Wellbeing & Inclusion News
School Student Broadband Initiative
Smile Squad is coming to FWPS!
Dear Footscray West PS families,
The Smile Squad team from Cohealth are coming to our school soon. Smile Squad is the Victorian Government free school dental program. This means all students can get a free dental check-up, preventive services, and treatment at school.
How to access free dental care
We need your consent before we can provide services. Consent is usually provided by a parent or guardian. Sign up to Smile Squad at: https://bit.ly/smilesquadvic OR use the below QR code:
Please complete and submit the consent form by 01/09/2023.
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Paper copies of the consent form are available. Please contact the school office if you would like to request one.
Smile Squad dental packs
All children deserve a healthy smile, and the Smile Squad free school dental program is working hard to help make sure this happens. Your child(ren) will soon receive a free dental pack to bring home. The dental pack contains a toothbrush, full sized toothpaste, and an oral health brochure. Please take the time to read the brochure. It’s full of helpful hints and tips to help your whole family eat well, drink well and clean well – for life.
Smile Squad provides standard strength fluoride toothpaste that is generally used by ages six and over, unless recommended by a dental or trained health professional.
If your child is under six, please talk to a dental or trained health professional to find out if your child might benefit from using this toothpaste. You can also choose to put the toothpaste away until they turn six or give it to someone else in your family to use.
Do I need to attend my child’s appointment?
No, you do not need to attend your child’s appointment. You can attend if you would like to, and you can take your child to the community dental clinic if you prefer.
The Cohealth Smile Squad look forward to seeing you soon.
Marrung Student Representative News
As you may have seen, some of our Marrung student representatives featured in a recent article in The Star Weekly newspaper! Marrung representatives Scout and Luca wrote about their experience being photographed for the newspaper:
Hello, I’m Luca and I’m Scout.
We are the Marrung representatives and we are here to tell you about how we helped raise awareness with Books n Boots charity. Wednesday morning we arrived at the office and met a man called John, who runs the Books n Books foundation. We then introduced ourselves to him and began to take some photos, these will soon or may even be currently on The Star Weekly webpage. Books n Boots is a charity that is dedicated to donate books and boots from schools to remote Indigenous communities. We are holding a donation focusing on boots in good condition. We accept trainers, gumboots and footy boots. Put your boots on now so we can donate to those in need! We would like to give credit to (a man we don’t know the name of) for taking amazing photos of us with the box that will hold all your donations. It was really fun getting to know John and taking photos.
Thank you for letting us help raise awareness for those who need help!
Written by Scout and Luca, on behalf of the Marrung Student Representative Team
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Cyber Safety. Your help is needed!
Please click below for the pdf with links:
Anxiety in Children
What is generalised anxiety in children?
Generalised anxiety typically starts to show when children reach school age. Younger children usually don’t have generalised anxiety.
Children with generalised anxiety might:
- worry about a lot of things – for example, health, schoolwork, school or sport performance, money, safety or world events
- feel the need to be perfect
- be scared of asking or answering questions in class
- find it hard to perform in tests
- be afraid of new or unfamiliar situations
- seek constant reassurance
- complain about feeling sick when they’re worried.
It’s easy not to notice generalised anxiety in children. Children who have it often work very hard in the classroom and other situations. It can be difficult to know they’re constantly worrying.
But they often ask a lot of questions, over and over, in new situations – for example, ‘What’s going to happen?’ or ‘What if … ?’
There are also some physical signs – daydreaming, stomach aches, headaches, tiredness and inattention. Children might also spend more than an hour getting to sleep at night, because they’re worrying about the events of the next day.
How to support children with anxiety
If your child shows signs of normal childhood anxiety, you can support them in several ways:
- Acknowledge your child’s fear or worry and let them know that most children feel anxious sometimes. You can encourage your child to be kind to themselves when they feel this way.
- Gently encourage your child to do things they’re anxious about, but don’t push them to face situations they don’t want to face.
- Wait until your child actually gets anxious before you step in to help.
- Praise your child for doing something they’re anxious about.
- Avoid criticising your child for being afraid or worried.
- Avoid labelling your child as ‘shy’ or ‘anxious’
If you are concerned about your child's anxiety, please book an appointment with your child's GP or paediatrician.
Taken from Raising Children Network
Community Collective Victoria - Psychologists and Counsellors
Community Collective Self Referral Form:
VU Psychology Clinic
