The first of the seven key areas that make up the Citywise curriculum is Self Knowledge. During our first few sessions we reflect on who we are. We think about the different things that make up our character and that make up “me”. We explore what has influenced who we are today, and think about who we would like to be in the future.
This reflection is so important! As the children in our sessions pointed out, you need to know yourself to make better decisions. For example, if you know what you like doing and what makes you happy, that will influence the choices you make. Another reason why it is important is to know what you are good at! We all have more strengths than we think. We loved when one of the children said “I didn’t realise I had so many strengths!” At the start of the session they said that they were not very good at anything, but at the end of the session they were able to list off important character strengths, which is a huge achievement. Self Knowledge can help us to be proud of ourselves and be more confident.
“I didn’t realise I had so many strengths!”
Finally, knowing what you are good at will help you grow. When we set goals, we need to make use of our strengths because we will build on those. Reflecting on our current strengths and reflecting on who we would like to be will also reveal to us what our development areas are. These are things that we would like to work on. Self Knowledge can help us identify how we can grow. If I want to go on a journey, I need to know where I would like to go, and where I am starting from. We can build on our core strengths and use them to grow in other areas!
In our projects, we have been talking about all of these things. We explored long lists of personal, social, academic and other strengths to realise that many of them are true about us. We created drawings of ourselves and included our key traits, strengths and who we would like to be. We interviewed each other to explore questions such as what we most enjoy, what our super powers are and what we can teach others. We used Animal Strength Cards, developed by Whole Hearted School Counseling, to help children recognise their strengths, hopes and possibilities in whatever they are experiencing.
Here are some pictures from our sessions!
