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10CB Tour
Week 2 was a very busy and exciting week for the Year 10 Concert Band! Students needed to get to school very early on a Sunday morning where they got on the bus and began their epic journey up to Queensland. They stopped over at the Hunter Botanical Gardens for their first performance, and it was a great experience playing outside with all the challenges that brings.
Over the course of the week, the band played at several primary schools, delivering an engaging and exciting set of repertoire and experiences to the children there. Lucky audience members were so thrilled to either conduct the band or jump in with the percussion section for a crowd favourite piece; âThis is Meâ. The Year 10s transitioned seamlessly between pieces creating such an awesome âpackage experienceâ for the students they performed to. The band also played at Broadbeach Mall where they were a massive hit! Many adults, children and puppies stopped and listened to the band play for several pieces and the conversation filtering through the audience about the band was about how good they sounded! It was golden! A lot of the students from the band commented after that this was their standout performance of the tour!
Students also got a bit of downtime where they got to explore Movie World, Sea World and Wet nâ Wild, at which students showed no fear on some of the most epic theme park rides in Australia - who knew that the band was full of thrill-seekers! Students also enjoyed the animal shows and stunt shows, particularly at Sea World. Time back at the accommodation was also well spent, with students developing their âhouse-mateâ skills by sharing cooking and cleaning responsibilities (a mostly successful venture). Some students even got their cooking rated by submitting a photo on the Google Classroom to: Mr Peters, rate my plate! Students enjoyed the freedom of being able to come and go at the pool where they could splash around until 8:30pm every day! The teachers enjoyed dinner poolside and maintaining the zero pool-based injury count.
On the way back to Canberra the following Saturday, it was evident the week had caught up with most, however there was such a great, caring, community atmosphere emanating from the students that only sharing a week living with each other can bring. The memories created, friendships made and strengthened will be such a great testament to the good times had at Lyneham High.
Mr Bowyer
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Cultural Integrity Excursions
In week 4, all the bands had the opportunity to go out to the National Museum of Australia to take part in our inaugural performance of âBelah Sun Womanâ. Each band performed a movement of the work and together, made up the journey explored in the life of âBelahâ. It was very special to perform the work written by local Indigenous composer, Jodie Blackshaw, in such a culturally important space. The performance of each movement was filmed and will be collated to exhibit the whole work with explanations of the meaning of each movement. This will be displayed in assembly later in the term.
Mrs Raudonikis
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7CB
Last week, the Year 7 Concert Band went on tour to Merimbula! It was an absolute blast, the students delivered such a professional and polished performance and the primary school audiences clapped and danced along to the songs! The instrument demos were a big hit with the audiences, being wowed by each individual sound and how it contributes to the band as a whole. Seeing the audiences engage with conducting, playing percussion in Mamma Mia and dancing along to the Macarena was pretty fun. The Band seemed to have also picked a new favourite song - âBang Bangâ which they performed in the Massed Bands Performance!
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Green night at the Merimbula RSL was a hit and it was amazing to see all the students in their green attire. We must have looked a bit odd walking into the RSL! Special mentions to the two dinosaur costumes and students dressed in enough feather boas and tinsel to make any Christmas tree jealous! It was fantastic to see everyone having a great time and making memories and friendships that last!
Mrs Raudonikis
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eSafety Awareness Update: Sextortion
We would like to provide our community with information to raise awareness of Sextortion (Sexual Extortion) and how it is becoming a larger risk to our young people.
From the Australian Federal Police:
- Investigators are warning that overseas offenders are increasingly preying on Australian children, particularly teenage males, coercing them into producing explicit images and then extorting them for money.
- Sextortion is a crime that can involve child victims being manipulated by online offenders into sending sexualised images, often through the offender pretending to be another young person.
- An offender will then threaten to share the content with others unless their demands are met. These demands include more images, sexual favours, and money.
- Authorities globally are seeing a significant increase in offshore criminal syndicates targeting teenagers. Investigators hope highlighting the trend will encourage children who have become victims to seek help and report the crime to the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation at www.accce.gov.au/report.
Some of the AFP's top tips to keep children safe include having the privacy settings of their social media account set to 'friends only' or 'private' to ensure they are not contacted by someone wanting to do them harm and turning off any location settings that could show where they go to school or where they live.
Parents should also encourage children not to share any personal information with 'friends' they meet online. For more information you can visit the Office of the eSafety Commissionerâs page on Sextortion HERE.
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Exam season is fast approaching for many senior students in New Zealand and Australia. At the best of times, adolescents may struggle with ambition and drive, let alone after two-and-a-half years of COVID-induced disruption and uncertainty.
But parents can still nurture their teensâ motivation to do what they need to do.
Behind the scenes, the adolescent period is one of huge developmental change, and not only physically. Teens are developing their sense of identity and refining their own values. Their autonomy and individuation is emerging while they still remain somewhat dependent on the family system.
