Wellbeing Officer

From the Student Wellbeing Officer

Welcome to Term 3! We’re halfway through the year now, and this term is shaping up to be a busy and exciting one!

Last term I ran a couple of programs with students in Years 2 to 6. The Years 2 & 3 students in Mrs Aarti Arya’s class did a four-week program exploring the following values:

Friendship – Treating others the way you want to be treated
Kindness – In a world where you can be anything, be kind
Respect – Showing others they are important by what you say and do
Gratitude – Letting others know you see how they’ve helped you and being grateful for what you have

Each week consisted of activities relevant to the value covered that week and at the start of each session I reviewed with the students the value explored the previous week, as well as providing them with opportunities to put into practice during the week what they have learnt in each session. It is encouraging to see the number of students who took up the challenge and reported back with what they had done.

The Year 5/6 girls participated in a program called “THE REAL ME!” This program encourages students to find out who they are when the world is telling them who they should be. Through the program we explored the following areas:

Session One - What makes us unique as individuals – our relationships, our differences, our likes, our dislikes and our dreams.
Session Two - Our names – our birth names and what those individual names mean. In this session we looked at some of the “labels” or names we tend to pick up throughout our life and how those labels or names affect us, especially the negative ones. We subconsciously begin to live as though these labels are true. The students were encouraged to write down on a piece of paper all the names that have been said to them which have hurt them, wrap the paper around a rock, and put the rock in a bag. The students then took turns to feel how heavy the bag was and imagine carrying it around all day every day and never putting it down, which is what carrying those names and labels around all the time is like.
Session Three - People are often more than they appear and often people judge each other without knowing the real person, and how this can cause us to develop layers which we hide behind, and we end up living someone else’s idea for our life. While it is important to receive the opinions and insight of other people to help us grow and find our way, sometimes these opinions aren’t always helpful and could do a lot of damage to our confidence, our dreams, our sense of who we are and what we want to do and be. And if we start to believe the labels and opinions others put on us, we can start putting on these layers and we’ll keep them on because they will make us feel safe, but we won’t be truly ourselves. In this session I used the example of Shrek, whose outside appearance and general reputation make everyone scream in terror and disgust and run away, and who felt judged by everyone except Donkey, who persevered and took the time to break through Shrek’s layers.
Session Four - We looked at the story of “The Lion King” where Simba’s father, Mufasa, died and his evil uncle, Scar, convinced Simba that it was his fault. Instead of Simba embracing his destiny as the King, he ran away and adopted other names like “Murderer” and “Failure” and continued to hide until he was reminded that he was more than he had become, and to remember who he is. Simba took back his identity, found the courage to confront Scar, reclaim his destiny and become the rightful heir and the lion king. The students were encouraged to complete a checklist of statements to determine how they are doing in terms of their identity, and to choose one or two statements which they felt they needed to work on.

The Year 5/6 boys have started “THE REAL ME!” program this term.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage parents to continue the conversation with your child about what they have been learning in the Wellbeing programs I run and continue to reinforce these values at home. If you would like further activities to do at home and/or further information regarding the programs I run, please do not hesitate to contact me at traceym@suvic.org.au or at the school on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Tracey McGlashan

Student Wellbeing Officer