Pastoral Care News
By Mrs Anna Hardy, Acting Deputy Principal
It's hard for students to learn if they don't feel known and protected. Security is about emotional as well as physical safety. At the College it is important to us that each child feels safe emotionally and physically. We encourage students to speak to one of us if they feel unsafe at any time. There are student protection officers at the College who the students can approach to discuss any concerns they have. The officers are Mrs Julie Collins, Ms Suzy Krause, Mrs Jenny Gillespie, Mr Kort Goodman and myself. Students of course are not limited to speaking to only the student protection officers, they are welcome to speak to any staff member they feel comfortable with.
Emotional regulation is an essential skill that teenagers must learn. For today's kids, who face an unending barrage of digital stimuli, authentic forms of communication and emotional connection have some steep competition, (ASCD, 2019). Adults accept cussing, venting, drinking, or stress eating as acceptable ways to process our feelings. We are less willing to allow kids those same opportunities because their expression can be a distraction, especially in school. But just like adults, kids need to feel safe in order to reflect on and learn from emotional experiences. They also can't manage extreme reactions to their emotions at the same time they are learning these skills. Research shows that when classroom teachers embed social and emotional learning into everyday learning, young people can understand that feelings are normal, and practice strategies and reflection to manage them, (ASCD, 2019).
That's why teaching strategies for emotional regulation, like de-escalation, breathing, meditation, and even writing or drawing about feelings, must all be taught separately from an emotional experience. Teenagers are going to have ‘blow ups’ but we must teach them to reflect upon this and think about why they reacted this way and essentially how they can emotionally regulate themselves when faced with a similar situation. Children at every level of development need support, encouragement, and opportunities to practice managing their emotions, (ASCD, 2019).
Emotional regulation is an integral part of our social-emotional wellbeing and pastoral processes at the College. Through the conversations and the restorative justice practices, Pastoral Leaders, Teachers and the College Counsellor can begin to support and encourage students learn to manage their emotions. There are many opportunities throughout this process that these skills can be embedded. The social emotional learnings are vital to the student’s development and without these skills academic learning in the classroom becomes difficult.
ASCD, 2019, Helping Students Peacefully Engage with Emotions, retrieved on 7th November, http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol15/num04/helping-students-peacefully-engage-with-emotions.aspx