Wellbeing News
Brooke Davis - Student Wellbeing Leader
Day for Daniel - Friday 30 October
Australia’s largest child safety education and awareness day
On Friday 30 October we took part in Australia’s largest child safety education and awareness day, Day for Daniel. On this day students learnt age appropriate content, and be taught safety strategies using the core message to Recognise, React, and Report whenever they feel unsafe in physical or online spaces.
Daniel Morcombe was a 13 year old boy, living with his parents and brothers in the town of Palmwoods on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He was last seen wearing a red t-shirt, waiting for a bus at 10 minutes past 2pm on Sunday 7 December 2003. He was
abducted and murdered; after years of searching and an incredible undercover police investigation Daniel was finally found in 2011.
Students and staff wore bright red, symbolising the legacy of Daniel Morcombe, and engaged in age-appropriate safety activities focused on the core message to Recognise, React, and Report. Through classroom discussions and lessons supported by the Day For Daniel Education Resources and RRRR Units, the students identified physical "body clues" or Early Warning Signs (EWS) when feeling unsafe and mapping out trusted adult networks. Our students learned vital, practical skills to keep themselves safe both online and in the physical world.
Our school supports this message also through our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) framework. The students reviewed the behaviour expectation, I give everyone their own personal space.
Thank you to all our families who supported the day with red outfits and gold-coin donations for the Daniel Morcombe Foundation. Together, we are helping build a safer, more empowered community for our children.
Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)
Our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) framework remains a core part of daily life at St John's. As an evidence-based, whole-school approach, PBL explicitly teaches, models, and reinforces positive expectations to maintain a safe, respectful and inclusive environment.
We believe social skills and behaviour should be taught with the same dedication as academic subjects. Rather than assuming students naturally know every expectation, we ensure these skills are explicitly taught, modelled, retaught and practiced daily.
Throughout Term 4, students will continue focusing on our St John's behaviour expectations through PBL lessons, social stories, and routines.
To encourage positive choices, classes will work together to demonstrate the expected behaviours from our matrix. As students earn acknowledgement tokens together, their class will unlock rewards chosen from our reward menu!
As partners in this teaching and learning we highly encourage families to refamiliarise themselves with the Expected Behaviour Matrix (below).
