As part of the Woods Week activities all of the classes have visited Flora McDonald Retirement Community.
During these visits the various classes have engaged in activities such as playing board games and card games with the residents, art activities with the residents and the junior primary students will be singing Christmas Carols to the residents. These visits are an act of service to our local community and in Positive Education this relates to the domain of Positive Purpose. This can be defined as the following;
‘Understanding, believing in and serving something greater than yourself and deliberately engaging in actives for the benefits of others.’
The class visits to Flora McDonald have a twofold impact both on the residents of Flora McDonald and our students. You can see the faces of the residents light up as they talk and interact with our students and this has a significant impact on their personal wellbeing. These activities also have a great impact on the students as well. They feel the positive emotions of brightening up another person’s day, they feel the great enjoyment as they are engaged in the activity with the residents, the students are getting the huge benefits of building a new relationship with another person and they feel a great sense of accomplishment when they walk away from the activity knowing they have done something that has benefited and improved the life of another person. Each of these elements that the students get from interacting with the residents from Flora McDonald improve the wellbeing of the individual students.
Tom Atyeo
Wellbeing Coordinator
