Teamwork is all about collaborating and co-operating with others to work towards a common goal. It may not be difficult to define, but it is one of those hard-to-measure skills regularly described as essential for an effective workplace. Many schools include teamwork as a focus for development in their students and in the workplace, employers see it as a highly desirable attribute. Most jobs in the 21^st century involve the need to be able to work effectively with others and it鈥檚 a skill that we at Carmel recognise is important to develop in our students; we provide multiple opportunities to develop teamwork skills.

In the early years, teamwork involves children starting to learn about taking turns, listening to others and sharing. Letting someone else have a turn with the toy you really want for yourself is not an easy lesson to learn, especially for children who have not had the benefit of brothers and sisters to help them practise this, but skilled teachers and plenty of willing classmates mean that this important lesson is eventually learned.

In later years, teamwork comes in various forms at school, at work, at home and during leisure activities. Children benefit so much from belonging to a team of any kind. Current restrictions on spending time in groups have meant limited opportunities for some team activities, but there are still multiple opportunities for the young people at Carmel to take part in teamwork. In most of the lessons I see, the students work with others 鈥� whether that be to discuss a concept, to plan research, collect group results or present a project idea. The skills involved include communication, achieving a shared goal, listening to others in the team and taking their ideas on board as well as having a say and sharing responsibility. These are clearly all skills that will stand the children in good stead in various contexts in later life.

I see lots of evidence of effective teamwork in adult contexts at 69色情片, too. Teachers work in departmental teams and year level teams to discuss and plan the best ways to engage students in their learning. Teams of educational assistants work to pass on information regarding students鈥� progress. And support staff work together to ensure the smooth functioning of all the administrative processes that are vital for the success of the School.

Community sporting teams have for many years provided activities, company and health benefits to their members and are a great way for our children to make new friends and develop their teamwork skills. Being a member of a sporting team provides both physical and mental health benefits, but it鈥檚 worth bearing in mind that facilitating team sports for children takes real commitment as a parent. I strongly advocate raising your children鈥檚 awareness only of sports in which you could bear to be involved. I personally ensured that for many years my own children were unaware of the existence of horse riding, for example, because I knew I wouldn鈥檛 be able to bear any involvement in a sport which had a singular lack of appeal for me.

Unfortunately, when we arrived in Australia, I had no idea what level of commitment was required by different sports, so when my small son asked to join the local cricket team, I signed him up. For the uninitiated, just so you don鈥檛 make the same mistake, cricket is a lengthy game in which children stand on a dry and dusty field for many hours in the unforgiving temperatures of summer dressed in white clothing from which it is very difficult to wash grass stains.

For several years, a significant part of my weekends involved sitting under a tree marking Year 12 Biology papers while my poor, inept son stood in 50-degree temperatures, sometimes appearing to not even make contact with the cricket ball. He loved it and has many happy memories of the experience. My memories are quite different. One traumatic weekend I ended up scoring (a task which I guarantee is far more difficult than any PhD); for very good reason, this happened only once. Things got worse when the other parents in our team realised I was a teacher (the unending marking was probably a bit of a giveaway) and sent me over to tell off the opposition parents who were aggressively confronting the children on the field. 鈥淵ou go and tell them. You鈥檙e a teacher. Use your teacher voice and they鈥檒l listen to you鈥�. I was sent over to tackle a large gentleman who was loudly urging his team to 鈥淪mash him!鈥�, as they bowled at a tiny, terrified six-year-old trying to bat whilst surrounded by a posse of kids nearly twice his size. I am happy to report that it only took a few minutes of reasoning to bring the over-enthusiastic father to his senses. He quickly realised that one needs to be careful not to take primary school cricket too seriously and I re-gained some credibility with my team after the failure-to-score-properly incident.

In all seriousness, team sports are an invaluable way for kids to make new friends and build relationships with others they might never otherwise have met. It gives them a feeling of belonging and research shows that those who play team sports also perform better in the classroom. A team sport helps build self-confidence and work with others to overcome challenges. The release of endorphins that results from exercise has been attributed to improved mood, stress reduction and relief from feelings of anxiety and depression as well as helping improve sleep. It鈥檚 enough to make you want to exercise right now (or at least to send your grumpy teenager out for a run).

I enjoyed this on the importance of teamwork and hope it provides a good read this week. It might be interesting to chat to your children during your Friday night dinner about the teams to which they belong, both at school and outside. Which team provides them with a sense of belonging? How do they contribute to their family team? Do they see themselves as a member of Team Carmel?听 How does this manifest itself? Did they enjoy the team environment on offer at this week鈥檚 Swimming Carnival?

I hope you enjoy the weekend in the company of all the teams involved in your life. Thank you for all your contributions to Team Carmel.