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What Can I Do?

Self-regulation is the ability to control and manage feelings and emotions . What does this mean for a young man in Year 7? According to the Year 7 Student Representative Council members it means having control of your feelings, being responsible, keeping calm and being able to know your true self. It sounds fairly simple but at this crucial stage of a boy’s life, knowing your self is quite a challenge.

In the year 7 Formation lessons, we are working with boys to help them understand their brain and how stress impacts on their daily life as well as giving them some strategies to stay calm and to better understand themselves.

We are constantly encouraging the young men of Year 7 to ask for help when they need it and to seek positive outcomes when faced with challenges. Self-regulation is a skill that can be learnt and will contribute to their growing independence. We are focusing on learning to grow this ability to control feelings and behaviours. This transition doesn’t happen overnight but we are H.O.P.E filled in watching them evolve and become more skilled at self -regulation.

The YouTube clip below is one that we showed to Year 7 boys about stress and our brains. This may be a good resource to kickstart conversations with your son as he moves along on his teenage years journey.

Matthew Ribeiro
Assistant Head of Year 7
ribeirom@atc.qld.edu.au

Self-regulated learning is a set of proactive processes that students use to acquire academic skills, such as setting goals, selecting and deploying strategies, and self-monitoring one’s own effectiveness.