- A compassionate approach to wellbeing: from the Principal
- A LETTER FROM THE TERRITORY – LETTER HOME – WEEK 4
- Learning to Thrive: Strategic Plan launch events
- Being Seen and Heard: the Importance of Listening to Teens
- Directors' Notes: Almost, Maine
- Almost, Maine is almost here! Tickets available for 24 and 25 August
A compassionate approach to wellbeing: from the Principal
In recent weeks, I've had several discussions with staff, students and parents that have pushed me to ensure I was actively listening and developing a deep understanding of different issues or concerns that people may have been having. As a Principal, active listening doesn't come easily, having spent most of my career telling people what to do; an issue many school Principal's face. In each case, the art of active listening has produced a better outcome, developed my sense of empathy and also activated my desire to act compassionately.
At the start of this term, I showed all of our staff a video that has been produced by Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann. Miriam-Rose is an elder from the Daly Waters community; an aboriginal activist, educator, school Principal and the 2021 Senior Australian of the Year. In the video Miriam-Rose speaks about dadirri, the act of inner deep listening and quiet, still awareness. Dadirri is an approach to wellbeing that has been embedded in aboriginal culture for over 60,000 years and promotes a sense of self awareness, awareness of others and awareness of the environment. Dadirri is the deep inner spring inside all of us. We call on it, and it calls on us. Miriam-Rose presents dadirri as a gift for our nation as a way to move forward; to develop understanding; to slow down and open ourselves for healing. When I first heard Miriam-Rose speak about dadirri, I was drawn to its simplicity yet also its depth and possible impact on people across our country.
As a school, we look to a compassionate systems approach to wellbeing. This approach is based on a sense of self awareness, insight, purpose and connection. Knowing and understanding ourselves, knowing what our purpose in life is and knowing and nurturing our connections with others, and with country.
Yet again, these are simple questions. However, when I asked these of our staff, they were complex and quite challenging to answer, particularly when you add 'what is your purpose in life?' If we can all answer these questions, have a strong sense of our innerspring, self-awareness, and great insight into why we often feel and act in a certain way, we can begin to thrive as human beings.
As mentioned in earlier Messenger articles, we will be launching our 2022-2030 strategic plan 'Learning to Thrive' later this term; first as a document sent to all Woodleigh families in the coming weeks, followed by informal launch events held on each of our three campuses later this month, and early September.
As part of this plan, we highlight that we wish to support all members of our community as they thrive; this includes our staff, our parents and the broader community. If they thrive, then we have a much greater chance of succeeding as we bring this way of thinking to our students. For our students to thrive, the adults surrounding them must also thrive. Otto Scharmer refers to this process as creating the optimal source conditions or soil conditions for our community to thrive.
The first day of this term we focused on our staff and how to create the perfect soil conditions on which they can thrive, and how we can move forward as a school. This approach is already having an impact on many parts of the school and we have many staff who have been and will be involved in retreats at the Woodleigh Institute. Through these retreats they are learning how to thrive, and how to bring the tools and practices of the Compassionate Systems Framework into the classroom so that our children can thrive at Woodleigh.
This is an exciting and incredibly purposeful journey upon which we are about to embark and I look forward to sharing our progress with you over the coming months and years.
DAVID BAKER
Principal
A LETTER FROM THE TERRITORY – LETTER HOME – WEEK 4
Greetings from the Northern Territory!
Yes, a team of us are at Wugularr, Beswick community. I write this Letter Home while watching our Year 6 students interacting with their Wugularr friends. It is 5pm and time for some delightful after-school play including hide and seek, quiet relaxation, showing Wugularr kids our camp along with Wugularr kids telling our kids about the bush food on the trees that bring beautiful shade to our delightful camping place at Djilpin Arts.
While in the NT, we experience the diversity of our vast land. While you’re snuggled up in front of fireplaces, we’re sitting under the stars of the superb balmy nights. All children have made incredible friendships and experienced an incredible welcome from this community.
We will be returning this week with lots of news to share. Our Year 3 and 4 children are the next to go on camp – all experiences that build relationships, connecting to our personal growth and understanding for both staff and children as we all learn from each other.
