It was an absolute pleasure to welcome Dr Shyam Barr and spend time with staff and students earlier this week exploring self-regulation.
Self-regulated learning is the ability to understand one’s thinking, motivation, emotions and to regulate or change them in response to a problem. Dr Barr challenged the staff and our Years 6 to 8 boys to focus on their own regulation by using several different strategies and how we can draw on these to help us in our learning.
In a world where our boys and us as adults are bombarded with information and distraction it was fascinating to watch a couple of classes monitor their own responses to what was happening around them. With some explicit teaching of strategies there was an immediate recognition of the challenge of focussing in the classroom when there are distractions because of technology or from peers around them.
As part of our commitment to positive engagement and support in the classroom the staff will continue to focus on helping our boys develop strategies to assist with the development of the skills of self-regulation.
Further to the focus on self-regulation the Senior School students were encouraged during Muster this week to reflect and look at their own self-awareness around their own actions and behaviours. The message from the Gospel of Matthew was about ensuring we look at ourselves and who we are and what we do in our actions before we critic others. Having strong self-awareness enables us to consider our choices and hopefully make the right decisions.
This was further explored through the idea of focussing on what our actions and behaviours say about our individual brand. Our boys were given examples of brands around the world and the positive image and marketing that relates to them. Thus, the challenge for each student was to consider what is the brand they hope to display to the world beyond the walls and fields of St Peter’s College.
This idea of branding followed the presentation by the Headmaster last week when he shared the modified sports uniform designs. The sport uniform branding is about recognising the history and heritage of the School whilst aligning to our uniform so that we can identify as one team, the St Peter’s College team.
So as our sports brand is now aligned to our history and heritage, the challenge for each of our boys is to consider what their behaviour, attitude and actions say about their personal brand. If every student’s brand is embedded with the values of truth, respect, and service what an amazing 2024 we will have in the Senior School.
Finally, we wish the Year 8 students well as they head out into their experiential learning experience on the Southern Yorke Peninsula. No doubt there will be some amazing learning experience and moments shared that will further build the connections amongst the cohort. We look forward to hearing of their adventures.
David Nolan
Deputy Headmaster/Head of Senior School