Issue 16 SJC News 2020

In our last ‘News from the Deputy’ report, Mark Kennedy outlined 7 Tips for parents/carers to assist young people in their transition back to on-campus learning. Essentially these tips involve remaining open to fluctuating emotional responses from your child as he regains ground in the physical world of ‘school’ again, staying abreast of the procedures and protocols required to keep all people safe in our COVID world at school, and re-establishing routines that encourage a sound rest/ work/ play balance.

Andrew Fuller, a clinical psychologist specialising in the wellbeing of young people and their families, provided a list of seven ‘priorities’ worth our consideration as we move forward from Remote Learning 2.0. The earlier priorities have been canvassed in the tips provided to parents two weeks ago: stepping straight into priority #3, Fuller writes the following –

'We are all in the care of one another. There needs to be a clear understanding that we intend to keep everyone safe and well and have planned as much as we can, for this outcome… In these times, ambiguity is our enemy and will increase anxiety. Clarity is our friend.’

We know what we have agreed to as a community to keep one another safe, and we need to work together to maintain our present rights in regional Victoria.

Fuller suggests in his priority #4 that we need to embrace a fresh start, by forming new connections and embracing new learnings, and this also presents some challenges –

‘Limbering up for learning will involve rekindling friendships, warming up our curiosity and stretching our imaginations. We will all need a few practice runs before we feel we can safely regain our full stride.’

Priority #5 specifically addresses our senior students –

‘For senior students the risk is feeling that the year has got away from them and they feel they cannot succeed. Clearly this is not true. Firstly, they have all experienced the same setbacks. Secondly, there is plenty of time to catch up and succeed. Clear systems and plans will outdo slogging themselves into a frenzy or giving up.’

And priority #6 is a reminder to us all to be kind to ourselves –

‘It is understandable that some people will feel in a rush to make up for the time and opportunities missed in the early part of the year…Given the upheaval of past months, rushing too much or putting too much in place too early is a recipe for exhaustion, disenchantment and disengagement. While we are back in business, easy does it. Taking our time now to slowly rebuild a sense of success will pay off. Take it slow and make it fun! We have all had more misery than we need this year.’

Priority #7 looks towards week 5, suggesting that we measure how we feel we are tracking and reset goals if need be –

‘About five weeks after the resumption of school-based learning, we need to schedule time to review the process of re-integration. This needs to be an individual check-in of the pluses and the minuses of the experiences, what people feel has worked well (as well as what hasn’t) and a re-assessment of what we think is going to help in the future.’

In the classrooms at SJC, we have trialled the mylearningstrengths.com questionnaire, that provides a map of your best learning areas: essentially, how students naturally process data and what areas they could strengthen in future learning. Many of our staff members have also completed the questionnaire – it is an enjoyable and enlightening exercise, providing you with a personal profile that is then sent to your email address. It takes less than 5 minutes – sit down with a cuppa and make a learning date with yourself. Allow it to be all about you, just for a few moments! 😊

Keep safe, connected and cheerful.