Principal's Remarks
Risk Taking - Is it worth the risk?
Are you a risk-taker or do you shudder at the thought of taking a risk and stepping outside of your comfort zone? When I think back on times in my life that I have taken risks, I remember a particular tree from my childhood backyard. It was a privet tree…a very large, privet tree. One of my favourite things to do was to climb this tree, survey my "kingdom", look for cicadas and other interesting creatures and create cubbies and obstacles from the tree. A great memory of mine was one of my failed attempts, when I tried to create a flying fox from the privet tree to the swing set, using a garden hose. My 9 year old self was positive that this was going to be a success and as I stepped onto this flying fox contraption, I imagined myself flying along the garden hose and landing against the swing set at great speed. I was confident. I was brave. I was determined. And within seconds, I was also flat on my face on the garden bed beneath the privet tree. Did this fall have a negative impact on me? Other than a few scratches and perhaps hurting my pride, this fall only made me stronger, more resilient and more determined to problem-solve and improve my flying fox contraption!
Unfortunately, as an adult, my fearless outlook on life and risk taking has lessened. In fact, in many situations, "fearless" has become "fearful". Ask any of my past Year 5 students, and they can vouch for me and my fear with heights and activities such as the giant swing. My fearful scream may still be ringing in the ears of those that were subjected to my attempts to overcome my fear! In fact, as I think about providing safe opportunities for our children to take risks, I believe as a society, a school community, a family, we often prevent our children from taking risks. We can be quick to say things such as "Be careful", "Don't climb too high", "Stop running…rolling…jumping…hopping…you may hurt yourself". It is very natural to want to protect our children, and sometimes without even realising it, we’re doing things for our children rather than teaching them. As a result, kids are becoming too cautious and anxious. If we prevent our children, our students, from taking risks, we actually risk them never growing to be brave, capable, resilient and independent problem-solvers.
Please don't misunderstand what I am sharing here. It is so important to protect our children. They are so precious to us. What we need to do is teach the difference between danger and risk. It would be dangerous to allow our children to play completely unsupervised with knives or matches. Embracing risk would be to work with them, to show them how to safely build a campfire with matches without getting burned, or how to safely cut the vegetables in helping prepare dinner.
The Nature Playground is one initiative that PPN has embraced in providing safe opportunities for our children to take risks, to challenge themselves and to develop greater problem-solving abilities and social skills. Our Nature Play has only been open for our children for a couple of months, yet I have already witnessed some wonderful moments of success, independent thinking and growth in confidence. During the first couple of weeks, as I spent play times in the Nature Play Space capturing moments on camera, I was delighted to see one particular girl in Year 2 on the log scramble every lunch time. She saw this element as a challenge, and in the first few days, could only climb some of the sections, but informed me that she wanted to make it to the fort. Each day as I visited the Nature Play Space, I would hear her call out "Miss B…look at me!" Each day, she was slightly higher on the log scramble. After about two weeks, I was delighted to hear her call out from the fort "Look at me, Miss B, I did it…I did it!" To witness her growth in confidence, persistence and recognising her point of challenge, cemented my passion in wanting to provide this space for our children to experience moments of growth, like my little buddy in Year 2. What a wonderful space we have that can provide challenges for our students to assess and make judgements about taking risks.
Some of our families farewelled our Year 5 campers this morning, sending them away on a camp that would provide more opportunities for them to overcome challenges and take risks in a supportive environment. We look forward to hearing the many stories that will be shared of their camp experiences where we have taken learning outdoors.
There are so many benefits of taking learning outdoors. The following list collated by Nature Play SA, and many other great resources for families, can be found on their website https://natureplaysa.org.au/
Benefits of Outdoor Learning Environments:
· Authentic learning and independent thinking
· Social Skills and relationships
· Confidence
· Literacy and Numeracy development
· Physical development and well-being
· Decreased anxiety and negative behaviours
· Appreciation of the environment
· Greater risk-taking and self-assessment
Risks and challenges can be found everywhere in our everyday life and children need opportunities to develop the skills associated with managing risk and making informed judgements about risks. Roald Dahl once said, "The more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to look after themselves." I challenge you to look for opportunities that will allow your children to take risks in a safe environment, to encourage them to be brave and resilient in the world around them.
As for that flying fox contraption… I was never victorious in creating a successful flying fox where I could fly from the privet tree to the swing set. However, my curiosity, resilience, wonder, creativity, inventiveness and resourcefulness grew in the process of trying. What a great life lesson to embrace.
Blessings,
Tamara Bernoth