JS News: 19 Oct 22

Learner Profile
IB Learner Profile

By Karen Mahar - Assistant Principal, Deputy Head of Junior School

Capturing the Learner Profile attribute ‘caring’ alongside the Character Strength of ‘kindness’.

The aim of all International Baccalaureate (IB) Programmes, including the Primary Years Programme, is to develop internationally-minded people who recognise their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, helping to create a better and more peaceful world.

The IB learner profi­le represents ten attributes valued by IB World Schools.

To be caring - we show empathy, compassion, and respect. We have a commitment to service, and we act to make a positive difference in the lives of others and in the world around us.


In addition to working to the Learner Profile, our Junior School has spent the first two weeks of Term 4 considering the character strength of kindness.

Think before you post

To be kind - simply put, is being nice to others. Being kind includes being mindful about responsibilities when sending digital messages. Free cyber safety awareness webinars for Radford parents can be found here. The Digital Citizenship Essential Agreement is a key standard for students.

Research tells us that demonstrating kindness makes us happier; is good for our heart (both emotionally and physically); slows down aging; improves relationships and has a “contagion effect”, that is, one kind deed cascades into more kind deeds and so on.

Here are some ideas and activities you might like to consider in your family to build habits of kindness:

  • Share stories of kindness, real or fiction. Spot acts of kindness and unkindness on TV programs and discuss as a family. (Reality TV shows provide a wealth of examples of both kind and very unkind behaviour).
  • Speak kindly and softly to each other and pull up unkind/rude words or tone of voice. Kindness doesn’t just come with acts or gesture it comes through how we are with each other and how we speak to each other.
  • Smile more often (this, too, is contagious).
  • Give compliments. It feels good to receive a compliment and provides important modelling for children
  • Make kindness and caring a high priority. Practice “random acts of kindness”.
  • Provide opportunities for kids to practise kindness but don’t reward every act of helpfulness/kindness. Studies have shown that rewarding children for helping behaviour results in a reduction in helping because it becomes linked to an extrinsic reward, rather than motivated by an innate sense of altruism.
  • Help them build their sense of themselves as being a kind person. Catch your child being kind and offer the feedback “you are a kind person”, rather than “that was a kind thing to do”.
  • Ask them to reflect on kindness that others have shown them what it was and how they felt. Remember kindness is contagious. Watch short film Life Vest Inside – Kindness Boomerang - “One day”
Deeds are love, not good reasons

Deeds are love, and not good reasons


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