This is a short Letter Home; however, the photos tell the story of this incredible collaboration – Wugubank! We are so pleased that we are now meeting again to share our worlds. We look forward to the Wugularr children visiting Penbank as soon as possible.
I thank the staff back at school for looking after all children and colleagues. I especially thank Katherine and Justin for leading the Penbank Campus and and to Tessa for for her leadership of anything admin.
My very best wishes to you all,
VIVIENNE and the Wugubank team, 2022
What’s Ahead
WEEK 5 – Activities Week SC
Year 6 Return from NT – Tuesday 16 August
WEEK 6
Year 3 & 4 Camp – Alexandra Adventure Resort, Wednesday 24 August – Friday 26 August
Prep & ELG/4 - Wildlife Xposure Incursion, Thursday 25 August
WEEK 7
District Athletics @ Ballam Park – Wednesday 31 August
Fathers, Friends, Footy & Fun School Meeting – Thursday 1 September
Father’s Day – Sunday 4th September
WEEK 8 – Book Week – Dreaming with Eyes Open
Penbank Rock Quiz – Friday 9 September
WEEK 9
Penbank Soiree – Wednesday 14 September 7pm
Term 3 Ends – Friday 16 September
Learning to Thrive: Strategic Plan launch events
Principal, David Baker and Chair of the Woodleigh Board, Vanessa Gabriel, warmly invite all parents and staff to join us as we take a close look at Learning to Thrive, Woodleigh School's Strategic Direction for 2022-2030.
The plan - which will be issued in hard copy to the entire community in the coming week - describes our commitment to a holistic education that equips young people with the knowledge, skills, and capabilities they require to find personal success, build compassionate relationships with others, and positively contribute to the communities in which they live. We understand that to achieve these goals, we need to work together as a community to help our young people learn to thrive at three interdependent levels: Self, Others, and Human and Natural Environments.
Launch events are planned at each of our three campuses.Come along for a drink, some nibbles and the opportunity to informally engage with senior leadership and board members.
Please RSVP for catering purposes at one of the three links below:
Being Seen and Heard: the Importance of Listening to Teens
It was once expected and accepted, that 'children should be seen and not heard'. Thankfully, this mindset is outdated and fails to recognize the knowledge young people’s lived experience offers.
In Australian Indigenous culture, there is a word that describes 'deep listening' which is known as dadirri. Dadirri is an inner, quiet, or still awareness that is available to everyone (Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann). It is a practice based upon respect, and extends to the interpersonal, intrapersonal, and environmental landscapes we traverse. In this context, it also pertains to 'being present' and determines how we 'show up' in life.
Listening to Teens: Ignore the Impulse to Tell Them What to Do
Imagine for a moment that your young person starts to share with you their perspective about something important to them. As they speak, you immediately hear the flaws in their logic. The next natural step for you as a parent might be to point out the flaws with their reasoning, followed by an overwhelming urge to give advice, even though it was not asked for and you know that the conversation will end in frustration and disappointment.
Albert Einstein once said something to the effect of, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity.”
Yet, as parents, we live with the faint hope that this time it may be different; that our young person will listen and understand. However, the odds are not in our favour; past experience suggests there's a high probability that the outcome will be the same. You may tell yourself that some of what you said might have sunk in to make yourself feel better. It may feel hopeless sometimes, but like most parents (myself included) you just keep repeating the same cycle.
Let’s flip the script.
Do Parents Know Best?
Author Miguel Brown believes that trying to get through to your teenager stems from both narcissism and fear.
The narcissism: the assumption that you know what’s best for your teen.
The fear: if they don’t do what you say, they may end up hurt or failing.
The remedy: to intentionally pause, be there, be present and listen.
When Not To Give Advice
What if your teen does occasionally know what is best? What if struggling, on occasion, is a good thing? And what if your teen manages to solve the problem in their own way, despite ignoring your advice; that may be the most frustrating situation of all.
Instead of giving advice to your teenager immediately, press pause and just listen. In fact, listen very carefully, deeply, and try to understand where they are coming from. This approach has much more power than you realize. Listen, and then repeat their thoughts back to them to clarify your understanding from their perspective.
It is helpful for teenagers to hear their thoughts and feelings reflected back to them so they can try to solve their own problems. This is how we can support their development into becoming independent, resilient, and compassionate young adults.
