Wellbeing News

Our students have continued to demonstrate an amazing display of resilience and positivity upon their return to onsite schooling. The staff at St Martin’s have expressed how wonderful it has been to witness the excitement and joy the students have shown running through our school gates in the morning. We know that this positive mindset and resilience to cope and recover from adversity comes through a strong partnership between our families and school community.

2021 has provided students with authentic and meaningful experiences to really put into practise their learning from the Respectful Relationships Education sessions taught this year. As the students return to school, each year level has had a focus on the unit ‘Problem Solving’.  Problem solving skills are an important part of the coping repertoire and are identified by the world health organisation as a key skill for health and wellbeing. Students benefit from learning a range of problem solving techniques that can be applied when confronting personal, social and ethical dilemmas.

It can be very easy to feel that we need to solve all our students'/childrens problems for them, to help them to cope and manage life’s challenges. However, this really is a balancing act between providing support and empowering students to think critically and creatively about possible solutions to their own problems. From Prep to six, students are encouraged to learn about and begin to use the models of problem solving strategies. 

• Naming the problem (no blaming) 
• Brainstorm options (collect many ideas) 
• Appraising the positive / negative of each option 
• Evaluating the practicality of the various ideas 
• Assessing the strengths / resources for a particular choice
• Choosing the best option 
• Deciding what would need to be done, by whom, when
• Trying out the option 
• Assessing the option (did it work, if not repeat the thinking steps) 

Often the first two steps are enough to help and support students to feel better about a situation that might be a worry for them. We encourage students to talk to an adult about problems that are concerning them and even name the emotion they might be feeling because of it.  

We look forward to sharing some of the students' work with you over the next few weeks and in continuing to work in partnership with you to foster and strengthen our students' health and wellbeing this term. 

Kathy Blythe 

Student Wellbeing Leader