Curriculum and policies

Student Well Being

Last Tuesday both Melanie Borella and I attended professional development on Positive Gender Relations including gender identity, stereotyping and gender based violence that may affect school-aged students. This training run by the Department of Education (DET) is available for all schools who are part of the Respectful Relationships program. Respectful relationships is an initiative to support schools and early childhood education settings to promote and model respect and equality. It also supports educators to teach our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence. 

At SKiPPS we follow a  holistic approach to school-based, primary prevention of gender based violence when teaching Respectful Relationships which goes beyond curriculum, recognising that to drive real change, classroom learning needs to be reinforced by what is modelled within the school community. A resource kit for Victorian schools' provides schools with the strategies and tools to implement a whole-school approach to Respectful Relationships. The resources have been developed by experts from Deakin University and the University of Melbourne. These age-appropriate resources support curriculum delivery and include lesson plans and activities that help students learn and practice social skills and apply them in a positive way to learning, life and relationships.

The materials cover eight social and emotional learning topics to support the delivery of respectful relationships content through the Victorian curriculum. The resources support a whole of school approach to creating equal and respectful attitudes, behaviours, structures and practices across the school culture and ethos.​​

Classroom Teachers will undertake professional development to support student learning on this topic “Gender and Identity’ which includes learning activities that assist students to challenge stereotypes and critique t​he influence of fender norms on attitudes and behaviour. They will learn about key issues relating to human rights and gender identity, and focus on the importance of respect within relationships. The activities promote respect for diversity and difference.

This training was also discussed and supported by School Councillors at the Education Sub Committee last Wednesday.

More information can be located at https://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/Pages/respectfulrelationships.aspx

COVID 19

As we are all very aware, the news and all forms of social media are saturated with updates about  the spread of COVID 19.  If your child is asking questions about the Corona virus or seeks to understand it in a very simplified way, please click on this link for a simplified version in the form of pictorial charts.