What Happens When We Listen to Our Teens?
Parents are often challenged and surprised to learn that if you avoid giving advice and lecturing, listen closely and encourage teenagers to talk about what is happening, they often come to their own reasonable conclusions.
In fact, the experience of being 'seen and heard' is vital to developing many life skills including, but not limited to:
- social skills
- processing information
- expanding vocabulary
- practicing assertive, respectful and clear communication. This can lead to increased self-confidence and self-worth.
Parents are often in a tough position, between a rock and a hard place so to speak. After years of life experience, we often assume to already know the deal and can think of several possible solutions.
But for teenagers, the experience is new and difficult, so watching them struggle through it can be tedious and excruciating. However, this is their story, not ours: what matters most to them may not be the same for us. But keep watching.
If you give them enough time to process the problem, they too can get to a solution. Trust them to learn what they need, and from whom. They may choose to speak to another trusted adult (who is not a parent) as part of this process. They may falter or fail before they succeed, but this is the stuff that fosters resilience. Trust them to ask for your help if they need it. Don’t rush in to 'fix' what they may not have recognized as a problem. Pay attention to what they share on social media, try connecting with them through text messages, or sharing social media that is of mutual interest or amusement, they are digital natives after all.
And ask them often how they are doing. Give your teenagers the gift of time and patience, meet them where they are, and not where you want them to be.
In kindness,
Donna
DONNA NAIRN
Director of Counselling
Acknowledgements & further reading
Listening to young people
https://www.wellbeingpeople.com/2021/07/08/8-ways-to-improve-your-sense-of-digital-wellbeing/
https://raisingchildren.net.au/pre-teens/communicating-relationships/communicating/active-listening
Didirri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tow2tR_ezL8&feature=emb_imp_woyt
https://yourteenmag.com/family-life/communication/listen-to-your-teenager
Resources from our Term 3 Woodleigh PEP talk with Dr Joanne Orlando who spoke with us on the topic: Digital Wellbeing: How to stay focused in an age of distraction.
https://www.joanneorlando.com.au/
https://www.techclever.education/courses/techclever-parents
Latest book:
Life Mode On: How To Feel Less Stressed, More Present and Back in Control With Technology
Directors' Notes: Almost, Maine
Activities Week is always an exciting time. For staff and students working on the Senior Production of Almost, Maine this is a week of technical and dress rehearsals. The cast, crew and musicians finally bring the play together into a performance. Tickets are selling well, but there are still some seats available for both nights of the show. BOOK NOW and don’t miss out!
Theatre was decimated by Covid. Across the world, productions fell over in 2020 and then again in 2021. Now, in 2022, for the first time in three years, we have worked hard to get a Senior School Production onto the Woodleigh stage.
We had to be creative about how we could successfully stage a school play 3 years into a pandemic. We knew we would need to film the work, so it could be streamed, or used as a hybrid theatre/film performance in the event of a Covid disruption. We knew that this meant that we would need to work on two versions of the play; one for the stage and a back-up to camera.
We identified that we needed a text that had multiple roles, but scenes that were contained or separate, so that we could work with small groups of students at a time. This way we would have a better chance of managing and scheduling rehearsals around inevitable illness and absence. Following the last couple of challenging years, we also wanted to work on a play with themes and content that was positive and uplifting for our students. We read multiple scripts, networked, researched, began brainstorming an original theatre piece … and then Stuart Hendricks from Music Theatre International suggested we have a look at Almost, Maine.
It is a cold, clear night in the middle of winter. The northern lights hover in the sky above the residents of ‘Almost’, a fictional remote town in Maine.
Under these lights, nine couples find themselves falling in and out of love, through a series of loosely connected stories.
Almost, Maine is funny, touching and moving. We immediately knew that it would engage our students. More importantly, we could see that the structure of the play had the potential to navigate its way through a pandemic affected rehearsal schedule.
A further challenge with a school play is finding a vehicle that can accommodate a large cast. Almost, Maine is an ensemble piece with 19 substantial roles. With permission from John Cariani, the playwright, we have also added the role of ‘The Narrator’, who voices some of the evocative stage directions.
