Dear Parents and Carers,
Next Monday we return to full face to face teaching at Holy Trinity, which means that online home learning has finished. If you decide to keep your children at home due to medical reasons or have family members who are "at risk", please notify the school asap, so we can see how we can support your child's learning. We go back to normal procedures for marking absentees and you must notify the school if your child is away sick. Until further notice adults will not be able to enter the school playground in the mornings and must follow the social distancing structure for afternoon dismissal, which commences at 3pm for the next couple of weeks.
Students Wellbeing:
There is no silver bullet to caring for and growing your own and your children's wellbeing. Just like the dashboard in your car, no single gauge tells you how well your car is running, but rather it is a combination of all of the important information you process. The gold standard model for wellbeing is PERMAH, and your own and your children's wellbeing relies on a combination of all of them. A shortfall in one adversely affects the others, and in these current uncertain times, this could easily occur should we all not be vigilant. As James Baldwin said, "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." Let's have a look at simple things you can do as a family to ensure each of the elements of PERMAH are healthy.
P - Positive Emotions + Gratitude: it is the frequency of positive emotions, not their intensity, which has the greatest influence on growing your own and children's wellbeing. For everyone, social connection is the best way to achieve this. To self-generate positive emotions, try these things: exercise first thing every morning, text a friend who is struggling, aim to do three kind acts every day and Facetime grandparents.
E - Engagement + Mindfulness: your own negative mind chatter, which causes you to experience fight or flight responses will probably be the biggest thing for you to control and overcome. Remember your children are likely to imitate you. To focus yourself, try: to create positive I can and I will self-talk statements to combat the negatives, colour in for ten minutes and breathe deeply and slowly.
R - Relationships + Empathy: other people are the best antidotes for life's ups and downs. Use Zoom, Skype and Google Hangout for you and your children to see happy and smiling faces, break out Uno, Scrabble and other fun games to generate laughter, have fun cooking up hot cross buns, and do Wellbeing Fitness Challenges together.
M - Meaning + Purpose: in these times, feelings of vulnerability are perfectly normal for both you and your children. To relieve these feelings, having a strong sense of purpose to focus on something bigger than yourselves to devote your energies to, will assist. As a family, make cards to drop in the letterboxes of elderly people in your street, make fun family videos, and as a family follow and learn about a caring charity.
A - Accomplishment + Optimism: to cultivate feelings of optimism in your family that together you can influence your own futures, set a goal at home every day. Try starting a vegetable garden with your children, paint a room or piece of furniture, do one extra sit up or push up, encourage your children to complete one thing at a time from their teachers or an online wellbeing activity.
Acknowledgement: Mick Walsh
EASTER RAFFLE:
We will conduct the Easter Raffle next week in classes. The tickets will be 50c each and will be drawn on Friday 29th May.