HEAD OF DEPARTMENT - CURRICULUM - Elise Debenham
Rebecca Sparrow Visit
On Monday 1 and Wednesday 3 September, our Year 5/6 students were treated to a special visit from Australian author and speaker Rebecca Sparrow, who shared her invaluable wisdom on building and maintaining healthy friendships. Her approachable style and real-world advice made an instant impact on our students.
Rebecca guided students through two of the most common friendship questions she receives:
- How do I know if my friends really like me?
- How do I make more friends?
To explore these questions, Rebecca introduced students to Dr. Brené Brown’s “Anatomy of Trust”, using the acronym BRAVING as a foundation for understanding trust in friendships. Each letter in BRAVING represents a quality that helps build trust for good friendships:
- Boundaries
- Reliability
- Accountability
- Vault (confidentiality)
- Integrity
- Non-judgment
- Generosity
Rebecca broke down each concept in a way that was engaging and age-appropriate, helping students reflect on their own friendships and how they show up as a friend.
Key Messages from Rebecca’s Talk
- Friendships grow stronger in small moments - Rebecca compared these to bricks in a wall. Each small, kind action adds to the strength of a friendship.
- Follow up - Remember what your friends tell you and ask them about it later. This shows you have listened to their concerns or conversation, and you care.
- Be FRIENDLY with everyone - but understand that your close group of friends will be smaller and more meaningful.
- Friendships take work - like anything worth having, they require effort, empathy, and honesty.
- Don’t put all your eggs in one friendship basket - it is important to have more than one friend and avoid becoming overly reliant on one person.
- When faced with annoying behaviour from a friend, students were encouraged to consider two options: speak to the person or let it go.
Rebecca’s Top 3 Tips for Navigating Friendships
- Conflict is normal, drama is a choice.
- Boundaries are everything.
- Drama cyclones are exhausting, and gossip is a red flag.
Rebecca left our students with a final reminder that will stick with them: "Glide towards people who are your friends and swerve around others, while still being friendly."
We are incredibly grateful to Rebecca for her time, warmth, and wisdom. Her visit provided our students with practical tools and a deeper understanding of what it means to be a great friend.
A very big Thank you to Di from Moreton Bay Environmental Education Centre for providing this opportunity for our Year 5/6 students and staff.
Year 5 Street Science Incursion
