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

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:

1. Believe in Yourself: Just like those soldiers believed in their cause, believe in your dreams and abilities. You can achieve amazing things!
2. Stay Positive: Even when things seem tough, try to find the silver lining. There’s always something good to be found.
3. 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.

Never Lose Hope

My Grandad Marches on Anzac Day

A Short Film of Hope (8 mins)

ANZAC Ted

Welcome back to school and Term 2!

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!