One of the fine balances that we as parents and educators seek to maintain on a constant basis is the balance between providing a nurturing, caring and supportive environment while at the same time allowing and encouraging our young people to experience and learn from failure.

Commonly in society you hear of people discussing or recommending that people remain positive through a variety of common phrases; ‘look on the bright side’, ‘being a cup half full person’, and ‘bouncing back’. Increasingly today, young people (and some of us that are more experienced) seem to struggle with this. This is not because they don’t want to, it is often because they don’t know how to.

Young people need to develop skills and a positive mindset to assist themselves in overcoming the difficulties that life will throw at them; now and in the future.

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Nelson Mandella

More than most, Nelson Mandella understood and embodied the concepts of resilience, hope and contentment. These concepts are crucial for all young people to grapple with as they learn, grow and ultimately become prepared for their lives ahead.

So how do we as a community support and teach our boys to develop this type of mindset so that they experience positive well-being and feel equipped to face any situation with confidence?

Suffice to say, it is a multi-faceted approach that requires your support.

Over the last couple of years we have developed our PALS (Positive Attitudes and Life Skills) program. This program is loosely based on the ‘Bounce Back’ program that is a whole school approach to develop social and emotional well-being in students.

Once a month our Year 6 students lead a PALS session with each of the other classes where they teach the younger boys about the following concepts through a series of interactive activities:

• Courage
• Looking on the bright side
• Emotions
• People bouncing back
• Relationships
• Humour
• No bullying

To supplement this teaching, each week the class teacher runs an additional PALS session where boys have the opportunity to discuss the focus concept in further depth and to reflect on how they have been implementing it in and out of the classroom.

This year we have built on the PALS program by incorporating an additional dimension. We have decided to make use of the song ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams to focus on what boys can actually do to develop a positive mindset (resilience, hope and contentment) or experience ‘happiness’. To support boys and teachers we have developed an acronym for HAPPY which highlights a set of skills that boys (and adults) can use to remain positive even when faced with falls, failures and trials.

H – ‘Hope to’– articulating short-term goals

A – ‘Appreciative of / for’ – expressing our thanks for little things that have happened in our lives

P – ‘Positive point today’ – highlighting something good / positive that has happened through the day

P – ‘Pleased about’ – reflecting on the achievement of a short-term goal or having learnt from failure

Y – ‘You are’ – being able to comment on the strength or success of others.

HAPPY will be a theme throughout this year at Assemblies and on a daily basis in class as boys are encouraged to develop a positive mindset through these reflective routines.

Whilst we hope that our school is an extremely positive, supportive, caring and safe learning environment for all of our boys, we also hope that each of the boys is challenged, experiences failure and bounces back, bigger and better than ever.

Professional Learning

An important part of maintaining our edge as a learning community is the professional learning of our teachers. Before the boys started back, all of the teachers participated in a variety of meetings and workshops. The highlight was a day led by Dr Toni Noble which launched this year’s focus on HAPPY. Using the ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ framework, Dr Noble provided an insight into the research basis of the Positive Psychology movement and equipped staff with strategies to use with the boys in order to facilitate positive thinking in and out of the classroom.

Throughout the remainder of the year our professional learning focus will shift to the implementation of the Mathematics syllabus of the Australian Curriculum. We are very fortunate to have secured the services of Kristen Trippet, Association of Independent Schools Mathematics Consultant, and Anita Chin, an independent Mathematics Consultant, to lead our Professional Development days later in the year.

We look forward to growing as a learning community this year as we all commit to our individual and corporate development.