Wellbeing News
Hello Pakenham Hills Community!
We are looking forward to supporting our school community this year.
Introducing our Wellbeing Team:
Courtney O'Brien Assistant Principal - Wellbeing
Kate Joyner Psychologist
Georgia Winwood Social Worker
Kerry Bugg E.S Team Leader
Penny Eager Disability Inclusion
School Counselling Opportunities
We also have the wonderful Richard Dalziel, our Mental Health Practitioner who is here on Mondays and Tuesdays for counselling.
(Richard is our only source of therapeutic support. Kate and Georgia do not provide counselling or therapy.)
- This is a free service covered through Medicare and we will cover the gap payment, so you will not be out of pocket at all.
- All you will need is: Mental Health Care Plan from a GP and signed consent form
- Students are typically scheduled every three weeks.
- There are limited spots, so please email me at georgia.winwood@education.vic.gov.au to confirm a spot prior to obtaining a Mental Health Care Plan.
Easing into adolescence
The Department of Education has launched an Easing into adolescence webpage for families of students aged 10 to 14 (Grade 5 to Year 8). The webpage has information and strategies you can use to help ease your child into adolescence and secondary school. These include:
- a guide to emotion coaching: staff from The University of Melbourne’s Tuning in to Teens Kids program developed the guidance.
- how to support your adolescent with their studies and more generally. Parenting expert and clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller helped develop this resource.
Subtitles for videos by The University of Melbourne on the webpage are available in 10 languages. You can select your preferred language on the translations page. For questions about these resources, contact the Strategic Partnerships, Transitions and Student Voice team. You can email them at Secondary.School.Transition@education.vic.gov.au.