Assistant Principal - Mission & Wellbeing

Well-being and Happiness 

At St Paul's this term, we are focussing on gratitude to help build resilience and increase happiness.  Happiness is a state of mind or a mood.  Teenagers are usually happier when they’re satisfied with their lives and relationships, although nobody is happy all the time.

Wellbeing comes from physical, mental and emotional health.  It is also about understanding your emotions, taking part in different activities, having good relationships and social connections, finding meaning in life and feeling that you are doing well.

How Can You Help Your Child to be Happy? 

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You can boost your child’s happiness with praise and encouragement, clear rules and boundaries, a healthy family lifestyle and warm family relationships through praise, encouragement and positive attention.

  • Give your child praise- but not too much.
  • Give your child attention. 
  • Encourage your child to try new things.
  • Value your child’s strengths, and praise to build self-esteem 
  • Let your child know that you are proud of him/her 

Rules and Boundaries: 

Clear and fair rules help teenagers feel safe when lots of things in their lives are changing.  If you involve your child in making the rules, they’ll be more likely to stick to them.  Negotiating rules with your child is also a way of showing that you respect their growing maturity. 

Healthy Lifestyle:

  • Encourage good sleep habits.  Teenagers need about 8-10 hours of sleep each night and no technology in the bedroom is a good start. 
  • Help your child aim for at least sixty minutes of physical activity each day.
  • Encourage your child to make healthy food choices to fuel their growth and development.
  • Help your child keep a healthy balance between study, work and play.  This might mean looking at how many nights your child is out doing things, how much down-time they have, how much they can contribute to family life through chores, how many family meals you have together and so on.

Mrs Bronwyn Shipton - Assistant Principal - Mission & Wellbeing