Ensuring Wellbeing - because right now, it is the most important thing we can do!

 

Just because wellbeing and the awareness of wellbeing is so very important at the moment, I thought I would take a moment to do a special blog post.

Over the last two years, our world has dramatically changed.  Stress levels are high, everyone feels a little out of control.  Every day people go about their days just a little more 'sandpapered' or stressed than they were before.  Out tolerance is low, we are more likely to say or do things that we wouldn't have done before.  We are less regulated and struggling.  This is all to be expected.

Children feel this stress, they are much more anxious than they were before.  They miss the connection they found through all of the extra activities they had before, they are feeling more alone and isolated.  We often like to believe the idea that children are more resilient than adults, that they bounce back.  While this can be true when they are put under 'tolerable' stress, given support from the adults around them and when they feel safe and connected, this is not true when it comes to the amount of stress children are feeling currently.  This is largely due to the fact that the stress is not their own, it is just a sense of the whole world around them being a little more frazzled and unpredictable than it was before.  

Just like adults they have short fuses and they often don't know why.  They are having more difficulty with friends, with learning and with other relationships.  They are having a lot of big feelings that they don't even understand.  They are more quick to react with verbal and physical aggression and once calm, often can't tell you why.  They may appear more tired or moody, or quicker to lose control of their emotions.

Like adults they are frequently being put outside of their window of tolerance.  Their window is narrower than before.

Schools around NZ and the world are feeling and seeing this anxiety manifest in the classroom and playground.  Assisting children to traverse this time and to ensure their overall wellbeing, is the most important work we can all be doing right now.  

You may have noticed our approach based on Te Whare Tapa Whā that is displayed in our admin area.  This includes all of the ways we are working to directly assist the wellbeing of children in a holistic way.

While there are many ways we can assist this development in small ways in the classroom, there are more specific ways too, these include:

*Pause, Breathe, Smile - a mindfulness programme that each class is working on

*Play, the outdoors and lots of physical activity - recognised widely as being the best way to promote healthy relationships and to feel connected and positive

*Zones of regulation - a programme that helps children to understand, recognise and regulate their feelings

*Restorative practice - when issues arise we want children to own it, fix it and learn from it

*Exploring perspectives through drama and the arts - this is a focus for all classes this year as we have noticed children have difficulty taking the perspectives of others

*Promoting our values of kindness, respect and empathy at every chance we get in the classroom and wider school community

*Termly happiness surveys - children can identify how they are feeling and if they would like to talk to our wellbeing leader Kelly.

*KiVa - can be used if cases of bullying arise and run by our KiVa team

*Mcleery, our little doggy friend that works with Chelsea at school every day, animals are great for bringing calm to a situation

*Te Kōhanga (the nest) - a nurture based space where children can take themselves when they are having big feelings.  Staffed by our lovely TA Savannah.  

*Wellbeing specific plans for those individuals that need a little extra support, these are put in place by Kelly, children meet with her once a week and on most occaisions we follow a Plan B approach when a relationship has been established.

*Plan B in the classroom, a collaborative problem solving approach that can be used for groups or individuals when a problem is identified.  This encourages ownership of the problem and an opportunity to solve it.

*Trauma informed and developmentally responsive- all staff are working towards being able to take a trauma informed, developmentally responsive approach to how they work with children.  This is based on an understanding of the brain and how we process stress.

If you think your child is struggling with wellbeing, touch base with their teacher as it is likely we will be able to help in some way, if we can not help at school, we may be able to point you in the right direction.

Below are some great ideas!