The last two weeks have seen our boys actively involved in many aspects of school. From normal classroom activities through to competitive sport, rehearsals for production, choirs, swimming training and much more. It’s great for them to be involved in many aspects of school in regard to engagement and connectedness, but with that can also come the challenges around organisation and finding a comfortable balance in life – especially through adolescence. For this reason, our Pastoral Mentors have been helping our boys work on their organisational skills and on creating consistency in their lives. The focus has been on understanding how to use the Portal successfully, how to fill out their Record Book and how to allocate time for homework after school. This may be a new concept to some of our Year 7s but is hopefully a reinforcement to our 8s and 9s on what has been introduced to them previously. Continually reminding our boys of this is necessary both at school and at home in order to create patterns of behaviour.
We love patterns (not just us Maths teachers); our brains love patterns. Neuroscience has shown that our brains evolve and adapt when we repeat processes by strengthening the neural pathways associated with performing particular tasks or actions, the more we repeat, the stronger the neural pathways become. This is why setting regular routines around homework and other activities outside of school is important for boys, which includes revising and revisiting topics and points of discussions from their classes that day.
The idea that our brains are malleable is not limited to just children. I recently read a great article on neuroplasticity and the fundamentals of rewiring our brains and it goes to prove that you actually can teach an old dog new tricks – it just may take a bit of commitment. Click on the link to read the article: http://reset.me/story/neuroplasticity-the-10-fundamentals-of-rewiring-your-brain/
I’d like to wish our Year 8s and 9s all the best as they head off on their Term 1 camps. Our Year 8s are based in Myrtleford for the week with activities such as rock climbing, abseiling, cycling and hiking to the top of Mount Buffalo, whilst our Year 9s are hiking the Great Ocean Walk for 5 days amongst some of the most spectacular scenery in Australia.
It was fantastic to see our boys and girls compete so well in our recent House Athletics carnival on Friday at the Bill Stewart Athletics Track. The level of athletic ability across our Middle School is excellent with many fine individual and team performances on the day. Congratulations to Somner/Stewart House who were the eventual winners on the day.
