Religion & Wellbeing News 

Dear Families,

Please  put in your calendar a reminder about our parent information evening in a few weeks time. If there are any areas you would like addressed please let me know.

Wellbeing and Social Skills

In our wellbeing lessons this week furthering our social thinking, we have been discussing hidden rules, expected behaviours and connected listening in Grades 1-4. 

We also spent some time reflecting on the National Day of Action campaign which is an Australia wide initiative to prevent bullying and violence in schools, which is recognised on Friday 18th of August. The NDA promotes the importance of school, family and community connections to build safe and supportive learning environments where all students can belong, feel accepted and respected. 

The children in Foundation and Grade 5/6 will undertake some great learning based on this theme during their wellbeing classes. Today the Grade 1-4's reflected on this during our Wellbeing session and completed some activities based upon the theme; Growing Connections.  

We discussed all the connections we have with our family, at school, in our churches and in the community.  The Grade 1/2 and 2/3's listed all the different connections they had on a strip of paper and we created a paper chain - a symbol of connection and linking each other together at Sacred Heart.

The advice from the NDA is to avoid using terminology such as 'bully' or a 'victim'. Although these words are often used in the media, they are not very helpful in describing  behaviour  or in finding evidence-informed solutions. 

When schools and families refer to bullying, the focus needs to be on more appropriate ways to act with others and positive ways to get on with other people.

Talking about this is understanding that children and young people are growing and still learning how to be effective members of the community.

Take Care, 

Kate Harris

Wellbeing & RE Leader

kharris@shpreston.catholic.edu.au