Wellbeing is a major focus this year and we are trying to provide opportunities for our community and staff to learn more about the brain and what actions support a positive way of being.

This week we held the first of our parent evenings where Kylie Taylor from Family Works spoke to us about anxiety; the causes and ideas of how to normalise worry.  She explained to us that when a worry becomes big, the tiger part of our brain takes over and we lose any ability to reason or problem solve. Flight, fight and freeze are the responses.

She reminded us of the importance of acknowledging the feeling a child may be experiencing at that time and reassuring them that it was OK to feel that way. Any talk of strategies or understanding the situation further needs to wait until the child has calmed and is able to process. 

Kylie also acknowledged that as parents we too can become anxious in the moment and that it is OK to give yourself time to calm and be able to think.

The last thing we need is two tiger brains fighting each other. A key message was that it is normal to feel anxious and we get brave by doing what is worrying us anyway. This is the way we programme our brain to become brave.