At assembly last week, I explored the importance of our school values of hope, love, justice, spirituality, compassion and hospitality in everything that we say and do. I focused on the positive culture within St John’s and the fact that our peaceful environment is created when we live in a manner that is governed by all of the values and rise to meet the expectations see by the staff and our families. Over the next week, I will also be visiting each and every year group and speaking to them about what those values mean for us as a peaceful school community. PALS teachers will also be working with the students in unpacking each of the values and brainstorming positive ways to act those out in our daily lives. To help your son, daughter or person in your care, feel free to discuss the following simple ways for students to ensure they are meeting the expectations and striving for their personal best:

1. Being on time for lessons,
2. Lining up outside the classroom in a calm manner,
3. Standing and greeting teachers, school support staff or any other adult in the room,
4. Using manners when addressing teachers or your peers
5. Wearing their uniform correctly and with obvious pride and respect
6. Helping others in need, whether academically or socially,
7. Supporting the less fortunate in giving of themselves
8. Focus on learning to the best of their ability
9. Setting goals for themselves and striving to reach them,
10. Having a growth mindset in all that they do,
11. Get involved in extracurricular activities, use your gifts to make SJE a better place, and
12. Acknowledging success in yourself and others

Separate:
Article from Catholic Care Counsellors:

Mindfulness Equals Practicing Focus

Dr Russ Harris is an Australian internationally acclaimed expert in Mindfulness, and he explains that it is not meditation but it is the practice of focusing our attention. Mindfulness can help you and your child to achieve more and be able to cope with life more effectively on a daily basis. But, it requires practice, the Dali Lama explains that no one can focus on only one thing, it is our minds natural state to get distracted. So to be able to focus and not get carried away with the chatter in our minds or around us then we need to practice focusing.

In a practical sense exercising Mindfulness daily on a couple of short occasions should make a significant positive effect for most people within a few days and Mindfulness will begin to reach its full potential in about six weeks. I see positive results in students and adults by practising the technique for 30 seconds three times a day. I suggest setting yourself some kind of reminder to focus on one simple thing for thirty seconds at lunch, then again at recess and then again after school. For example, in my lunch break I might spend thirty seconds looking at a photo of a place I would like to go or going for a walk on the oval; and in that time I will focus on the sights, sounds and other sensations of that experience. It is important to note that when I am doing this other thoughts will 'pop' into my head, like the more important things that I should be doing, however I know its important to practice this technique for it to continue to be effective for me, so I kindly accept the mental distraction. Dr Russ Harris suggests that we could "thank our brain for being normal" and thus with gentle determination, while still making space for the distracting thought, I will return most of my focus to the Mindful thoughts I choose.

You could think of Mindfulness as like watching a wall of twenty TV's playing at once. If we have a remote to control all of these then we might tune into our favourite show and turn the volume down on the other TV's. But if the news were playing on one of those other channels and something extreme was depicted then you would probably get distracted from your favourite show. Then if you try not to think about that news story it would probably begin to play on the other TV's and flood your mind until you had to pay attention to it. This is like Mindfulness because when we are normally focusing on what we choose our amazing brains are thinking of an unlimited number of things in the subconscious background of our minds. We can only overcome this natural state by allowing ourselves to make space for distracting thoughts while still practicing bringing ours self back reasonably quickly with consistent deliberation to the thoughts we choose to spend our time on.

Good luck and if you want more information then you could read Dr Russ Harris's articlehttps://www.actmindfully.com.au/upimages/Dr_Russ_Harris_-_A_Non-technical_Overview_of_ACT.pdf or watch some of his many child friendly, and cartoonised, videos on YouTube.

Mr James Eirth
Pastoral Care Coordinator