26 August 2022

It can be difficult for parents to sit back and observe children's friendship ins and outs, ups and downs from afar without dashing in to solve it all and make sure there isn't any hurt. I know. Welcome to school... in fact, welcome to when any groups of people interact, whether they are young, older, and what could be said "should know better!"


I have a slight obsession with baby animals and have been watching some of Netflix's Wild Babies series - yes, it's the same deal repeated across the Animal Kingdom, it seems. Of course, for bigger 'stuff' adult intervention is required but for the smaller things it is important that we allow children to experience a range of emotions, problem solve and work through a process. Life skills.


A big part of our Wellbeing/Positive Education programme is about building relationships. Just like Kaia, the baby lion cub, I've been empathising with, whilst laboriously stirring risotto, there will be the harmonious days and the less so and it's our job to highlight what to do, how to express and name emotions constructively and what being a friend actually means and so forth. Teachers are involved in incidental, responsive teaching around this and also a lot of proactive and planned teaching sessions. You can see in our Flourish model that this is one of the key 'arms':

Through weekly "Te Wā Mahi Tahi", our Junior children have a great opportunity to build positive relationships, get curious, take risks, build some grit and a lot about collaboration and teamwork. The reciprocal nature of relationships which - yes - can be developmental! The teachers have put together a terrific movie about Te Wā Mahi Tahi - please check it out and get back to them with any questions. (I wish we had this opportunity when I was at school as part of our learning programme!)

An aspect of our PE/Health is the Move Well programme. Again, this has a huge focus on teamwork, collaboration, give and take, listening and responding, as well as plenty of exercise and fun. Setting children up to be flexible in more ways than one!

Yesterday, you had the opportunity to come to a session facilitated by Family Planning around the resource "Navigating the Journey". This is yet another way into teaching about relationships and really adds the 'physical body' 'staying safe' aspects into the mix and, of course, also heads into that whole arena of learning more about fast approaching puberty for our older students - opening the door for more involved conversations at home maybe?!

I think this quote from Dame Whina Cooper is fitting for us:

"Take care of our children. Take care of what they hear, take care of what they see, take care of what they feel."

...and I think we also need to help them to hear, see and feel.