ERC Updates

From the Director of Pastoral Care & Wellbeing

October is Mental Health Month and this week the College celebrated that with our guest speaker Mr Phil Britten, who shared with the community his story, as a survivor of the Bali bombings in 2002. Overcoming enormous adversity and having battled the desire to hang onto life pre the devastating bombings, Phil chose to be a survivor and not a victim. He chose to draw on his passions and his strengths and be future focussed. In the 19 years since that life changing moment Phil has achieved so much he is now married with 3 young children, he is an incredibly successful businessman in the field of Martial Arts and a highly acclaimed professional speaker. Phil spoke to the boys about the importance of being able to live in the present and thrive, providing the following advice for those that wish to do the same.

Team – surround yourself with those that will help you be the best version of you.

Habits– create good habits, reminding us of the power of even the smallest changes.

Resilience – acknowledging that it is going to be tough, reminding us that we might fail but in fact the only failure results from an inability to get back up and try again.

Inspirations – try to find someone who inspires you and encourages you to give your best.

Victor vs Victim – when we focus on the win, step up and give everything our best, when we have a winner’s mindset, we are far more likely to succeed.

Emotions – if you want to thrive and not just survive, we need to recognise that we will feel down from time to time but we choose not to stay there for long, understanding that when I am down there are things that can bring me up.

So although we did not choose the trajectory of this year there are many valuable lessons that we can take from this lockdown that will certainly help each of us to thrive moving forward. If you would like the opportunity to listen to Phil’s presentation please follow the link found  here.

Over the coming weeks, as we prepare to move back to school each year group will have a particular focus on the themes below. I encourage you to talk to your sons about the various activities that will be encouraged over the coming weeks. The Theme for Mental Health Month 2021 is Tune In, encouraging us to be present, self aware, and tune in to your communities. These themes will also be closely aligned to the setting of one wellbeing goal for Term 4, which will take place in Extended Admin on Tuesday 19 October.

Year 7 – Move Confidently
Year 8 – Practice Self-Care
Year 9 – Connect the Friends
Year 10 – Thrive

As you would have read earlier in our newsletter we were thrilled to announce our Senior Student Leadership Team for 2021/2022, later this term we commence the process of electing our SRC members to the remainder of the College.

This week’s Parenting Ideas article looks at promoting a leadership mindset in students.

Mrs Hughes

Director of Pastoral Care & Wellbeing