Student Services Team Updates

Visible Wellbeing Program:

At Dandenong High School, staff were involved in sessions with Professor Lea Waters to learn about the SEARCH framework that has six wellbeing pathways – Strengths; Emotional management; Attention & Awareness; Relationships, Coping, and Habits & Goals. It is a toolkit of practices that has a range of wellbeing practices and activities that can be delivered in any class and any point in time.

The Wellbeing team have been delivering part of the Visible Program in Terms 1 and 2 to the Year 7 cohort. This term we delivered the Strengths session - which we ask students to brainstorm what strengths are; we asked students to pick a strength card they see in themselves and discuss with each other about why the chose the strength and how they use their chosen strength in their everyday life; students learnt to state a strength they see in each other and to end the session we played Guess the Strength! Students loved that the session was engaging and interactive.

OPTUS PROGRAM:

We are so lucky to have Dom from Optus return back again to deliver the Optus Program – Digital Thumbprint to the Year 9s. With hackers, scammers and fake friends reaching kids via game chat and social media, there re some great defence moves that can help stop cyber criminals in their tracks.

Key learnings:

Support students to learn what personal information is, and actions to take to protect themselves from identity theft and scams.
Provides further learning on scams, the dangers of over-sharing, and what to do if their social media account or gaming account has been hacked.

Thank you, Dom, for your fabulous presentation in protecting ourselves in the digital world, and we are certain our students learned a lot!

Welcome Pinol, our Wellbeing Placement Student!

Hello everyone, my name is Pinol Fernando, and I’m a Master of Counselling student at Monash University.

I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and have a professional background in education and child development. Previously, I've worked as a maths and psychology tutor and childcare assistant. Currently, I’m working as an educator at Camp Australia, and I enjoy it very much!

I’m passionate about supporting young people’s wellbeing and want to help break down the stigma around mental health, especially in my home country of Sri Lanka.

At Dandenong High School, I'm on placement every Tuesday and Friday with the Wellbeing Team in Room A26, so feel free to drop by and say hello!

Outside of placement and University, I enjoy singing, playing soccer, basketball, and cricket, and winding down with video games! It’s great to be part of Dandenong High School.

Farewells!

Celia Mitchell – Speech Pathologist

We bid a fond farewell at the end of Term 1 to a member of the Student Support Services Team - Celia Mitchell, who has been a part of the Dandenong High School community for almost 10 years, as our resident speech pathologist and LIO Manager. Celia’s dedication in empowering countless students to achieve their goals, both academically and personally, was only rivalled by her compassion to help these students truly find their voice. We will miss her bright personality and the warmth she brought to all her interactions with staff and students alike

This term we are also saying farewell to our beloved creative genius at the Counselling Team - Vidya Yeleswarapu, who has now closher chapter here at Dandenong High School.

Vidya has been a part of the team, for the past three years and has been a steady source of support for our students - Helping them navigate both personal challenges and their academics, with her unparalleled insight and competence as a counsellor. Vidya’s quick wit, compassion and commitment to advocate for all students’ welfare, will certainly be missed by the school community.

We take this opportunity to sincerely thank them both for all they have done for our students, families and staff and wish them well in their future endeavours!

Wellbeing Team

Doctors in Secondary Schools Program

The Doctors in Secondary School (DiSS) program is an initiative of the Department of Education. The program funds doctors in selected secondary schools across the state. It provides free access to GPs in schools for a period of time each week at no cost to the students or parents.

Dandenong High School currently runs their DiSS program on each Thursday during the school terms. Our doctor is available between 9.30am and 1.30pm and any Dandenong High School student can make an appointment and see our doctor.

Appointments can be made for students by their parents or students can make their own appointments. For parents to make appointment, please contact the General Office at the school and speak with office staff. Students can also make their appointments at the General Office or through their House Leadership Team or the Wellbeing staff in A26.

Dandenong High School has made it a priority to have a doctor who has a local practice in our community, which means that students can make appointments with the same doctor at times when the they are not available at the school. These would include other days when the doctor is not at the school or during the holiday breaks when the school is closed.

Sporting Change

Have a legal issue? Our school lawyer, Ariz Ansari, and youth worker, Milly Lefau, are here to help!

Our Sporting Change program helps students learn about their legal rights through sport, while also providing access to a free and confidential school lawyer. Over the past few years, we’ve helped students with everything from getting unpaid wages back to understanding their work rights, fines, tenancy, and migration issues.

Think you might have a legal problem? Come by for a chat! Or just join us for a fun game after school and learn more about your rights along the way.

The School Lawyer program runs at room A25 every Thursday from 9am to 3:15pm. You may speak to your teacher, well-being staff or email school.lawyer@smls.com.au to make an appointment, or just walk in at Room A25 from 9am to 3:15pm.

The Sporting Change program runs after school every Thursday from 3:30pm to 5pm at Melaleuca.

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