Fairness is a character strength that fits within the relationship arm of the Barwon Heads PS PERMA starfish.
Fair means treating everyone equally and giving everyone a fair chance. Fair is when everyone has their needs met. To be fair you need to remember to treat people the way you want to be treated.
People who are fair play by the rules, they take turns and think about how their actions may affect others.
The following videos show examples of both unfairness and fairness.
This is Our House by Bob Graham
At school and at home, when playing (games and sport) and being with others, there are many examples of writtten and unwritten rules to make things fair to everyone.
Being a positive bystander is another example of fairness.
Some more examples of unwritten rules can be; in my home, people take their shoes off before they come inside if they are muddy or wet so as not to dirty the floors. Another understanding is that we take it in turns to wash the dishes after dinner.
In the classroom, students know to put their hands up if they want to speak as it’s unfair to the teacher and their classmates if they call out. Another unwritten rule is that we are considerate of others, especially our classmates and teachers.
Can you list some rules, or understandings that you can think of that make things fair? Why do we have these understandings/rules?
Modesty is about not showing off and knowing your strengths and weaknesses.
Modesty is like humility and people who show humility do not seek the spotlight, preferring to let their accomplishments speak for themselves. They do not regard themselves as special, and others recognise their modesty.
It is good to be confident in yourself and to always strive to be the best you can be. Yet, truly successful people strive not only to be their best, but to be great in how they treat others and celebrate their talents.
Modesty comes within the Positive Emotions arm of our PERMA model.
Modesty is not just for the footy field or basketball court, it is something to apply to every aspect of your life. It is about being courteous and saying “please” and “thank you” all the time, not occasionally. It is about being able to apologise to others even if you are just slightly in the wrong. It is also about listening and open to learning from others. Being humble is recognising that everyone has different strengths and paying complements to other people.
“The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister – How did Rainbow Fish’s lack of modesty effect the way others thought of him?
How you can help your children develop Humility (for parents, but equally applicable in the classroom).
“King Pig” by Nick Bland – did King Pig show modesty? How did his behaviour impact on those around him?
Can you make connections between humility and modesty?
Can you think of someone who you look up to who shows modesty? It might be a leader, someone you know or a sports star.
People with wisdom are wise and understand what is important in life. Having wisdom means being able to give advice and recognising different sides before making decisions.
Older people are said to be wise as they have lived through so many different experiences. People with wisdom are often understanding and have a bank of knowledge or learning from the past that they use to choose from. They think before they speak or offer advice.
Can you think of a person or a mentor who shows the Character Strength of Wisdom? What about Aesop’s fables? Can you think of any fables wherein characters display wisdom?
What have you learnt about life? What words of wisdom would you give to a student younger than you?
Courage is being afraid of something and doing it anyway. This can apply to all aspects of life from holding a snake to telling the truth to standing up for yourself.
To practice being brave:
Try new things, have adventures, and face your fears. This can be done in baby steps and at your own pace
Be an upstander! This takes courage as upstanders need to take risks to support others and to do what they feel is the right thing to do for the good of the whole.
Remember that it’s ok to do it wrong. It’s also ok to “fail” and at Barwon Heads PS we all know that mistakes are good because they help us to learn! Often we are too afraid to try out for a team or role in a play because we are afraid we will not get accepted. Failing and rejection are all part of the learning process. We have to take chances and learn from both the good and bad that results from them.
Our Resilience Toolkit has been designed by our students, teachers and parents as a tool to help students to cope in situations when another student is being unkind.
“Tomorrow I’ll be Brave” by Jessica Hisch
Have Courage and Be Fearless
I like this clip with Kid President, it’s about being brave but it’s also “a Call to people all over the world” which fits well with Meaning (I belong to a world bigger than myself) in our PERMA model.
Rose Meets Mr Wintergarden by Bob Graham
I Am Courage – A book of Resilience by Susan Verde
Who is your hero. Who do you know who has shown courage? When have you shown courage?
Hope is like a seed planted in the ground. At first, it’s just a small but if we nurture that seed with care, giving it sunlight, water, and love, something amazing happens—it starts to grow. Hope is a lot like that seed. It’s the belief that good things can come even when things seem tough.
Hope sits within the Positive Emotions arm of our PERMA model and our BHPS definition of hope is; “I look forward to the future and believe that good things will happen.” Hope, in the case of remembering the ANZACs belongs within the Meaning arm of our PERMA; “I use the character strengths of positive role models” and ” I recognise that I am part of a school and wider community.”
Now, let’s journey to a time long ago, during World War I. Imagine brave soldiers from Australia and New Zealand, far away from their homes, working to protect their countries. They faced challenges and hardships every day, yet they held onto something powerful—hope. They hoped for peace, for their loved ones to be safe, and for a better tomorrow.
ANZAC Day is a special day when we remember these brave soldiers and all the things they stood for—courage, mateship, and, yes, hope. On this day, people gather to pay tribute to their sacrifices and to celebrate the enduring spirit of hope that they carried with them.
You might wonder, “How can I embrace hope in my own life?” Well, here are a few magical ways:
Believe in Yourself: Just like those soldiers believed in their cause, believe in your dreams and abilities. You can achieve amazing things!
Stay Positive: Even when things seem tough, try to find the silver lining. There’s always something good to be found.
