Last night we continued with Pillar 3 of our Wellbeing program, Building positive friendship. 

We watched a very inspirational video from a Harvard University researcher, about the longest study on human happiness. For over 75 years, they did interviews, medical tests, and checked up on people to see how they were doing. And what they found about happiness surprised them.

The fourth director of the study, in his TED talk video, “What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness” says that while many young people tend to think that fame, fortune, and hard work will bring them happiness, it’s actually our social connections that are most important for our well being.

Waldinger explains the three lessons the researchers learned. First, having social connections is better for our health and well being—and conversely, loneliness kills. Second, having higher-quality close connections is more important for our well-being than the number of connections. Third, having good relationships is not only good for our bodies but also for our brains.

The girls were really interested in knowing about this study and all together discussed what implies a good friendship.

Thank you, girls, for your thoughtful words.

We wish you a super great day Ana Sofia!

Teenagers learn when adults act as good role models. But when it comes to developing great communication and social skills, practise with other kids can be invaluable. Building strong social skills can help teens make friends and feel better equipped to deal with stress and other issues as they develop and grow knowing there is support from the people around them.
One of the best ways for kids to learn to communicate well is to have them interact in a group and use the teachable moments which are created. Board games are fun and one of the easiest ways for kids to engage with one another. Playing a game requires patience, being able to take turns, agreeing to and sticking to the rules, and being a good friend – whether you win or lose.

Tonight to introduce Pillar 3 of our wellbeing program: Building positive friendship we have played Jenga,  a game of coordination where players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of blocks. Each block removed is then placed on top of the tower, creating an increasingly taller and more unstable structure. May not be ground-breaking or new, but, with a few simple tweaks, it can be used to teach valuable communication skill.

Jenga is a great game for building decision-making skills and improving hand-to-eye coordination.  But, most importantly, the aim of this game is to teach kids the importance of being patient, how to be a good friend under pressure, and how to contain their excitement when a friend knocks the tower over!

It was a great start for a great topic! 🙂

Tonight’s assembly started with a brilliant interpretation of   ‘O sole mio from our Boarding trio the Three Tenors!… followed by the many upcoming events for this new year :

• CDL TALKS, inspiring new leaders-  with Ismael Fernandez the 28th of January
• Mountain weekend + Winter camps
• Wellbeing – pillar 3:  ” Building positive friendship”

We also had Sofia, Miss Cristina, Mr Usher and Mr Salva talking about important matters as Healthy habits, Environment or friendship.

Thanks everybody for a great assembly 🙂

Thank you Natalina for this wonderful speech!! <3