We were determined to get a head start on the production to ensure that we had the maximum chance to work around any curve balls thrown up by the pandemic. Auditions took place at the end of last year, and students were asked to learn their lines over the summer break. Our first rehearsal took place in the first week of Term 1 and weekly rehearsals have been scheduled since then.
Throughout the rehearsal process, our student musicians have been working alongside our actors. Student Musical Director, Amelia Evenden and her team have composed and arranged all the original music for the performance. This has been no mean feat! The five-piece band has crafted fourteen pieces that beautifully underscore and link the scenes.
Woodleigh students have been encouraged and supported to undertake every role needed to realise this production. From back-stage manager, set and prop designers, to costume design, sound effects, marketing, poster design, animation, and so on. We have students stage managing the show, overseeing all the technical operations (lighting, sound, microphones) and running the front-of-house. In this way, Almost Maine is a truly collaborative student experience with over 40 students from Years 7 to 12 involved.
Prepare to have your hearts opened, warmed, and touched. We are thrilled to bring live theatre back to Woodleigh, with our 2022 production of Almost, Maine.
CAREY SAUNDERS and LUCY WHARINGTON
Directors Almost, Maine
Almost, Maine is almost here! Tickets available for 24 and 25 August
There are now less than 2 weeks before opening night for our 2022 production of Almost, Maine, the first Woodleigh senior school production to make it to the stage in three years.
Set in an 'everywhere town' in northern Maine, Almost follows 19 small town characters across one moonless night. Told in 9 interconnected vignettes, the play is an earnest portrayal of love in all its guises; love-found, love-lost, misdirected love, hopeful love, same-sex love. Described as a cleverer version of Love, Actually, the show is a fitting way for the whole family to reconnect with the magic of live theatre on the Woodleigh stage.
There are limited seats available for Wednesday 24 August, and greater availability for Thursday 25 August. Come along and show your support!
BOOK NOW
Greetings from the Northern Territory!
Yes, a team of us are at Wugularr, Beswick community. I write this Letter Home while watching our Year 6 students interacting with their Wugularr friends. It is 5pm and time for some delightful after-school play including hide and seek, quiet relaxation, showing Wugularr kids our camp along with Wugularr kids telling our kids about the bush food on the trees that bring beautiful shade to our delightful camping place at Djilpin Arts.
While in the NT, we experience the diversity of our vast land. While you’re snuggled up in front of fireplaces, we’re sitting under the stars of the superb balmy nights. All children have made incredible friendships and experienced an incredible welcome from this community.
We will be returning this week with lots of news to share. Our Year 3 and 4 children are the next to go on camp – all experiences that build relationships, connecting to our personal growth and understanding for both staff and children as we all learn from each other.
This is a short Letter Home; however, the photos tell the story of this incredible collaboration – Wugubank! We are so pleased that we are now meeting again to share our worlds. We look forward to the Wugularr children visiting Penbank as soon as possible.
I thank the staff back at school for looking after all children and colleagues. I especially thank Katherine and Justin for leading the Penbank Campus and and to Tessa for for her leadership of anything admin.
My very best wishes to you all,
VIVIENNE and the Wugubank team, 2022
What’s Ahead
WEEK 5 – Activities Week SC
Year 6 Return from NT – Tuesday 16 August
WEEK 6
Year 3 & 4 Camp – Alexandra Adventure Resort, Wednesday 24 August – Friday 26 August
Prep & ELG/4 - Wildlife Xposure Incursion, Thursday 25 August
WEEK 7
District Athletics @ Ballam Park – Wednesday 31 August
Fathers, Friends, Footy & Fun School Meeting – Thursday 1 September
Father’s Day – Sunday 4th September
WEEK 8 – Book Week – Dreaming with Eyes Open
Penbank Rock Quiz – Friday 9 September
WEEK 9
Penbank Soiree – Wednesday 14 September 7pm
Term 3 Ends – Friday 16 September
Principal, David Baker and Chair of the Woodleigh Board, Vanessa Gabriel, warmly invite all parents and staff to join us as we take a close look at Learning to Thrive, Woodleigh School's Strategic Direction for 2022-2030.
The plan - which will be issued in hard copy to the entire community in the coming week - describes our commitment to a holistic education that equips young people with the knowledge, skills, and capabilities they require to find personal success, build compassionate relationships with others, and positively contribute to the communities in which they live. We understand that to achieve these goals, we need to work together as a community to help our young people learn to thrive at three interdependent levels: Self, Others, and Human and Natural Environments.
