With the term skipping away I thought I would begin this week with some information around resilience. I hope you find something here that will help you.

All children are capable of extraordinary things. The potential, for happiness and greatness lies in all of them.  We can’t change the fact that they will face challenges and setbacks along the way. What we can do is, give them the skills so these challenges turn from ‘brick walls’ into ‘speed bumps.’

The art to raising our children into healthy, thriving teens and young adults isn’t about clearing adversity out of their way, the goal is to build their self respect, their resilience and positively shape their beliefs and identity.

Parents desire to “protect” their children can backfire, since overparenting prevents children from navigating the outside world on their own terms, developing a ‘learned helplessness’ when faced with a challenge, instead of developing coping mechanisms or confidence in their ability to negotiate a challenge.

Of course, if we could scoop them up and lift them over the things that would cause them to stumble, that would be a wonderful thing, but it wouldn’t necessarily be doing them any favours. A little bit of stress is life-giving and helps them to develop the skills they need to flourish. Strengthening them towards healthy living is about nurturing within them the strategies to deal with that adversity. 

As Aristotle once wrote, ‘man is a social animal.’ Even today, social sciences agree that most of our beliefs, behaviours, attitudes, rituals, and ideas, are shaped by our surrounding social world.

Personal beliefs, towards ourselves and what we view as possible, are made by what we hold true. The “I can” inside of our heads.

A lot of our core ideas, habits and coping mechanisms are formed in childhood. Every interaction or relationship has an impact on us, including dynamics between parents, close relatives, siblings, and teachers.

Children who show resilience are able to bounce back from stress, challenges, tragedy, trauma or adversity. When children are resilient, they are braver, more curious, more adaptable, and more able to extend their reach into the world. 

“Children who develop resilience are better able to face disappointment, learn from failure, cope with loss and adapt to change. We recognise resilience in children when we observe their determination, grit, and perseverance to tackle problems and cope with the emotional challenges of school and life.”( Marilyn Price-Mitchell 2015)

The metaphor of Kintsugi

The ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi offers a rich metaphor around this idea of resilience.

Kintsugi means ‘to join with gold.’ It is a crafting method that consists of assembling “broken pieces of an accidentally-smashed pot”. 

The broken pieces of the pot are glued together with lacquer inflected with a very luxuriant gold powder. The visible fractures are adorned with gold rather than hidden.

Symbolically, the golden cracks represent the worth of the bowl because of its imperfections rather than in spite of them. The bowl is like a human, cracked by the contingency of life.

The gold endows the pot with unassailable beauty, uniqueness, and strength.

There is a lesson here for all of us, embracing failures and experiences that crack our spirit and turning those cracks in life cracks into gold?

Here are a few ways you can encourage your child to be resilient.

Modelling healthy social behaviour and discuss challenges. Avoid the blame game and focus more on making right choices. Identify a ‘sagacity’ in the situation. A Sagacity is the wisdom and insight that you hold onto. It will help them next time they face a difficulty.

‘You’re a superstar when it comes to trying hard things. You’ve got what it takes. Keep going. You’ll get there.’

Nurture this feeling in them – that one that reminds them they can do hard things. You’ll be doing this every time you acknowledge their strengths, the brave things they do, their effort when they do something difficult; and when you encourage them to make their own decisions. When they have a sense of mastery, they are less likely to be reactive to future stress and more likely to handle future challenges.

Children won’t always notice the people who are in their corner cheering them on, so when you can, let them know about the people in their fan club. Anything you can do to build their connection with the people who love them will strengthen them.

‘I told Grandma how brave you were. She’s so proud of you.’

Play board games with them (good for impulse control (taking turns), planning, working memory, and mental flexibility (the ability to shift thoughts to an alternative, better pattern of thought if the situation requires); 

Giving them opportunities to think and act independently.

Providing opportunities for them to make their own decisions.

Optimism has been found to be one of the key characteristics of resilient people. The brain can be rewired to be more optimistic through the experiences it is exposed to. If your child tends to look at the glass as being half empty, show them a different view. This doesn’t mean invalidating how they feel. Acknowledge their view of the world, and introduce them to a different one.

‘It’s disappointing when it rains on a sports day isn’t it. Let’s make the most of this. What’s something we can do on a rainy day that we probably wouldn’t do if it was sunny?’ The idea is to focus on what is left, rather than what has been lost. 

Remember that growth and resilience comes from making mistakes. We need to encourage and allow our children to build mental elasticity in recognizing their emotions and work through them and thus being more resilient.

Calling all budding artists who love being active on their way to school

We want to see how you are active on the way to school and what makes your trip fun and special. Whether you choose to colour in, draw, paint, photograph or something else, this is your chance to let your creativity run wild. 

Scan the QR CODE for more information and submit your artwork and you could win!

The competition is open to all school students in the Newcastle Local Government Area. Winning artworks will feature in a calendar celebrating active travel to school in Newcastle.

FACE UPDATE

New ViewSonic Board is up and running.

We are thrilled to share that the new ViewSonic board for the library, approved for purchase during the last meeting, has now been acquired!

Its educational value is truly priceless, and we can’t wait to see the positive impact it will have on our students’ learning experience in the library. 

This accomplishment would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of the parent body in their fundraising initiatives. Your hard work and commitment to enhancing our school community continue to make a meaningful difference.

Thank you once again for your unwavering support!

Hope you have a great week

David Treloar- Principal.