Dear Parents/Carers

All things ‘concert’ are starting to take over…Where’s Wally costumes are swamping the office and I hear the working bee at the weekend was buzzing with excitement!

We enjoyed Diversity Day on Wednesday with our Preschool Program session being Chinese focussed. Thanks to Shuoyin Tu for the work she did organising the event. It was really super to see the children come together and celebrate culture and difference. 

Our upper school students joined the swimming program this week too. 

Social Emotional Learning: 

Learning to see another person’s point of view is important for getting along with others and building positive friendships. Understanding others helps children know what to do in social situations and is the basis for developing caring and responsibility. It’s not always easy for children to see the point of view of someone who is different from them. Being different could mean having a disability, coming from a different country, being a different age or gender, or having different values and interests. Children who are seen as different may be left out of activities. They may face discrimination because others think they are not as good, as talented, or as important as they are. Discrimination can have very negative effects on children’s self-esteem and mental health and wellbeing.

Taking others’ needs into account involves values of caring, compassion and acceptance of others. It also involves emotional skills for empathy. Learning to empathise with another person means learning to ‘walk in their shoes.’ It means being able to recognise and value their feelings and needs, even though they may be different from your own. Skills for empathy develop over time and include:

• recognising your own feelings;
• recognising others’ feelings;
• listening to others’ opinions;
• thinking what it would feel like if you saw the situation their way;
• thinking how you can respond in a caring way;
• doing something to help.

Some children find it easy to tune into feelings. Others need more guidance to learn empathic skills. Adults have an important role in supporting children to learn kindness and empathy.

How can parents help?

• Research has found that the examples shown by caring adults have a big influence on children’s empathy. Parents and carers (as well as school staff) can also foster empathy by promoting values of caring and compassion and coaching children to be kind and thoughtful towards others.
• Model empathy by tuning in to children’s feelings (eg. “Ouch! That must have hurt,” or “You must be feeling disappointed that your friend can’t come over”).
• Help children think about how feelings affect other people (eg. “How do you think your friend might be feeling?”).
• Help children develop skills for understanding other people’s points of view by discussing the effects of discrimination and the importance of respectful and caring attitudes towards everybody.
• Talk about situations that involve empathy (eg. “What I liked about the story was how kind the hero was,” or “That was a mean thing to do. Don’t you think she should have helped her friend?”).
• Notice when children are kind and let them know you value their behaviour (eg. “That was a very thoughtful thing to do. I really appreciate it!”).

How to support children to accept and include others:

• Teach children that there is nothing wrong with being different and that each of us is different to somebody else.
• Teach children that everyone has a right to be respected.
• Help children develop skills for positive friendships and cooperative play.
• Parents and carers of children with special needs can talk to their children’s teachers about how to support their strengths and about encouraging other children to include them.

Have a great weekend.

Best wishes,

Elaine Brady

Principal