Launch events are planned at each of our three campuses.Come along for a drink, some nibbles and the opportunity to informally engage with senior leadership and board members.
Please RSVP for catering purposes at one of the three links below:
It was once expected and accepted, that 'children should be seen and not heard'. Thankfully, this mindset is outdated and fails to recognize the knowledge young people’s lived experience offers.
In Australian Indigenous culture, there is a word that describes 'deep listening' which is known as dadirri. Dadirri is an inner, quiet, or still awareness that is available to everyone (Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann). It is a practice based upon respect, and extends to the interpersonal, intrapersonal, and environmental landscapes we traverse. In this context, it also pertains to 'being present' and determines how we 'show up' in life.
Listening to Teens: Ignore the Impulse to Tell Them What to Do
Imagine for a moment that your young person starts to share with you their perspective about something important to them. As they speak, you immediately hear the flaws in their logic. The next natural step for you as a parent might be to point out the flaws with their reasoning, followed by an overwhelming urge to give advice, even though it was not asked for and you know that the conversation will end in frustration and disappointment.
Albert Einstein once said something to the effect of, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity.”
Yet, as parents, we live with the faint hope that this time it may be different; that our young person will listen and understand. However, the odds are not in our favour; past experience suggests there's a high probability that the outcome will be the same. You may tell yourself that some of what you said might have sunk in to make yourself feel better. It may feel hopeless sometimes, but like most parents (myself included) you just keep repeating the same cycle.
Let’s flip the script.
Do Parents Know Best?
Author Miguel Brown believes that trying to get through to your teenager stems from both narcissism and fear.
The narcissism: the assumption that you know what’s best for your teen.
The fear: if they don’t do what you say, they may end up hurt or failing.
The remedy: to intentionally pause, be there, be present and listen.
When Not To Give Advice
What if your teen does occasionally know what is best? What if struggling, on occasion, is a good thing? And what if your teen manages to solve the problem in their own way, despite ignoring your advice; that may be the most frustrating situation of all.
Instead of giving advice to your teenager immediately, press pause and just listen. In fact, listen very carefully, deeply, and try to understand where they are coming from. This approach has much more power than you realize. Listen, and then repeat their thoughts back to them to clarify your understanding from their perspective.
It is helpful for teenagers to hear their thoughts and feelings reflected back to them so they can try to solve their own problems. This is how we can support their development into becoming independent, resilient, and compassionate young adults.
What Happens When We Listen to Our Teens?
Parents are often challenged and surprised to learn that if you avoid giving advice and lecturing, listen closely and encourage teenagers to talk about what is happening, they often come to their own reasonable conclusions.
In fact, the experience of being 'seen and heard' is vital to developing many life skills including, but not limited to:
- social skills
- processing information
- expanding vocabulary
- practicing assertive, respectful and clear communication. This can lead to increased self-confidence and self-worth.
Parents are often in a tough position, between a rock and a hard place so to speak. After years of life experience, we often assume to already know the deal and can think of several possible solutions.
But for teenagers, the experience is new and difficult, so watching them struggle through it can be tedious and excruciating. However, this is their story, not ours: what matters most to them may not be the same for us. But keep watching.
If you give them enough time to process the problem, they too can get to a solution. Trust them to learn what they need, and from whom. They may choose to speak to another trusted adult (who is not a parent) as part of this process. They may falter or fail before they succeed, but this is the stuff that fosters resilience. Trust them to ask for your help if they need it. Don’t rush in to 'fix' what they may not have recognized as a problem. Pay attention to what they share on social media, try connecting with them through text messages, or sharing social media that is of mutual interest or amusement, they are digital natives after all.
And ask them often how they are doing. Give your teenagers the gift of time and patience, meet them where they are, and not where you want them to be.
