Principal’s Message
By Mrs Kath Boyd
“You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” (Martin Luther King) Change can undoubtedly be scary - for people of all ages. It may be out of your hands (like a power outage), something wonderful (such as Miss Sara’s pregnancy) or jumping from a familiar job into the big unknown. Having resilience, a capacity to quickly recover from difficulties, allows humans to see the positives within change. At Reddam, our Early childhood educators create empowering environments for children to foster their independence and sense of responsibility through play-based learning experiences. We believe that learning basic skills and good habits early on can help small children deal with challenges in life. We build resilience among the children at our school in numerous ways, including: Starting in Stage One: Resilience can be developed at any age, but earlier is better. Individuals never lose their ability to improve their coping skills, and they often learn how to adapt to new challenges. ‘The brain and other biological systems are most adaptable early in life, and the development that occurs in the earliest years lays the foundation for a wide range of resilient behaviours. However, resilience is shaped throughout life by the accumulation of experiences - both good and bad - and the continuing development of adaptive coping skills connected to those experiences.’ (developingchild.harvard.edu) When our youngest children first start school, they quickly form a close bond with their teachers. Once they are settled, teachers slowly encourage the child to move from their arms and sit beside them . . . then walk next to them holding hands. Soon, before we know it, these little adventurers are off and running! Providing supportive relationships: The continued support of stable, committed parents and early childhood educators is so powerful for young children. These relationships are the active ingredient in building resilience - they provide the personalised responsiveness, scaffolding, and protection that can buffer young children from developmental disruption. Good relationships also help children develop key capacities that better enable them to respond to adversity when they face it – such as the ability to plan, monitor, and regulate behaviour, and adapt to changing circumstances. This combination of supportive relationships, adaptive skill-building, and positive experiences constitutes the foundation of resilience. Creating positive experiences: While the individual characteristics of each child at our school are out of the teacher’s control, by creating everyday positive experiences for each child, we positively contribute to their resilience levels. Assisting children to manage positive and negative stress: Learning to cope with manageable threats to our physical and social wellbeing is critical for the development of resilience. Not all stress is harmful and there are numerous opportunities in every child's life to experience manageable stress. With the help of supportive adults this 'positive stress' can be beneficial. Over time, both our bodies and our brains begin to perceive these stressors as increasingly manageable and we become better able to cope with life's obstacles and hardships – both physically and mentally. Pictured above: Kath savouring time with some of the longest standing members of our school community (4R & 4E students Jessie, Cassia, Ellie, Jasper, Angus, James, Ryan L. & Alexander)