Invicta Vlogs
Last week, we were delighted to host Jackie Cox, who did a wonderful presentation to parents to help us understand the ‘teenage mind’.
Last week, we were delighted to host Jackie Cox, who did a wonderful presentation to parents to help us understand the ‘teenage mind’. Not only was the evening entertaining, it was extremely interesting and certainly challenged us to think about how we relate to teenagers very differently.
Recently, the OECD released its first-ever global assessment of student well-being. In the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) survey, conducted in 2015, alongside triennial assessments of science and mathematics, students were asked to rate their overall life satisfaction. The UK came out at 38th in the league table for ‘life satisfaction’ and the British press reacted with the following comments:
Guardian: ‘British teenagers most stressed – and girls are hit hardest.’
Economist: ‘Competitiveness at school may not yield the best exam results.’
We are constantly told that British teenagers are among the world’s most unhappy; media offer us a plethora of people to blame for this - ranging from the education system to parents; from teachers to technology. In every case, the results of these ‘life satisfaction’ surveys jar with many head teachers’ experiences of young people in school. We do not see swathes of miserable, stressed students. Of course, everyone gets down from time to time and it is perfectly natural to be upset about events that happen in life. We all have periods of sadness or anxiety in the same way that we have periods of joy and contentment and my experience at Invicta tells me that the vast majority of young people experience these emotions in a balanced way. It is our job to ensure that this is the case. I think this is what makes Invicta’s pastoral system so strong.
Jackie Cox also provided so much ‘wisdom’ on Wednesday evening. Her words resonated with all of us. Essentially, our need to understand the ‘teenage brain and how it develops’ in order to appreciate how our girls think and react to situations. I have no doubt that the parents that attended will be thinking differently about certain aspects of their parenting. It was wonderful to see so many parents attend. Between us, we will continue to disprove the media in the knowledge that our girls buck the national trend. You only have to look at our gallery on the website to see this!
