On Tuesday evening we were delighted to have hundreds of parents and teachers from Scots and the wider community join us for a special ScotsIdeas conversation, ‘Helping Children to Deal with Stress and Uncertainty’.
Guest panelists included well-known psychologist and author Andrew Fuller, ‘Digital Nutrition’ pioneer and clinical psychologist Jocelyn Brewer, and Wellington College (UK) Deputy Head David Walker. They addressed a wide range of topics based on questions from attendees, including using technology well, engaging with frustrating behaviour, building relationships while remote, and supporting children to talk through their anxieties and aspirations.
Key take-away messages included:
- Be curious, not furious. It’s easy to respond to frustration with more frustration. Take a step back back and recognise your own emotional and physical state.
- When boys express frustration in poor behaviour, ask ‘What’s happening?’ Use the HALTS acronym to ask: Are you... Hungry? Angry? Lonely? Tired? Stressed?
- Use this unique time to talk with your children about what kind of world we want to create for the other side of the pandemic. Engage them in thinking about making a meaningful contribution to the world, and stimulate projects to support this.
- This is a pandemic, not a productivity contest. Don’t stress about students falling behind during the pandemic. Stimulate executive functioning skills like memory and self-regulation by building good daily and weekly rituals and routines as a family.
- Take an interest in your son's gaming habits, by having a go yourself!
- When wearing different hats as a parent (parent, teacher, coach), it’s important to frame this for children. ‘Now it’s time for learning’, ‘Now it’s mummy time. Shall we go for a walk?’
We are looking forward to continuing to work with Andrew Fuller through our partnership with Skodel, a unique wellbeing platform developed by Scots Old Boys Julian Fagan and Ian Fagan. In Term 4 we will be introducing the wellbeing check-in tool with our staff and Senior School students, and expanding our care coaching into 2022.
For more information about ScotsIdeas please click here.
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