‘Fight-or-flight’

Stress is stressful!

What is stress?

Stress is a survival mechanism. When danger appears stress can get humans out of trouble quickly. Your body cranks up the gears and throws all its resources into getting you moving. Your heart pumps furiously to increase blood pressure, glucose is sent to the muscles as a fuel injection, and you become totally focussed on what psychologists’ call ‘fight-or-flight’. Stress was extremely useful for primitive humans but for 21^st century humans it is a bit different. Feeling some amount of stress is normal but not all stress is bad. In the short-term stress can be helpful in keeping you motivated for a goal you have or keeping you alert. It is extremely common to be overwhelmed or stressed about something. Stress is something that everyone has experienced in their life.

Have you ever felt like you have so much going on and you’re not sure if you’ll be able to handle it all? This is called being overwhelmed or stressed. Stress happens when:

• - You have a lot of things going on at once.
• - You have an important decision to make.
• - An unexpected change in your life occurs.
• - A big event is coming up.
• - Something frightening happens.

Most common stressors for children and teenagers are:

• - Problems in a relationship or friendship.
• - Exam or test results.
• - Watching the news.
• - Bullying
• - Moving to a new house.
• - Getting a new sibling.
• - Arguments and much more.

How can it affect you?

Stress can affect your body, mind, feelings and behaviours. You can experience things like:

• - Headaches
• - Sweating

Heart pounding

• - Tense muscles
• - Feeling really low in energy

If these happens too often it can sometimes make you feel ill and forgetful. This will disturb your concentration on things that need to get done. When feeling anxious the mind will tend to focus on the negative things about situations. You may feel:

• - Sad
• - Angry
• - Helpless
• - Anxious
• - Irritated
• - Discouraged and feeling like you want to give up!

These feelings change your behaviour when going through something stressful. This will also affect sleeping and eating habits along with avoiding people or work you need to do.

What sort of things stress you out and how do you deal with them?

It is important to know what your stressors are so that you can come up with helpful ways to cope with them when they occur.

Helpful ways to cope with stress. Here are 6 ways to overcome stress:

1. 1. Take a few deep breaths.
2. 2. Focus on the things you can control. Focus on what you can do right away.
3. 3. Manage your time and make time to relax.
4. 4. Take care of your body by having enough sleep and healthy foods. Being active can improve your mood.
5. 5. Positive self-talk. Next time you feel stressed out – tell yourself things like ‘I know I can do it!’ or ‘I know how to handle this!’
6. 6. Talk to a friend or an adult.

Find out what works for you, take a break and stress less.

TP

Array
(
    [0] => 4
)

‘Fight-or-flight’

Stress is stressful!

What is stress?

Stress is a survival mechanism. When danger appears stress can get humans out of trouble quickly. Your body cranks up the gears and throws all its resources into getting you moving. Your heart pumps furiously to increase blood pressure, glucose is sent to the muscles as a fuel injection, and you become totally focussed on what psychologists’ call ‘fight-or-flight’. Stress was extremely useful for primitive humans but for 21^st century humans it is a bit different. Feeling some amount of stress is normal but not all stress is bad. In the short-term stress can be helpful in keeping you motivated for a goal you have or keeping you alert. It is extremely common to be overwhelmed or stressed about something. Stress is something that everyone has experienced in their life.

Have you ever felt like you have so much going on and you’re not sure if you’ll be able to handle it all? This is called being overwhelmed or stressed. Stress happens when:

• - You have a lot of things going on at once.
• - You have an important decision to make.
• - An unexpected change in your life occurs.
• - A big event is coming up.
• - Something frightening happens.

Most common stressors for children and teenagers are:

• - Problems in a relationship or friendship.
• - Exam or test results.
• - Watching the news.
• - Bullying
• - Moving to a new house.
• - Getting a new sibling.
• - Arguments and much more.

How can it affect you?

Stress can affect your body, mind, feelings and behaviours. You can experience things like:

• - Headaches
• - Sweating

Heart pounding

• - Tense muscles
• - Feeling really low in energy

If these happens too often it can sometimes make you feel ill and forgetful. This will disturb your concentration on things that need to get done. When feeling anxious the mind will tend to focus on the negative things about situations. You may feel:

• - Sad
• - Angry
• - Helpless
• - Anxious
• - Irritated
• - Discouraged and feeling like you want to give up!

These feelings change your behaviour when going through something stressful. This will also affect sleeping and eating habits along with avoiding people or work you need to do.

What sort of things stress you out and how do you deal with them?

It is important to know what your stressors are so that you can come up with helpful ways to cope with them when they occur.

Helpful ways to cope with stress. Here are 6 ways to overcome stress:

1. 1. Take a few deep breaths.
2. 2. Focus on the things you can control. Focus on what you can do right away.
3. 3. Manage your time and make time to relax.
4. 4. Take care of your body by having enough sleep and healthy foods. Being active can improve your mood.
5. 5. Positive self-talk. Next time you feel stressed out – tell yourself things like ‘I know I can do it!’ or ‘I know how to handle this!’
6. 6. Talk to a friend or an adult.

Find out what works for you, take a break and stress less.

