Thank you to all of the students who have sent in items for our Wellbeing Wall, the above picture was drawn by Alanna P 1B. Well done Alanna, this is lovely!
The Be You Team - Wellbeing Update
The Be You Team is the new title is our BNPS Wellbeing Team (formerly the KidsMatter Team).
The Be You Team:
Dr Carolann Clifford and Jessica Patane (Year 2 teacher) lead the Be You Team. Our Be You Team contains a representative from each year level in the school, including our specialist program and our education support staff. We also have a Parent Representative, Tully Reynolds. On our return to school, we will be connecting with the Wellbeing Captains to ensure there is a student voice aspect of our team. We have had three Be You meetings this year.
Team members:
Leaders: Carol ann Clifford and Jessica Patane
Prep: Sue Evins
Year 1: Jessi Maddison
Year 2: Doug Bray
Year 3: Melissa Ball
Year 4: Nicole Grant
Year 5: Angus Ross
Year 6: Claire Badley
Specialist: Audrey Fine
Education Support Staff: Annie Staley
Parent Representative: Tully Reynolds
The role of the Be You Team:
Working closely with our Leadership Team on Child Safety policies, reviews and implementation
Encouraging and promoting the delivery of the whole school wellbeing program – The Resilience Project
Attending Professional Development provided by a range of external agencies e.g. Be You Initiative, Resilience Project, Department of Education
Promote and provide Lunch Time Clubs (previously this has included Mandala, drawing, building and library sessions)
Liaising with the Wellbeing Captains to gain Student Voice about ideas and initiative which will promote Student Engagement and Wellbeing
Discussing the best way to communicate wellbeing concerns between classroom teachers and relevant staff to ensure various supports are in place across all areas of the school for specific children
Monitoring and reporting to Dr Clifford any wellbeing concerns within Year Levels that require support.
Providing special event days which promote positivity, engagement and connection (e.g. ‘Be You’ Day, The National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence)
Providing information evenings on a variety of mental health, wellbeing and safety topics for parents
Using the School Newsletter and Compass to provide relevant articles and tip sheets to support parents with the wellbeing of their child
Liaising with a Parent Representative who will enable the team to promote greater communication between the needs of parents within our community
How we are promoting wellbeing during remote learning:
Incorporating wellbeing and mindfulness activities, particularly through our school’s commitment to the Resilience Project, has always been a priority at BNPS.
This is continuing to be a priority during this remote learning period:
Wellbeing and mindful activities
Prep
Regular yoga / meditation lessons using Cosmic Yoga added to the planner.
Mindfulness activities are incorporated into the planner eg. going for a nature walk, drawing or painting a picture.
Writing may have a 'gratitude focus' e.g. write a lesson to a family member or friend you are missing telling them what you have been up to.
Promoting student connection by asking students to draw/paint a picture or write out your favourite recipe - drop it into a neighbour or friends letterbox for a surprise!
Resilience Project activities are regularly added to the weekly planner (these are not optional activities)
Each day there is two x small group lessons. We often begin with a quick catch up chat and connection time by sharing items or news. We start our meetings 5 -10 minutes early and allow the students to chat and show each other toys etc. prior to roll call.
Fun Friday dress up day.
Year 1
The Resilience Project @ Home lesson (1 x weekly)
The Resilience Project Student Manual (1x weekly)
Sharing GEM TV episodes
Year 1 assembly with sharing time, celebrating success in Mathletics, funny hat/dress up and whole group dance.
Small groups to promote student connectedness and a chance for students to share learning
Week 8 will include a “Fun Friday Dress Up Day”.
Year 2
Two Resilience Project lessons per week - one from their workbooks and one teacher directed task (compulsory)
Small group focus activities relating to The Resilience Project. Small group discussions e.g. What do you want to be when you grow up? What is something you are worried about? What is something you are grateful for?
Small groups to promote student connectedness and a chance for students to share learning
Mindfulness activities included in the planner e.g. mindfulness walk, watch and draw the clouds
Mindfulness colouring
Practicing gratitude e.g. writing letters to grocery, delivery and healthcare workers.
GEM TV link included in planner and regular attendance from Year 2 students
Allowing for students to chat and interact by starting live connections 5-10mins early
Incorporating student share time and celebrating student achievement in live connections and in the newsletter
Celebrating student achievement with PYP Learner Profile certificates at Year 2 assembly
Including fun dress up themes for Year 2 Assembly (e.g. bring your dog, funny hat, dress like a rock star) and a special surprise guest
Thrilling Thursday - opportunities to socialise in double classrooms for 2C/2D and 2A/2B for games and own choice rubric activities
Year 3
Including GEM TV into our daily plan (Season 1)
Listening to and including the ‘Grow your mind’ Podcast into the daily plan.
