WELLBEING
The Student Wellbeing Team
Now that we are halfway through Term 1, the Collingwood College Student Wellbeing Team would like to remind everyone that Collingwood College views student health, sense of belonging, and wellbeing as integral to their learning and future success. As such, we have an experienced, multidisciplinary Student Wellbeing Team to support the school’s community. Students in the secondary school can approach members of the wellbeing team at Recess or Lunch if they would like a time for a chat.
If you have any questions, please speak to your child’s Classroom Teacher or Year Level Coordinator, who can assist by helping you make a referral to the wellbeing team. You can also contact Josh Whelan (Student Wellbeing Coordinator) at the school on 9417 6681.
- Josh Whelan (Student Wellbeing Coordinator)
- Linh Tran (Social Worker)
- Kathryn Feil (School Counsellor)
- Michele Waters (Mental Health Practitioner)
- Hussein Ibrahim (Cultural Liaison Officer)
- Hassen Mohamed-Saeed (Cultural Liaison Officer)
- Badria Mustafa (Cultural Liaison Officer)
Mindfulness Exercise (Grounding)
Stress and anxiety are often big obstacles for our kids in managing everyday life (including school). Teaching your children useful stress management strategies is important to ensure that they are able to enjoy school as much as possible. This grounding technique is designed to ease your child’s state of mind at the start of the day, so that they can get through stressful or anxiety provoking moments. Our aim with this is to use the five senses to focus on the here and now, and move on from anxious thoughts that might be getting in the way. It’s helpful to join in with your children, when guiding them through this exercise.
5: Ask your child to name five things they can see. This might be objects in the room, trees outside the window, or family photos in the background.
4: Ask your child to name four things they can feel. This might be the ground beneath their feet, the chair they are sitting on, or even the clothes they are wearing
3. Ask your child to name three things they can hear. Focus on external noises. This might be the humming of a heater, cars outside, or even a clock ticking in the background.
2. Ask your child to name two things they can smell. This might be a little more difficult, but don’t give up. Get them to focus on small things, like the smell of food cooking in the background or the smell of grass in spring.
1. Ask your child to name one thing they can taste. It doesn’t have to be food, it could be the toothpaste you used in the morning, or the cereal you had for breakfast.
Ask your child to take a deep breath and finish the exercise
External Wellbeing Supports
Kidshelpline – 1800 55 1800
A free telephone counselling service for young people aged between 5 and 25 years.
Lifeline – 13 11 14
Free, 24/7 crisis support service that anyone can access.
Headspace Collingwood – 9417 3279
Free mental health support service for young people aged 12-25. They also offer a GP service as well as a range of youth focused programs and activities. They are open Monday to Friday 10am – 6pm.
Smiling Mind - smilingmind.com.au/smiling-mind-app
Smiling Mind is a free mindfulness app that has been developed by educations and psychologists.
This app comes highly recommended by the wellbeing team! Use this for at least 10 minutes a day for the best results.
Ask Izzy - Links to Support Services
Ask Izzy is a website that provides families, students and teachers links to support services that offer assistance in a wide range of things such as housing, food, health, money, counselling, etc.
Your GP
Your family GP will be able to support you on accessing the support you need.