Music update:

Congratulations to Resolutions and our two senior chamber music groups, Szerenád Trió who won the South Island Final (Sarah Lawrence, Emily Davey – violins, Victoria Park – viola) and Three in a Bar (Pippa Lange – flute, Amy Clough – oboe, and Victoria Park – piano). All of these groups have been selected to perform in the national events in August.

We also send our best wishes to the Years 12 & 13 students and to Imogen Bell and her Community Council for a really enjoyable Senior Dance on Saturday night.

Energiser Week – Flourish

Last week was Energiser Week. This was a fantastic initiative by the Senior Leaders that encouraged activity and movement, healthy eating, some competitive Multiball vs Boys’ High Monitors and an 80s Mufti Day (great to see that so many of you still have some of those clothing treats hidden in your wardrobes!) It also saw our girls setting up their own Green Market which included stalls for sustainable food, Young Enterprise, Global Living projects, and a second-hand clothing store which contained items donated by our school community. Approaching the middle of our year, it has been great to see our girls flourishing and supporting each other and the community consistently through such initiatives.

Some of you may have read an article in The Press ‘Your Weekend’ last Saturday which outlined some practical steps to support your daughters to flourish in other ways. Clinical Psychologist, Dr Lisa Damour is the author of Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress & Anxiety in Girls andworks in a high-achieving private girls’ school in Ohio. She argues for some thought about the language of emotion that we use, where nervousness has become anxiety, and sadness has become depression, and she offered the following thoughts relating to good and bad anxiety, healthy and unhealthy stress:

• Empathy is better than reassurance – rather than “don’t worry” try “this is a big deal but I think you’re going to be ok”
  
• Worst-case scenario – help her strategise. Try “What’s the worst that could happen?...Ok, what will you do then?”… “Good idea and if that doesn’t work?”…
  
• Don’t let them avoid the stressful situation – our desire to protect our girls might bring relief in the medium term but robs them of the feeling that they could have managed the situation
  
• Breathe through panic – breathe slowly and deeply to signal the brain that everything’s ok
  
• Teach them to decode social media – it’s not real life. Help them to take a step back and get some critical perspective about their friends’ online narratives
  
• Frame school stress as positive – it can improve performance. Help them see that their work schedules and assessments are designed to help them to build endurance for life after school
  
• Help them get more sleep – we handle things better when we’re not brittle or frazzled
  
• Teach perfectionist girls to make less effort – encourage efficiency and being tactical rather than a focus on hard-work (which can be unsustainable) to avoid burn-out.
  

Some thoughts to ponder and we hope you all enjoy a strong last week of Term 2!