Parents may expect their young people to be intrinsically motivated when it comes to exams. The importance of studying is obvious to many adults. But even the most diligent among us can easily identify behaviours we know we should be doing, but arenât.
Clearly, knowing that something is important may not be enough to generate the desired behaviour.
Understanding human behaviour
According to clinical psychologist Susan Michie and her colleagues at University College London, three factors interact to produce any human behaviour, whether itâs studying or surfing: capability, opportunity and motivation.
Michieâs team developed the âCOM-Bâ model, which forms the basis for behavioural interventions relating to everything from hand washing to our own efforts to support clinicians to use evidence-based treatments.
Capability (both physical and psychological), opportunity (physical and social) and motivation come together to influence behaviour in an interactive way.
For example, if a young person is very capable (or believes themselves to be very capable) at solving maths equations, those around them are supportive or encouraging (social opportunity), and they have the practical resources they need (physical opportunity), theyâre likely to want to do maths homework (be motivated).
Conversely, imagine a young person who starts the school term really motivated to study for two hours online every night, but only has access to the laptop at school (limited physical opportunity), still has fatigue after an illness (limited physical capability), and is surrounded by friends who have other priorities (low social opportunity). Herculean motivation may be required in this situation.
How parents can support their teen to study
Put simply, parents should âzoom outâ. Motivation canât be produced magically out of thin air, and attempts to force it can have the opposite effect. But parents can support and encourage their young personâs capability and opportunity to study.
1. Motivation fluctuates
Motivation is not something that is simply present or absent. It fluctuates from hour to hour, day to day. So rather than âhow can I make him be motivated today?â, a more useful question is âhow can I create an environment where heâll be a bit more motivated than he was last night?â
2. Good foundations
Remember the basics, for teens and parents alike â sleep, exercise and balanced nutrition. If these are in place, itâll help both physical and psychological capability.
3. Balanced thinking promotes capability
A sense of mastery or capability is important. Stressed teens can fall into black and white thinking traps. âIâm useless at mathsâ fuels feeling overwhelmed and a sense of futility.
Instinctively, itâs tempting to reply with âno youâre not, youâre amazing!â But thatâll likely bounce right off. Instead, try to encourage your teenâs balanced thinking. âStats is hard, but Iâm okay at algebra and geometryâ.
4. Focusing on what teens can control
Praise effort over achievement. Persisting with an hour a day of English revision for six weeks deserves as much acknowledgement as winning the English prize (and unlike the prize, it is within your teenâs control).
5. Reinforcing their worth, no matter what
Likewise, be sure to separate your teenâs attributes (who they are) from their behaviour (what they do). Theyâre not a âlazyâ person, but there are particular behaviours they may need to do more (or do less).
6. Behaviour as communication
If young people are irritable or snappy, try to hold in mind that this anger or irritation is likely to be secondary to other emotions, like anxiety, hopelessness or overwhelm. Itâs probably not about you.
7. Worry might have a purpose
Lots of anxiety may be incapacitating, but some anxiety in this season makes sense, and a little bit can actually enhance preparation and performance. Paradoxically, perfectionism isnât always useful.
8. Validate what you can
Try to validate the emotion, even if the behaviour canât be justified. Perhaps reflect that it makes perfect sense that things feel overwhelming, many people would feel that way in that situation, and then pause.
Itâs tempting to rush to solve the problem, or rapidly fire questions. But often young people just need to be given permission to feel the feeling, and they can sometimes figure out the solution themselves.
9. Collaborating to solve problems
Similarly, try to avoid doing âtoâ (or âforâ), instead aiming to do âwithâ. Collaborating to solve problems (if they want input) may develop or enhance future independent problem-solving abilities. It also communicates your belief in their capability to do so.
10. Acknowledge to create habits
Parents might consider using targeted, short-term incentives (we donât see these as bribes, but recognition of hard work or effort) to create new habits or reinforce emerging behaviours.
Finally, try to hold a longer-term view. One exam, one assessment, wonât make or break things. Families and cultures may hold a range of values around what a successful life looks like, but it usually involves more than just exam success.
Good health, connection with others, and meaning or purpose are fundamental to success in life. Try to keep this in mind over the next few months, even if the going gets tough.
Melanie Woodfield, Clinical Psychologist, Te Whatu Ora | HRC Clinical Research Training Fellow, University of Auckland, University of Auckland and Jin Russell, Community and Developmental Paediatrician, University of Auckland
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. https://theconversation.com/preparing-for-exam-season-10-practical-insights-from-psychology-to-help-teens-get-through-189439
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One of the most important qualities for a young person to develop is resilience. This involves their ability to overcome adversity.
Resilience is perhaps more important now than ever. Todayâs young people have been facing adversity on a mass-scale, thanks to COVID and all the disruptions to their education and social, home and working lives.
The good news is, resilience is not just something you are born with. It can be learned from our experiences and interactions with others.
