During Term 3 and continuing into Term 4 our Year 7 students have been involved in the Peer Support Program.
Groups of 15 students met and will meet with two Peer Leaders (Year 10 Students) and work through a range of activities that focus on resilience. Meeting in small groups allows meaningful connections to form. Over a period of eight sessions, students will acknowledge their strengths and achievements, identify people who support them and learn how to view challenges as opportunity for growth.
In Session 2, students explored the idea of, how they view themselves and their challenges, can affect the outcome of these situations. Students discussed helpful ways to view challenges. They consider keeping things in perspective, separating emotions and ascertaining facts to accurately identify the problem being addressed.
Understanding how influential our thoughts are in responding to challenges is crucial. In Session 3, students focused on recognising the choices to respond with open or limiting thoughts. A difficult or new situation may require hard work, perseverance, courage and support from others. Open thoughts allow us to make the most of any situation feeling optimistic about possible outcomes. Limiting thoughts still allow us to work through challenges. However, they prevent us from stretching and exploring positive outcomes to bring about change.
Our students may at times feel overwhelmed by the expectations of secondary school. We can encourage them to make a list or write a plan to help identify a smaller task to make a large workload more manageable. It is important they feel supported while being encouraged to independently prioritise their responsibilities.
Mrs Junnetta Spurgeon
Dean of Year 7