TP

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(
    [0] => 4
)

Adversity

As I ran with some Form boys along the beautiful Cramond sea front recently, one of them started crying. I noticed, with mild alarm, that his face was bright red, his breathing was sharp and a bit raspy and tears rolled down his pink cheeks. I heard a little whimper “Sir, sir, I can’t breathe.” Not what you want to hear on a run with children. Once he’d slowed down a bit (in the eagerness of youth he had started the run too fast) he steadied his breathing. We soon found a rhythm and he managed all 5km, but not without a struggle. There were more tears, more complaints and quite a lot of general discomfort. At the end of the run, though, he felt relief, satisfaction and elated with the feel-good factor of endorphins running through his body.

As teachers, we nurture and support the children in our care but we have to push them out of their comfort zones, expose them to adversity and allow them to fail. We cannot let children grow up with everything they want without having to work hard at something. Adults know the sting of failure, the discipline of practice and the worthiness of struggle all benefit us by making us attached to reality. It is a tough old World out there. And I think we need to encourage our children to face adversity so they can grow resilient and strong, rather than empty and weak.

AP

Array
(
    [0] => 4
)

Adversity

As I ran with some Form boys along the beautiful Cramond sea front recently, one of them started crying. I noticed, with mild alarm, that his face was bright red, his breathing was sharp and a bit raspy and tears rolled down his pink cheeks. I heard a little whimper “Sir, sir, I can’t breathe.” Not what you want to hear on a run with children. Once he’d slowed down a bit (in the eagerness of youth he had started the run too fast) he steadied his breathing. We soon found a rhythm and he managed all 5km, but not without a struggle. There were more tears, more complaints and quite a lot of general discomfort. At the end of the run, though, he felt relief, satisfaction and elated with the feel-good factor of endorphins running through his body.

As teachers, we nurture and support the children in our care but we have to push them out of their comfort zones, expose them to adversity and allow them to fail. We cannot let children grow up with everything they want without having to work hard at something. Adults know the sting of failure, the discipline of practice and the worthiness of struggle all benefit us by making us attached to reality. It is a tough old World out there. And I think we need to encourage our children to face adversity so they can grow resilient and strong, rather than empty and weak.

AP

Array
(
    [0] => 4
)

Learning for the 21st Century

In a dynamic (and perhaps uncertain) age, we are conscious that a Cargilfield education needs to prepare our children for the challenges that we can foresee (and for many that we cannot). This is the challenge that the Headmaster has set us in his teaching and learning blog last year:

https://www.cargilfield.com/teaching-and-learning/news/post?s=2021-06-07-educating-our-children-for-the-21st-century

With that in mind, our curriculum leaders (a group of teachers drawn from across the School - both in ages taught and subject specialisms) are in the process of reviewing our curriculum to best equip the next generation of learners.

The pandemic and periods of time where lessons were delivered on screens or at a distance have helped us all to reflect on what we find most effective in the curriculum. For all this, however, we have agreed on certain guiding principles that we want to see in children’s learning:

• Balance across the Curriculum and preserving what we do well.
• The importance of :

a. The extra curricular offering

b. School trips

c. Games and sport

d. Enterprise and life skills

• A strong pastoral support system and PSHE/Health and Wellbeing delivery.
• Developing a culture of growth and change amongst staff and pupils.
• Promoting equality and celebrating cultural diversity.
• Developing transferrable skills and cross curricular learning.
• A strong boarding ethos at the heart of the school.
• Forging closer links with other partners in learning.

The challenge now is to map our curriculum to spot gaps and repetition and to make sure that the skills and knowledge will best serve our children’s needs.

I look forward to updating you with our findings and, as we implement the proposed changes, bringing in a process of inspection and review. We are determined that the Cargilfield children are given enjoy the very best learning experience that we can give them.

Anjali Dholakia

Academic Deputy Head

January 2022

Array
(
    [0] => 4
)

Learning for the 21st Century

In a dynamic (and perhaps uncertain) age, we are conscious that a Cargilfield education needs to prepare our children for the challenges that we can foresee (and for many that we cannot). This is the challenge that the Headmaster has set us in his teaching and learning blog last year:

https://www.cargilfield.com/teaching-and-learning/news/post?s=2021-06-07-educating-our-children-for-the-21st-century

With that in mind, our curriculum leaders (a group of teachers drawn from across the School - both in ages taught and subject specialisms) are in the process of reviewing our curriculum to best equip the next generation of learners.

The pandemic and periods of time where lessons were delivered on screens or at a distance have helped us all to reflect on what we find most effective in the curriculum. For all this, however, we have agreed on certain guiding principles that we want to see in children’s learning:

• Balance across the Curriculum and preserving what we do well.
• The importance of :

a. The extra curricular offering

b. School trips

c. Games and sport

d. Enterprise and life skills

• A strong pastoral support system and PSHE/Health and Wellbeing delivery.
• Developing a culture of growth and change amongst staff and pupils.
• Promoting equality and celebrating cultural diversity.
• Developing transferrable skills and cross curricular learning.
• A strong boarding ethos at the heart of the school.
• Forging closer links with other partners in learning.

The challenge now is to map our curriculum to spot gaps and repetition and to make sure that the skills and knowledge will best serve our children’s needs.

I look forward to updating you with our findings and, as we implement the proposed changes, bringing in a process of inspection and review. We are determined that the Cargilfield children are given enjoy the very best learning experience that we can give them.

Anjali Dholakia

Academic Deputy Head

January 2022

Array
(
    [0] => 4
)