This year in the wellbeing space, our school continues to focus on:

Building teacher capability to activate student voice and agency within the classroom
Reducing the % of students with 20+ days absence from 39% in 2019 to 25% in 2024.
Embedding a whole-school approach to the development of the social and emotional wellbeing of students
Developing and implementing strategies that involve parents and carers as partners in their child’s learning

We warmly welcome Anna Nunan back to our school.

Anna has commenced with us again as our ETRS Occupational Therapist one day a week. Anna has worked with us before and we are delighted to have her back as part of the Wellbeing team.

What does an Occupational Therapist do?

Occupational Therapy promotes normal development and stimulates learning in children with specific learning difficulties, physical disabilities, delayed development or those recovering from illness or injury. Working with children, their families and teachers, occupational therapists aim to improve the child’s quality of life by helping them to participate in play, preschool, school and home activities. An occupational therapist may work with children in any of the following areas:

Prerequisite activities – the child’s physical abilities, such as motor control, hand-to-eye coordination, body awareness and sensation
Functional skills – the child’s day-to-day living skills, such as eating, writing, going to the toilet, interacting with other children and playground skills
The environment – such as classroom furniture, classroom and schoolyard access, and equipment for woodwork, art and physical education

If your child is identified as needing some extra support, your child's classroom teacher will contact you and discuss the reasons for the referral. If this is supported, a referral form will be sent home for completion before the service can begin. Please note that priority will be given to those students at ETRS that do not have access to support services outside of school.

We'd also like to welcome Rebecca Neville who will be working with the Wellbeing Team for the next 14 weeks as part of her placement. We are very privileged to have Rebecca as part of our team. Be sure to introduce yourself to her if you see her out in the yard or in the office. Rebecca will be supporting our SEL groups this term.

Unfortunately at this time, we are unable to secure a school based Speech Therapist. When we are in a position to appoint one, you'll be the first to know.

Social Emotion Learning (SEL) Groups

The wellbeing team along with the support of our wonderful ES staff have started Highway Heroes teaching the skills of Grit and Determination, Emotional Regulation, Connecting for Friendships, Strategies for Managing Me, Sticking Up for Me and Getting things Done. These groups are targeted Tier 2 intervention groups and not all students will be involved

Playgroup Update

Playgroup continues to be a highlight of our fortnight with many families continuing to attend. As the weather warms, we will be planning a few more outdoor activities. The children attending are from 3 months to 5 years. We are inclusive of all children and their families. Our next playgroup session will be next Wednesday the 16th of August from 9:00am until 10:30am and every fortnight after that until the September holidays. Be sure to come along and please spread the word.

Please fill out our survey

Our school is beginning to plan for 2024 and we'd like to hear from you. We continue to have a great response rate to our parenting seminars that are regularly offered to our families through Anglicare and other community groups. We hope to organise an Echuca Cluster parenting seminar with some keynote speakers next year and we want to know what you would like to know more about. Click on the link below and this will take you to a one questioned survey. We appreciate your feedback.

Last week we only had 2 responses to the survey and we were hoping to get at least 20 to provide us with some useful data to make informed decisions about the needs of our parent community. It will take just 30 secs!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfjtx6dwdNdTJTqsZ3ivt_JBtTfmPJJkCHJJLRd_RvPrQhToQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.

ETRS Wellbeing Team

Anglicare Early Help Services at ETRS

Anglicare Parenting Programs

Bernie and Frankie

Our Wellbeing Dogs

Expectations

When you see Frankie or Bernie, keep these three things in mind: