Dear Families,

I hope everyone is enjoying whatever coverage of the Olympics that they can manage to watch. It’s good to see the Aussies doing well in the pool at the moment.

Whether you love the Olympics or not, it’s hard not to appreciate the time, effort, tenacity and determination of the athletes who are competing in the hope of winning Olympic gold. It’s interesting to watch how teams and individuals celebrate their successes, but also how they handle the heartbreak and disappointment of not winning.

Here at Lumen Christi, our schoolwide expectations are to be respectful, responsible and resilient and we try to explicitly teach what each of these things are and look like in practice. Resilience is an interesting skill for children to learn and a hard one to navigate as a parent because it’s hard to see our children be upset, to fail at something or be disappointed. Watching how the athletes at the Olympics handle setbacks could be a really useful tool for us as teachers and parents.

For example, athletes who don’t win often cry. It’s important that our children know that it’s okay to show emotion. When our children fail at something, feel hurt or disappointed, it’s important that as adults we help them name their emotions and allow them to feel those emotions in healthy ways like crying.

Athletes who fail or don’t win will look to the positives and engage in positive self-talk. Just this morning I heard a swimmer talking about how they were disappointed in their overall performance but how they still had so much to be proud of. In situations where there can only be one winner, this
is really important. We need to help our children develop the skills to talk positive to themselves – eg: “Even though I didn’t get chosen for the team this time, I know I trained really hard so I know I did my best”.

Athletes who fail or don’t win make a plan for the future. They analyse their performance, identify problems in their technique and then get back to their training in order to improve for next time. They remain hopeful for the future. It’s important to help and encourage our children to see that there are many other opportunities in the future and to try again.

At Lumen Christi we run a consistent, whole school program every Monday afternoon called “Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships” where our children are explicitly taught how to identify emotions, problem solve and engage in positive self talk in order to grow in their Resilience. The Victorian Curriculum calls this learning “Capabilities”, which we teach to support the learning and growth of our students to become well rounded and successful learners in order to become confident and competent young people and adults in the future.

An Athlete’s Prayer
God, let me play well but fairly.
Help me to learn something that matters
once the game is over.
Let competition make me strong but never hostile.
Always let me help my opponent up.
Never catch me rejoicing in the adversity of others.
If I know victory, allow me to be happy; if I am denied, keep me from envy.
Remind me that sports are just games.
If through athletics I set an example,
let it be a good one. Amen
Saint Sebastian, Patron Saint of Athletes, pray for us.

Have a wonderful week ahead,
Sally