Help Others: Acts of kindness and support can spark hope in someone else’s heart. Be a beacon of light for others.
As we celebrate ANZAC Day and reflect on the strength of hope, let’s remember that even in the darkest of times, a tiny seed of hope can grow into something extraordinary.
Self belief, like self worth, means that you value yourself and expect to be treated with respect.
People with a sense of self-belief try not to compare themselves to others. Having self worth comes from setting goals, working to attain the goals and achieving success. This makes us feel good about ourselves.
Self-Belief comes within the “Meaning” arm of our wellbeing model because people with self-worth are inspired by and use the character strengths of positive role models, they do things that make a positive difference and use their strengths in all that they do.
The positive side effects of high self-esteem, include:
Taking responsibility for our actions
Forming positive relationships
Feeling confident and respected
Feeling proud of our achievements
Understanding mistakes is part of learning
Being resilient and independent
Being confident of our decisions in the face of peer pressure
Having a positive self-image
To understand yourself better and increase your self worth and boost how you feel about yourself you can use these sentence stems (or prompts) :
I was really happy when . . .
A goal that I have achieved recently is…
Something that my friends like about me is . . .
I’m proud of . . .
My family was happy when I . . .
In school, I’m good at . . .
Something that makes me unique is . . .
Others tell me my character strength is…
You can also use positive self-talk to boost your self worth. To do this, you need to catch yourself saying negative things about yourself in your head and chage the thinking to being more positive (eg. I’m not as good as the rest of my team (at, say, football) you could say; I may not be as good, but I play a valuable role and my team mates think I’m funny/kind/nice)
You can also use positive self-talk to boost your self worth. To do this, you need to catch yourself saying negative things about yourself in your head and change the thinking to being more positive eg. Instead of thinking; I’m not as good as the rest of my team (at, say, football) you could say; I may not be as good, but I play a valuable role and my team mates think I’m funny/kind/nice)
Perfectly Norman by Tom Percival
What is the main message in this story?
So Few of Me by Peter H. Reynolds
My favourite line in this story is: What if I did less but did my best?
Willy the Champ by Anthony Brown
From Cosmic Kids Yoga: Jamie writes; “Here are 3 meditations for kids that are specially designed to boost confidence. They will motivate a positive can-do attitude and give kids (and grownups too) a sense of self-belief! Go get ’em tiger!” 🐯
Do you know what positive affirmations are?
They are statements that can be used for positive thinking and self- empowerment and can help us to achieve success. This week, have a go at writing down three positive affirmations each day and if you get stuck, google positive affirmations!
Practicing gratitude is one of the simplest tools that you can use to improve how you are feeling.
Research has shown that the positive side effects of using gratitude include physical benefits such as better sleep and psychological benefits including less anxiety and increased happiness and resilience. Social benefits include; fewer feelings of loneliness and isolation, increased forgiveness and greater helpfulness and generosity.
When thinking about the things that we are grateful for, the benefits will be greater if you don’t think about the “things” you have, such as toys but rather, look for kindness from others, or a kind deed that you have seen or been involved in.
Sone of the ways in which you can practice gratitude is to write a gratitude journal, make a list or share with others, three things which you are grateful for.
Another way of practicing gratitude is to be a gratitude detective by watching for kind and caring behaviour from other people.
How about boosting your wellbeing by setting yourself a challenge to show gratitude in some way every day?
Self-control is about being able to control your actions or behaviour. For some people, self-control is easy, but for others, it takes practise to have self-control. Similar to self-control are self-regulation and self-managment and one strategy that teachers can use to help their students is the “Zones of Regulation”. This helps students to be aware of their reactions and behaviour and helping to regulate and take control of behaviour. Use of mindfulness and the Stop, Think and Breath strategy is helpful.
Self-control explained
The word “resist” is connected to self-control in this clip!
The marshmellow test – what would you do? Do you think you’d have the self control to wait and get two?
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus – can you identify the zones of regulation of the pigeon?
Teamwork comes under the Relationships arm of the BHPS wellbeing model which means; I accept, understand and empathise with others.
We can also relate teamwork to Voice and Agency because being part of a team means working “for the good of the whole“.
The VIA Institute says of those who have, or aspire to have, teamwork as one of their character strengths: “I am a helpful and contributing group and team member, and feel responsible for helping the team reach its goals.”
An oldie but a goodie!
Swimmy is about a group of ingenious little fish who come together, literally to solve a problem!
I bet you know which arm of our PERMA model Persistence fits into? Yep – It’s the accomplishment area.
Being persistent means working hard to finish what we set out to achieve and not giving up. It means setting and achieving goals despite challenges and difficulties. Being persistent involves “grit” which is similar to stamina and effort. People who show persistence have a growth mindset, they know that if they practise and put in effort, they can achieve their goals!
Do you remember when you were learning how to read or ride a two wheeler bike? It was tricky at first, but you used your grit and kept trying until you’d got the hang of it. What happens is that is new (neural) pathways are created, and, like muscles, these help your brain to grow and you to become good at things.
Lessons on Grit
It pays to be persistent!
The Most Magnificant Thing
A Little Spot of Perseverence
(Perseverence is a synonym for persistence!)
Have you set your goals for this term?
What is your main takeaway from “Lessons on Grit?”
