A Wellbeing and Resilience Values Program initiative for Prep to Year 6 Students in 2019

Society in general is struggling with violence, bullying, anxiety, depression and more. People are moving faster through life now than ever before and families are wondering how to support their children and themselves to be balanced and fulfilled in life. We all want to live and have our children learn in safe and inclusive environments.

This year the Primary School is introducing a Wellbeing and Resilience Values Program that we hope will support school families. We have adapted a Positive Living Skills Program, developed by Catherine Shaw and Jo Devin, which is a Wellbeing and Resilience program for Primary Schools. With permission, we have adapted it to be based on our school’s Christian Values and worldview.

The program aims to help children be kinder and more cooperative and helps to improve Emotional Intelligence by leading children through learning (priming) and then practice. It aims to help children be more aware of their feelings and develop empathy, improve focus and cooperation.  It also helps children understand the role of rest and renewal and builds self-esteem. It is powerful because the whole Primary School will participate in the program. Parents are encouraged to be involved at home as you will be informed about the different aspects of the program we are covering throughout the year.

We will be covering six units during the year and these will be shared with you as we work our way through the different units.

The first Unit is entitled “Highlights” and will run for about eight weeks. This unit encourages children to count their blessings.

With the growth of marketing and technology, people are becoming more distracted from fully experiencing the good qualities and positive experiences in life.  Many have become over-stimulated or desensitised to what constitutes joy or happiness, and as a society we are feeling more time poor, more stressed, and less happy and fulfilled.

It is all too easy to focus on the negative aspects of any situation and this can become overwhelming. Neuroscientists say for every negative thing we notice, we need three positive things to counteract it.   The Bible points the way forward for daily living and thinking: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent and praiseworthy—think about such things.” Phil 4: 8. Applying this verse can effectively help us focus on the positive opportunities all around us, and highlights are available to almost every human being on any day.

By building our skills to notice and appreciate God’s blessings or highlights—the positive aspects of our lives – we can learn to harness the opportunities we have and learn to more fully enjoy the simple gifts around us. Highlighting helps us to live in an ‘attitude of gratitude’ as we give thanks to God for His blessings and others for their kindness. Focusing on our blessings also leads us to want to share and serve others.

Keep your eyes on this space as we share more about this very exciting program in 2019.