From the Leader of Learning Wellbeing Year 8
Dear Year 8 Parents,
I am writing this Article to tell you of the wonderful learning activities in our wellbeing Lesson on Monday, 2nd November.
After the live stream Junior Assembly, which was very exciting because Frances won the House Cup, (Well done Frances!) students completed their Google form on their reflections for 2020.
The Learning Advisors are conferencing with each student and using the answers to complete the wellbeing comments for the Students Yearly Report. Comments will be written on student learning throughout 2020, participation in Wellbeing learning activities, contribution to Learning Group and student involvement in school and extracurricular activities. (Although College activities have been significantly reduced due to Covid)
The rest of the Lesson was preparing for Positive Education Day, which was held on Wednesday, 4th November. St Andrews is a member of PESA - the Positive Education Schools Association and the theme of the Day was;
“ From Strength to Strength in Tough Times.”
The Coronavirus pandemic has thrown some enormous challenges at us this year, but the College Community has been most resilient and I think we should all be very grateful for this outcome.
The wellbeing Lesson and the Day focussed on raising awareness and understanding of Positive Education and to encourage the St Andrews community to learn and talk about how to develop wellbeing within ourselves and support the wellbeing of those around us.
The Day focussed on the 24 Character Strengths (found on pages 10 - 11 of the Learning Planner). Both students and teachers wore colours that matched their Signature Strength. In the Learning Group on Wednesday morning, students made rainbows of colour!
The next activity was that students had the option of writing a short story or creating a comic strip on one of their five Character Strengths. I have read some of the students’ work but unfortunately they did not want them in the Newsletter - a great pity indeed!
To support each other in the Learning Group, students wrote gratitude cards, which recognised and encouraged wellbeing. I encourage all families to complete the free Survey at www.viacharacter.org so there is positive discussion on such topics as perseverance, honesty, kindness and spirituality.
Character Strengths can be used by students across the Curriculum. Students discussed how they use teamwork in Math to solve a problem. Bravery is needed in a drama performance. Great leadership was evident in the lives of Gandhi and Martin Luther King - just two historical figures students learn about in their studies.
With Positive Education it is important to be Mindful every day and to be grateful in our lives. This has been a most challenging year for everyone but I am grateful that our God has kept us safe over the past months. We live in a country with fantastic dedicated health professionals and I thank God for their service and commitment during this pandemic each day.
I also thank God that we have such a wonderful College and I am blessed by the encouragement of so many people (both students and teachers) doing their very best each day and going beyond!
Melissa Blackwell
Leader of Learning Wellbeing - Year 8