Weekly Resilience Project lessons (not optional, discussed as a class and then discussed again the next day)
Including a short 15 minute writing activity each day that is often wellbeing focussed about gratitude, family etc.
Offering a “Share your talent” segment each day where students can share any number of things from a magic trick, a dance, song, something they’ve made, a Lego project etc.
Opening up social chat rooms for half of recess where the kids can go in and just chat to their friends to ensure they stay connected.
Opening up learning channels where students can work together – one for Maths and one for Literacy.
Starting our morning meetings 5 -10 minutes early and allow the students to chat and tell jokes and riddles prior to roll call.
Year 4
Daily wellbeing tasks included in planner which include:
GEM TV
Weekly Resilience Project lesson during Live Connection on Thursdays
Students directed to access Kids activities on the The Resilience Project TRP@home page
Year 5
Every daily learning plan includes recommended Mindfulness activities (Smiling Minds, mindful drawing).
GEM TV was included in daily lesson plans. Given time / connection restrictions generally the GEM sessions were shared within the class environment 2 times per week.
Weekly Resilience Project lessons. At times these are explicitly taught.
Initial ice breakers at the beginning of a morning (rebus puzzles, would you rather, what am I, where am I?) prior to roll.
Providing opportunities for students to share work with their peers.
Commenced channels this week with the focus of group activities within friendship circles.
Use of Flipgrip - to connect kids more with fun topics.
Communication during weekly team planning to raise individual wellbeing of students which were documented in minutes using the school traffic light system.
Friday – Encourage students to work on a ‘Passion Project’ where they can investigate, create and present an area of interest. This is then shared with either the teacher / class as requested.
Group / individual teacher conferences during the week to connect with the students.
Phone calls weekly based on teacher discretion.
Year 6
Each day’s timetable includes a compulsory wellbeing task.
Resilience Project lessons are a compulsory part of the day (at least on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday).
Friday focus on mindful drawing / reading.
Each day when GEM TV was live, it would be streamed for the kids (when our internet allowed).
Encouraging the kids to watch GEM TV themselves and fill in ‘What Martin’s message today is’ section in their notebooks. We use ‘circle time’ for sharing and to go over the wellbeing activity from the day before.
Our motto is ‘Your Wellbeing is Number 1’. Students have the opportunity daily to work in groups on literacy, numeracy and daily wellbeing tasks in break out rooms and have the opportunity for respectful connections during recess in these rooms.
We play word / scavenger hunt / trivia games each week.
Playing music (student selected as part of a previous wellbeing activity) as students enter the Live Connection (Fridays).
Literacy activities have included students writing something positive about the next person on the roll and providing positive feedback on shared work pages.
Every day students are required to fill in the ‘what went well for me section’ in their notebooks. This section has 2 parts – ‘what went well for me today at school’ and ‘what went well for me today non-school related’.
Planning a special event day (e.g. pyjama day where we watch a movie (inquiry related) and some other fancy dress / crazy hat mornings).
Specialists
Providing specialist classes for students to engage as Year Levels and connect with their teachers
Providing opportunities for students to share experiences, work and knowledge during connections
Promoting a variety of experiences to students so that they can build on their interests
Specialists provide mental, physical and emotional outlets for students that are in a different form than classroom work allows for
Students who have specific interest areas continue to have their needs met through contact with Specialist teachers
Dealing with homeschooling
8 September 2020 - Dealing with homeschooling under lockdown – Michael Grose
The parenting workshop was held remotely last Tuesday night at 7pm. It was fabulous and full of really useful practical strategies that would benefit parents at this difficult time of remote learning. It was attended by 71 parents and some of those parents were both mum and dad so I would estimate our number of parents attending was close to 100 so we did have a very good turnout. Lael Stone was the presenter and the main theme was ‘the focus at this time should be on mental health and connection’ and she addressed three very important questions:
How can I teach and be a parent
How do I navigate conflict at home
How do I balance the technology needs at home
Our parents were also able to send her questions and she answered these too.
Here is the link to the talk, which is available to view online at anytime for the next two weeks. I would strongly recommend you mention it to parents as Lael did discuss how to try to engage those who are finding home learning a bit tricky. I am going to send out a Compass post to parents too to ensure they have access to the link but if you could remind parents to watch (particularly if you know they are needing a little support at the moment) that would be great.
This is the recording link that will expire at midnight on Thursday 24 September.
Topic: Beaumaris North PS presents, Parenting Workshop with Lael Stone