Parents may not be aware that one way to develop resilience is through group music making, such as in a school or community choir, orchestra or band.
Members of Tasmanian Youth Orchestra. Mike Morffew, Author provided
Our research
We wanted to investigate how group music making can develop skills beyond just learning to play an instrument or sing.
Our study is based on the Tasmanian Youth Orchestras, which include accomplished musicians aged from 14 to 25. This includes the state youth orchestra as well as two other orchestras, specialist ensembles and two choirs.
For our project, we collected comments from players, managers and conductors/teachers on a closed Facebook site and then did eight follow-up interviews.
Our findings show how qualities like teamwork, empathy and grit â all components of resilience â can be developed through group music making.
Teamwork
In order for a group of players to make a piece of music work, they have to work together.
People have to listen to each other, understand what is happening around them, and be prepared to change how they play something (slow or fast, loud or soft) depending on how the group is performing. You need to be able to value the contributions of other people, not just your own.
So, we found if you are playing in a band, you are learning team work skills. As David*, a conductor told us:
After a while, players realised that they were ultimately responsible to the other players not to the conductor.
Empathy
Players also need to be able to understand others in a group and share their feelings.
In a choir or orchestra, the music making is a shared creative experience â that involves the whole body. And this is where empathy comes in.
Empathy, like teamwork, can be cumulative, growing over time through rehearsals and performances, as players and teachers support one another. As brass player Tom said,
I have to understand that I am not always going to be the main focus of a piece.
Another player, Simon, told us about his realisation that other people were also having to work hard (and it wasnât just about him).
You certainly arenât the only person having to practise your doubles [playing two notes at once] for that piece.
Grit
It is important for young people to develop a âgrowth mindsetâ, where they understand effort makes them stronger and learning is a long-term commitment.
This is where grit also comes in: pursing a goal and sticking with it even if it takes a lot of work or gets difficult.
It can take many months to learn a piece of music up to performance standard. And learning an instrument requires practice every day. So commitment is a key part of learning music.
Lawrence, a player, told us about participating in his school musical:
There were many points throughout the year which I felt like giving up [âŚ] but it was something I had committed to [âŚ]. I kept working on playing the music to the best of my ability, even if it felt like I couldnât do it.
Tory, a choir conductor, described performance as both âsafe and unsafeâ. Young people in a choir learn to deal with the unexpected as part of performance. And this takes a kind a bravery.
Youâve got safety in numbers, to some extent, but you are still stepping into the unknown every time you walk on stage to do a thing. You can rely on each other, because youâve rehearsed, but stuff does go pear shaped. Stuff happens [âŚ] Itâs an incredibly useful life skill to be able to go, âwell, that suckedâ [âŚ] and go, all right âletâs [go again]â.
Why music?
But what is so special about music in fostering resilience? Young people also work in sporting teams or academic assignments. They can also work together while playing games.
Playing music provokes activity in many different parts of the brain at the same time. Listening to music that we like triggers the pleasure/reward centre of the brain. Dopamine and serotonin are released, resulting in that âfeel goodâ sensation, and providing an incentive to keep engaging with music.
Playing music releases âfeel goodâ hormones. Photo by Fede Casanova on Unsplash
Learning a musical instrument also strengthens connections in the brain, linking the auditory cortex to parts of the brain involved in the processing of complex information. This link has been shown to improve memory, motor functions and learning in other subject areas.
Making music with others also affects levels of the bonding hormone oxytocin, supporting a sense of togetherness, while reducing levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and boosting immune function.
For young people, music can provide valuable respite from study and daily life, and help manage and express their emotions.
So, if you want your child to be a team player who is empathetic and shows grit, our research suggests that joining a music group could be the answer.
*names have been changed
William James Baker, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of Tasmania; Anne-Marie Forbes, Associate Professor and Discipline Lead, Creative Arts and Health, University of Tasmania, and Kim McLeod, Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
https://theconversation.com/if-you-want-your-child-to-be-more-resilient-get-them-to-join-a-choir-orchestra-or-band-190657
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Next P&C Meeting
P&C meetings are held at 7pm on Tuesday of every week 3 and week 8 of term. For the foreseeable future, they are now only held online via the Microsoft Teams meeting at this link. The next meeting is on Tuesday 29 November.
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School Calendar
Did you know the schoolâs calendar of events (excursions and the like) are maintained as a Google Calendar which is accessible from the front page of the schoolâs website (see below)? Events are maintained weekly.
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âGame Overâ â Campbell High Drama Production
Lyndsey Houghton on behalf of Campbell High School would like to invite Lyneham High students to Campbell High Schoolâs Drama Production âGame Overâ by Mark Wheeler.
The production will be held in the school hall at Campbell High School on Thursday 24 November at 6.00pm, tickets are $5 and can be purchased here!
Please note this production includes themes suitable for mature audiences. The show runs for a duration of 1 hour and 10 minutes. |
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