3 June 2021

Post date: Jun 11, 2021 2:32:25 AM

I've been thinking about the concept of awe. It just happens to come up in some of the things I've been reading into lately and also we have been discussing this concept as a staff as we delve into highlighting The Arts learning and teaching.

Each year, we have a big focus on The Arts, mainly over Term 3, which culminates in what is known as the Arts Celebration. This is a celebration of learning, that arises directly from the learning programmes that the children have been experiencing. We tend to change the focus from Music/Drama/Dance and Visual in alternate years so that there is a nice balance.

Our Year 6 Leavers' profile states that children leave Worser Bay School as connected, confident, creative thinkers. What does this mean for our programmes? What does this mean for our Junior School? Our Senior School? These are questions we keep in our prefrontal cortex!

This concept awe fascinates me. It's such a powerful emotion that has such an impact on our body and mind, on our wellbeing. Awe can be triggered by different things. For some, it may be nature, feeling connected to others, remarkable human accomplishments, amazing works of art or scientific discoveries (I'm thinking dinosaurs and space here for many!).

This feeling of awe can broaden our minds, make us more curious, expand our creativity and, in a nutshell, can make us healthier. I'm hoping that we can weave plenty of opportunities for our children to experience awe especially in our Arts and Sciences programmes.

Here are some thoughts for whānau on how to help children with this:

    • Awe thrives in an environment of questioning and inquisitiveness.

    • How about a visit to a range of natural environments - bush walks, beach, waterfalls, clear skies, gardens, sunrise/sunsets.

    • There are plenty of indoor environments too - galleries, museums, performances, aquariums, planetariums, etc.

    • A range of listening and viewing of the weird and the wonderful!

A lot of this takes more time than money.

So awe is a difficult concept for many of us to describe but something to definitely wonder about and encourage at home base. Maybe our Arts Celebration may even create an awe-(some) moment for you too... (let's aim for that anyway!)