From the Leader of Wellbeing - Year 7

Hi everyone, 

We are almost at the end of your first school year at St Andrews College. It is great to see a lot of you trying to achieve your personal best in class and also trying to grow as a whole person. A few things that I want to address before the end of the year:

• Spiritual Wellbeing

St Andrews Day is approaching. This is a day where we come together to celebrate our Patron Saint and a day to remember the kind of person he was. St Andrew was the first disciple of Jesus. He was a person who always took the opportunity to help others. He was always available when others needed him. He was a person of strong faith. He was teachable and was always willing to learn. He was kind and friendly and was someone that always gathered people for the right cause. 

You, as a student at St Andrews College, should try to embody the qualities that St Andrew has. You should try to emulate his actions and try to live this in your life with your faith and with your relationships with others. 

• Physical Wellbeing

As the weather starts to warm up, it is a great opportunity to be out and being physically active with your peers during break times. Exercise releases endorphins that make you feel good about yourself and allows your brain to take a break from all the hard work you are putting into your classes. However, with exercise comes sweat and you need to ensure you bring a small towel and deodorant to school to freshen yourself up when you do start to sweat from the heat. 

Swimming; it is good to hear that a lot of you are enjoying your time at swimming during Thursday sport. With the weather warming up, you are very lucky to be able to cool down in the water. Understanding how to swim is important as it is a skill that you may need to use at some point in your life, to relax or to even save yourself.

• Intellectual Wellbeing

Intellect is the ability to reason and understand things using your mind. It is important that you all have a strong intellectual ability and this begins with learning. Learning how to be resilient and also learning in class. Learning increases our brain capacity and can allow us to better understand ourselves and others. Your wellbeing is very closely linked with how well your brain is functioning. 

As the term goes on, continue to focus and concentrate in class. Have a mindset of growth. Do not give up on things that are difficult. 

• Relational Wellbeing

Your friendships are one of the biggest factors in your wellbeing at school. Having good relationships with others is vital to your happiness and how well you navigate through high school. 

Recently, there have been a fair few incidents where misunderstandings and feelings have caused a rift between some people. It is important to always show respect to one other, respect to the person’s opinions and feelings. Do not be so quick to “dob” someone in. Do not be so quick to try and get others in trouble. You must always be kind to each other and must not let words affect your relationships with others. 

• Emotional Wellbeing

A few weeks ago, I spoke to you all about being emotionally resilient. The ability to ignore and block out the negativity of others is a skill that you will continue to develop into your adult age and although you are still in high school, you need to learn that you cannot allow others to control your emotions. If you let others cause you to be sad or emotional then you are letting other people control you. You are the only person that can control how you think, feel and act. 

Mr Kharl Carlos 

Leader of Wellbeing - Year 7