Shining Lights Week 1, Term 4, 12/10/2023
Bushfire preparedness
A difficult time of year for our community has already arrived. The bushfire season is likely to increase anxiety, stress and fear in many.
For this newsletter we have taken the information directly from an Emerging Minds article entitled ’10 ways to support your child during bushfire season’ available at this link:
https://emergingminds.com.au/resources/10-ways-to-support-your-child-during-the-bushfire-season/ :
Children look to parents and caregivers to guide them in how to behave when distressing or overwhelming events, such as bushfires and heavy smoke haze occur.
As a parent or caregiver, the best support you can give your child is to be calm, positive, loving and reassuring. Maintaining routines, making time for your child, responding to their questions, and keeping them connected with their friends and family will all help to maintain their sense of safety.
You may be struggling with your own feelings of distress, grief and loss and it is important that you look after yourself. The fires and smoke may bring back distressing feelings and images from other traumatic events you have witnessed. Recognise that you are doing the best you can under these challenging circumstances, and don’t forget to draw on support from family, friends and community to help you care for and support your children.
Here are 10 tips to help you to support your child during this time:
- Talk to your child and reassure them that they are safe. Be as honest as possible and don’t make promises which you may not be able to keep.
- Avoid unnecessary separation from your child.
- If possible, remove your child from distressing sights, sounds, smells and circumstances of the fires.
- Remove your child from the company of people who are distressed, or who are having conversations about their experience. Limit their exposure to media reporting of the fires as much as possible.
- Make time to give your child lots of comfort. Singing lullabies, cuddling, holding and stroking them, holding hands and sitting together having a quiet conversation can help to reassure them that they will be OK.
- Accept your child’s feelings and responses to these events. Don’t tell them to ‘be good’, to ‘stop being silly’, or to ‘be brave’.
- Be patient if there are changes in your child’s behaviour (a return to wetting the bed, being unsettled or taking longer to settle for sleep, acting out or becoming withdrawn). Reassure them that you are looking after them and keeping them safe.
- Answer any questions your child has calmly, clearly and concisely. Be honest but avoid any unnecessary detail. If you don’t have all the information it’s OK to say so.
- Don’t be afraid to be a little creative Some children may not want (or have the words) to talk about their thoughts, feelings or fears. Activities like drawing, playing with toys or writing stories can help them to express themselves in different ways.
- Keep your child connected with their family and friends and return to their normal routines as soon as possible. The more familiar the routine, the more settled children will be.
Recovery
Each child responds differently to distressing and overwhelming events depending on their age, personality and family environment. With love and support from parents and caregivers, most children will recover from traumatic events.
However, if you have concerns that your child’s reactions to these events are persisting or are worsening, it is a good idea to visit your GP.
The emerging minds website has other resources and links to supports related to the topic of bushfires. If you have any concerns about how your child is coping or would like to seek some further advice or information, please feel free to reach out to your school counsellors:
Samantha.Hutchence@mccg.org.au or Jessica.O’Rourke@mccg.org.au
Thanks for reading, Sam and Jess – school counsellors
You belong in our class
Learning is the aim of the game in schools - learning about ourselves, others and our environment. This is both explicit and implicit and occurs in the context of our relationships.
As a Catholic College we explicitly base this learning on the Trinity, a community of love; with our motto, “Be the light of Christ” inspiring us to support and serve those most in need. Our College Vision reminds us that if we are to shine our light we have the responsibility to enable others to shine theirs.
Building on our explicit “Ready to Learn” expectations, staff are working with Ian Luscombe from “Behaveability” to focus on Positive Behaviour Management. The most powerful consequence for changing behaviour is positive feedback. Positive Psychology recommends a ratio of 10 positive feedbacks (eg. thumbs up, verbal praise etc.) to 1 corrective form of feedback. Whilst intrinsic motivation is better than extrinsic, during Term Four, staff will be more explicitly looking for opportunities to give positive feedback to every student.
We are also trialing having a Student Reception for students whose behaviour is impacting on the learning environment. As much as each student belongs in the classroom, it is a privilege to be there. Students referred to the Student Reception will be asked to take responsibility for how their behaviour has impacted on the learning of others, before they can return to the classroom where they belong. The emphasis will be on keeping the process calm and low key, encouraging the students to make positive choices by following fair and reasonable teacher instructions.
This approach combines with our emphasis on Restorative Practices. Last year Graeme George explained to staff that the role of adults is to help young people develop their knowledge and skills in self regulation and non-cognitive capacities such as courage and compassion, in the same way that we teach them how to read, budget and drive a car. Rather than “punish” naughty children, we might consider consequences that “prune” poor choices and use these experiences as opportunities for learning and strengthening our relationships.
The onset of puberty, marked by biological maturation, includes development of the Limbic System, focusing on emotions, rewards and relationships. It’s often in late adolescence or one’s twenties that the Cortex, the regulatory system, matures. Graeme referred to these biological developments as the Gas Pedal and Break and advised that we should be “curious not furious” when faced with undesirable behaviour; we should “explore not explode”; adults should “Be the kids’ prefrontal cortex while theirs develops.”
We hope that by implementing both of these models we will continue to set and build high expectations in our classrooms and playground. In a Catholic school, positive relationships are our business and should always be at our core.
From the Acting Assistant Principal, Learning Enrichment
