Introduction

Hi, my name is Jo McEachern and I have taken on the role of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Co-ordinator at Orchard Park this year. This includes continuing to promote our whole school approach to wellbeing, strengthening our links between our school and other support services and working together with staff to identify and support students. I will also be working closely with our school chaplain to support students in their wellbeing and social skills development.

I look forward to supporting our school community within this role and continuing to work with our students at Orchard Park Primary School.

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships

Orchard Park Primary School is a proud Respectful Relationships school.

Respectful relationships education is part of the Victorian Curriculum and delivered by all Victorian government schools. It supports students to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills needed for respectful relationships, and helps to build respect and equality across the entire school community.

Research tells us that providing respectful relationships education at school can lead to positive impacts on students’ academic outcomes, their mental health, classroom behaviour and relationships.

Our school uses the Department of Education’s evidence-based teaching and learning resources to teach our students about Respectful Relationships from Prep to Grade 6.

The Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships resources have 8 topics that teach students about emotional literacy, personal and cultural strengths, resilience, problem-solving, stress-management, help-seeking, gender norms and stereotypes and positive gender relations.

Topic summaries F-6

Topic 1: Emotional Literacy helps students to learn how to be aware of, understand and use information about their own emotions and the emotions of others.

Topic 2: Personal and Cultural Strengths helps students to learn how to recognise and understand their own and others’ strengths and positive qualities, and how to identify how the values and strengths they learn from their family and culture help them to treat others with respect.

Topic 3: Positive Coping supports students to develop language around coping, reflect on their coping strategies and build a range of positive coping strategies.

Topic 4: Problem-solving helps students to learn a range of problem-solving techniques to manage personal, social and ethical dilemmas.

Topic 5: Stress Management supports students to consider the causes of stress and develop a range of self-regulation and coping strategies they can draw on to manage stressful situations.

Topic 6: Help-seeking helps students to develop skills and knowledge for peer support, peer referral and help-seeking.

Topic 7: Gender norms and stereotypes helps students consider the influence of gender norms on attitudes, opportunities and behaviour, and to learn about gender equality, inclusion, human rights and the importance of relationships that respect people of all genders.

Topic 8: Positive gender relationships helps students develop an age-appropriate understanding of gender-based violence, safe and unsafe behaviours and consent. Students also develop self-care, peer support and help-seeking skills they can use in response to situations involving gender-based violence.

The topics are spaced out over the year. During Term 1, all year levels will be focusing on Topics 1 and 2.

In the newsletter, there will be a spotlight on what each year level will be learning in the upcoming fortnight. This is to support our families in having productive conversations with their child about these topics which will be taught in the classroom.

In the upcoming fortnight:

Year level	Lesson focus
Prep	Activities within this topic area will assist students to: • learn simple rules and agreements they need to support a safe and friendly learning environment in their class	Activities within this topic area will assist students to: • recognise and identify their own emotions • describe situations that may evoke these emotions
Year 1/2	Activities within this topic area will assist students to: • recognise and identify their own emotions • describe situations that may evoke these emotions • compare their emotional responses with those of their peers
Year 3/4	Activities within this topic area will assist students to: • describe the influence that people, situations and events can have on their emotions • investigate how emotional responses may vary in intensity • understand how to interact positively with others in different situations
Year 5/6	Activities within this topic area will assist students to: • explain the influence of emotions on behaviour, learning and relationships • analyse factors that influence their ability to regulate emotions

If you have any questions about Respectful Relationships education, you can contact Jo McEachern and visit the Victorian Government’s Respectful Relationships page: https://www.vic.gov.au/respectful-relationships

To view the content that will be taught in detail, visit: https://arc.educationapps.vic.gov.au/learning/sites/respectful-relationships/1785/Respectful-Relationships-resources

Orchard Park News

Going Further Together

Issue 2 · 21 Feb 2025

In this issue