Marian College Newsletter - English

Student Wellbeing

As we are a week away from the winter period of the year, with the coldness, rain and less sunlight hours, we need to remind each other of the strategies that help and enhance our own wellbeing and that of our students.

In the last edition of the Marian News, we visited the High Impact Strategies that contribute to Wellbeing. Just a reminder of the information included in the last edition.

 

High Impact Wellbeing Strategies

We would like to give you an insight into the Wellbeing work going on in this space to enhance the wellbeing of our young people and community.

From the recent research carried out by Monash University and Victorian government Wellbeing is defined as:

The capabilities necessary to thrive, contribute and respond positively to the challenges and opportunities of life. It describes a person’s optimal experiences, physical health and psychological functioning, and involves factors like positive emotions, life satisfaction and mental flexibility. (FISO 2.0 – 2022)

 

The Seven Key elements of building wellbeing are identified in this paper as:

  • Building Positive relationships with students
  • Facilitating Peer Relationships
  • Establishing and maintaining clear classroom expectations
  • Supporting inclusion and belonging
  • Foster student self-efficacy
  • Engage students
  • Promote coping strategies and facilitate referrals.

For this month, I would like to focus on two of these key elements:

 

Establishing and maintaining clear classroom expectations

This process and set of expectations are based on Respectful Relationships for all members of our community.

This involves each classroom and classroom teacher having very clear expectations in relation to the behaviours that enhance the learning of all members of the class and consequences for those students who are unable to meet these expectations.

We use a 3R – system – Remind, Redirect/Refocus or Removal and if a student is removed then they cannot return to that class until a restorative conversation takes place between the student and the classroom teacher usually facilitated by the Community Leader.

Families are contacted when the behaviour of the student is not acceptable.

 

Supporting Inclusion and Belonging

This aspect of the strategies is reflective of who we are as a community and the core values that support our work each day. Remembering that one of our core values is ‘Welcoming All’ especially the most vulnerable and we are a community is that very multi-faith and multi-cultural. We have over 50 different nationalities and we would describe ourselves as the United Nations.

We often find ways to celebrate who we are – such as Cultural Diversity Week and recently LOTE week that reflect that while different in so many ways we are similar.

 

In the next edition of the Marian, we will focus on the last three of the strategies to complete our insight into these strategies.

 

Use of Technology and Resources to support all families

We know that our students all are exposed and live in a technological world. At school, we have our Digital Citizenship Policy and Mobile Phone Policy to support our work during school hours.

In this edition of the Marian News, we would like to include some resources to assist our families. This includes a handout in relation to all of the Parent Seminars that the safety Commissioner offers over the course of this year.

This month the focus is in the areas of – eSafety 101 for all parents and Wellbeing and Digital Technologies – these seminars are often short informative and insightful programs for all families. Some of the webinars while they identify as primary still have very useful information for families.

The dates for the seminars – in the early part of June, can be found on the eSafety Commissioners website.

We have also attached a flyer for the 7 Key tips for Screen time for your child.

These tips are also relevant for us as adults.

 

Child Protection Update

We thank those families that have responded to my request to join our Parent Child Safety Sub-Committee.  We have a group of around 9 families who have joined. Our first meeting will take place later in June and we look forward to sharing their work with you in later editions of the Marian News.

 

Now some of the key pieces of information related to our day-to-day work:

 

Attendance Reminders

Following on from our information in relation to Attendance, we have now started the process of sending letters out to our families who have more than 5 unexplained absences since the beginning of the year.

We have also started to follow up and organise Attendance Plans for those students who have significant attendance concerns this early in the year.

 We know that every day counts in terms of student learning and their ability to meet the benchmarks for them in their growth as a learner.

We thank all of those families who support this process daily by contacting us to inform us of the absence of their child.

 

Significant Concerns in relation to illness

We have noticed in the last couple of weeks as we enter the colder months an increase in the number of students arriving at school with significant symptoms of one of the many conditions in the community. These include influenza, COVID and even RSV.

We have been sending a number of students home each day who are unwell.

We encourage all families that if your child has any symptoms that you are concerned about please keep them at home until they are healthy, well and able to return to the community.

Given the significant number of students and staff onsite each day, it is so important that we remain as healthy as we can throughout the winter months.

This happens if we all stay home if we are unwell.

 

Uniform

As we enter the colder months, we often have additional clothing items that seem to become additional items of uniform.

These include:

  • Kathmandu jackets and other variations of this type of jacket, rather than our school blazer.
  • Hoodies added to their PE uniform that are not part of our uniform.

Other uniform concerns are:

  • Students not wearing their school tie – which is a compulsory item.
  • Wearing their PE tracksuit pants pretending that they are school pants.

A reminder to all families that uniform expectations can be found on the front page of the SEQTA page for parents and students.

 

An additional piece of information for our families

The Year 12 cohort received their Hoodies and they are able to wear these on Monday and Friday. If they wear them on the other days of the week, they will be confiscated and returned at the end of the week. These have been distributed to students much earlier than in previous years and the expectation is that students will then wear their full winter uniform on the other days of the week.

 

Marian Celebration Day

This day, which this year is a combination of our Reflection and Brigidine Celebration Day will be celebrated on Friday 26th July – second week of term 3, and we look forward to giving you an overview of the day in the next edition of the Marian News.

 

Wellbeing thought…

It is hard to believe that the end of this week is the month of June and as we enter the darker and colder months of the year, remember that out of this we reach spring, new life and new beginnings and the promise of more sun and warmth. In the meantime, stay warm and look after yourselves…

 

 

Kerrie Williams

Assistant to the Principal – Student Wellbeing