Peer Support
Peer Support is led by Year 5 and 6 students in small groups of students K-4. Sessions will take place each Friday.
We encourage you to discuss the program with your child/ren to help them take an active role in Peer Support.
Week 1
The children will be participating in a new module, Moving Forward which focuses on resilience.The experiences in the module help children to identify their qualities and strengths, develop skills, respond with a range of strategies and seek support when faced with challenges. In this session, the children will establish connections with the other members of their group and develop their group agreement to enable them to work well together.The children will discuss an example of a challenging situation and some resilient and non resilient responses.
You might like to discuss with your child what they can do to help them take an active role in Peer Support.
Week 2
This week in Peer Support children will have an opportunity to discuss their personal qualities and strengths.The children will identify their qualities and acknowledge how they contribute to their achievements. Through activities children recognise they used their strengths to achieve success and can be encouraged to approach future activities optimistically.
Ask your child to describe their own qualities and strengths so you can recognise and acknowledge these.
Week 3
This week in Peer Support children will discuss skills and how to communicate their feelings and needs to others.The children will discuss skills they use when participating in a variety of activities. When children understand they already have many of the skills needed to succeed, they can feel more confident when trying something new.The children are asked to identify events which trigger different feelings.
Encourage your child to remember the skills they have used in one activity when trying something new. Also encourage your child to communicate their feelings and needs.
Week 4
This week in Peer Support children will revise what they have learned about resilience and discuss the people who show them support.Through a story the children identify where the character has used her personal qualities, strengths and skills to help her overcome challenges.They identify times when she needed support to continue.The children discuss a range of challenges and determine the best person to approach for support.The children consolidate the protective factors for resilience by revising their own strengths and skills and identifying 5 people they can go to for support.
Remind your child of their qualities and skills and encourage them to ask for help in challenging situations.
This week in Peer Support children will discuss skills and how to communicate their feelings and needs to others.The children will discuss skills they use when participating in a variety of activities. When children understand they already have many of the skills needed to succeed, they can feel more confident when trying something new.The children are asked to identify events which trigger different feelings.
Encourage your child to remember the skills they have used in one activity when trying something new. Also encourage your child to communicate their feelings and needs.
Week 5
We introduce a 3 step model this week to encourage resilient responses; Pause, Plan, Proceed.The children take part in an activity to identify their feelings and the immediate effects on their bodies ie butterflies in their stomachs.The normalcy of feelings is acknowledged and the importance of being proactive is stressed.The children learn that pausing when they are emotional is helpful.They can do this by being still, taking a deep breath or counting to ten. Pausing gives children space to see a situation more accurately before planning a response.
Ask your child to describe the 3 steps of the model and what is involved in each one.
Week 6
This week the focus is on step 2 of the model, Plan. In Peer Support children learn the need to develop a range of coping strategies and be creative in drawing on these when planning responses. Responses include persevering, seeing the positive side to situations and engaging in activities they enjoy as a distraction for a short time.
Encourage your child to talk with you about strategies they could use as difficulties arise.
Week 7
This week we further develop the range of strategies we can use in challenging situations.This session focuses on step 3 of the model, Proceed. In order to learn from situations and move forward children need to go beyond thinking of strategies and action them. Children recognise despite the use of a range of strategies, sometimes they cannot change the situation.At these times, it is important to accept the situation and move forward with a positive outlook.
Encourage your child to follow through with strategies they have discussed and planned to use. It is important to then help them evaluate if this has worked or if they need to try a different strategy.
Week 8
In this week’s final session of the Peer Support module Moving Forward children will reflect on what they have learned over the past seven weeks.The students will make a cube to remind them to draw on their strengths, achievements and people who support them when faced with challenging situations. These protective factors promote confidence and motivate students to approach new situations where they can then apply the Pause, Plan, Proceed Model.