There has been an abundance to celebrate at Year 10 in the past fortnight. We have had many students participate in extracurricular sport and achieve some fantastic results! Students in the netball, soccer and AFL all competed and represented the College extremely well and experienced great success while doing so. Congratulations to all Year 10 students who have been involved!

As part of ongoing social-emotional development within this year level, last week, they were introduced to the thinking process of executive functioning; what it is and how we can start to develop it more. The context for this is to begin preparing them for their VCE/VCE-VM journeys which will begin in Term 4!

Executive Functioning

What are Executive Functions?

Executive functions are a collection of top-down mental processes that allow you to control your attention, thoughts and actions. They help you do things like handle stress, get organised, confront challenges and solve problems. These include:

• Impulse inhibition
• Working memory
• Mental flexibility

Some people have good executive function, while others have low executive functioning. Executive function is not something you are born with. It develops over time. While there may be a genetic component to executive function, there is much evidence to suggest that it can be deliberately developed and used effectively. It appears that targeted development of executive functions produces greatest benefits for those people with the greatest deficits (that is, the lower your executive function, the more benefit you get from trying to develop it).

The things that have been proven to be helpful, if approached the right way over an extended period of time, are:

• exercise, especially aerobic exercise that involves complex motor skills and mindfulness
• games and play, particularly play that encourages mental manipulation or perspective shifting
• self-management strategies, such as organisers, reminders and rules.

What Changes will you Notice if you Practise These Things?

You would expect to see improvements over time in mood, focus, engagement, achievement and dealing with relationships. At school, students might be less overwhelmed by complex tasks and see their grades improve.

Here are some links that explains this clearly and provide some great advice on how to develop each of the three functions.

Jessica Baddeley
Level Leader: Year 10