In kindness,
Donna
DONNA NAIRN
Director of Counselling
Acknowledgements & further reading
Listening to young people
https://www.wellbeingpeople.com/2021/07/08/8-ways-to-improve-your-sense-of-digital-wellbeing/
https://raisingchildren.net.au/pre-teens/communicating-relationships/communicating/active-listening
Didirri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tow2tR_ezL8&feature=emb_imp_woyt
https://yourteenmag.com/family-life/communication/listen-to-your-teenager
Resources from our Term 3 Woodleigh PEP talk with Dr Joanne Orlando who spoke with us on the topic: Digital Wellbeing: How to stay focused in an age of distraction.
https://www.joanneorlando.com.au/
https://www.techclever.education/courses/techclever-parents
Latest book:
Life Mode On: How To Feel Less Stressed, More Present and Back in Control With Technology
Activities Week is always an exciting time. For staff and students working on the Senior Production of Almost, Maine this is a week of technical and dress rehearsals. The cast, crew and musicians finally bring the play together into a performance. Tickets are selling well, but there are still some seats available for both nights of the show. BOOK NOW and don’t miss out!
Theatre was decimated by Covid. Across the world, productions fell over in 2020 and then again in 2021. Now, in 2022, for the first time in three years, we have worked hard to get a Senior School Production onto the Woodleigh stage.
We had to be creative about how we could successfully stage a school play 3 years into a pandemic. We knew we would need to film the work, so it could be streamed, or used as a hybrid theatre/film performance in the event of a Covid disruption. We knew that this meant that we would need to work on two versions of the play; one for the stage and a back-up to camera.
We identified that we needed a text that had multiple roles, but scenes that were contained or separate, so that we could work with small groups of students at a time. This way we would have a better chance of managing and scheduling rehearsals around inevitable illness and absence. Following the last couple of challenging years, we also wanted to work on a play with themes and content that was positive and uplifting for our students. We read multiple scripts, networked, researched, began brainstorming an original theatre piece … and then Stuart Hendricks from Music Theatre International suggested we have a look at Almost, Maine.
It is a cold, clear night in the middle of winter. The northern lights hover in the sky above the residents of ‘Almost’, a fictional remote town in Maine.
Under these lights, nine couples find themselves falling in and out of love, through a series of loosely connected stories.
Almost, Maine is funny, touching and moving. We immediately knew that it would engage our students. More importantly, we could see that the structure of the play had the potential to navigate its way through a pandemic affected rehearsal schedule.
A further challenge with a school play is finding a vehicle that can accommodate a large cast. Almost, Maine is an ensemble piece with 19 substantial roles. With permission from John Cariani, the playwright, we have also added the role of ‘The Narrator’, who voices some of the evocative stage directions.
We were determined to get a head start on the production to ensure that we had the maximum chance to work around any curve balls thrown up by the pandemic. Auditions took place at the end of last year, and students were asked to learn their lines over the summer break. Our first rehearsal took place in the first week of Term 1 and weekly rehearsals have been scheduled since then.
Throughout the rehearsal process, our student musicians have been working alongside our actors. Student Musical Director, Amelia Evenden and her team have composed and arranged all the original music for the performance. This has been no mean feat! The five-piece band has crafted fourteen pieces that beautifully underscore and link the scenes.
Woodleigh students have been encouraged and supported to undertake every role needed to realise this production. From back-stage manager, set and prop designers, to costume design, sound effects, marketing, poster design, animation, and so on. We have students stage managing the show, overseeing all the technical operations (lighting, sound, microphones) and running the front-of-house. In this way, Almost Maine is a truly collaborative student experience with over 40 students from Years 7 to 12 involved.
Prepare to have your hearts opened, warmed, and touched. We are thrilled to bring live theatre back to Woodleigh, with our 2022 production of Almost, Maine.
CAREY SAUNDERS and LUCY WHARINGTON
Directors Almost, Maine
There are now less than 2 weeks before opening night for our 2022 production of Almost, Maine, the first Woodleigh senior school production to make it to the stage in three years.
Set in an 'everywhere town' in northern Maine, Almost follows 19 small town characters across one moonless night. Told in 9 interconnected vignettes, the play is an earnest portrayal of love in all its guises; love-found, love-lost, misdirected love, hopeful love, same-sex love. Described as a cleverer version of Love, Actually, the show is a fitting way for the whole family to reconnect with the magic of live theatre on the Woodleigh stage.
There are limited seats available for Wednesday 24 August, and greater availability for Thursday 25 August. Come along and show your support!
BOOK NOW