APA News

Dear Parents / Guardians

At St Saviour’s our four school expectations, be safe, be a learner, be responsible and be respectful, guide our study body. This week we have been focusing on the ‘Be Safe’ expectation.  As we progress deep into Term One it is common that students’ frustration tolerance levels are collectively low.  Frustration tolerance refers to a person’s ability to withstand and manage feelings of frustration without becoming distressed.  Low frustration tolerance can lead to impulsive reactions to situations, which often look like a student lashing out at other students.  Being safe at school includes the expectation that students keep their hands, feet and objects to themselves.  We also expect that students will tell an adult when they see or hear of a situation that makes them feel unsafe or they see something that is unsafe.  A mantra that is constantly used at school is that “we don’t solve problems by putting our hands on others, it just makes our problems bigger!” 

Having strategies to implement when there is a ‘problem’ is imperative for students when their frustration tolerance is low.  Collectively as a school we have focussed learning this term in our PEEC curriculum on how to identify our emotions and recognize when our body is telling us that our emotions are outside of the window of tolerance, for example we are frustrated, angry, annoyed, sad, etc. Students have all learnt the importance of breath to our brain function and a simple strategy to implement when we recognize our body clues is to take some deep breaths first!  You may have heard your children use the expression ‘box breathing’ at home, which is a way of encouraging deep breathing.  Students then can choose a strategy that will assist them with their problem, for example in the playground they should 1) tell a teacher 2) get a drink 3) move away 4) find another game/friend. Equally if a student sees or hears about a problem, they need to apply the same strategies to help in the situation.  Placing themselves in the problem and choosing to use their hands in some way, regardless of how well intended it is, does not help the problem get smaller! 

Something that also helps students to re-fill their tolerance levels is to have time doing the things they love, connecting with people that they love! I hope this weekend might be just the time to do that as we head towards the last couple of weeks of term. 

Mrs Katie Hauser