WELLBEING
A Note From the Head of Wellbeing
To be a parent/guardian is a blessing however can be challenging at the best of times. Whatever the age of the young person in your household no doubt you are faced with new issues and topics of discussion and find yourself navigating areas of life that you thought would be easy yet suddenly, they are not. If you feel this way, you certainly are not alone. And then, lockdown and COVID happened and is STILL happening.
Your young person is learning how to process all that is happening in the world and how to manage the past few years. To some degree this seems to be continuing and even ongoing for many people. Perhaps they are angry and annoyed that events have been rescheduled many times or even cancelled and they have had to handle circumstances beyond their control. Anxiety, questioning, anger or just feeling not quite right about it all can surface, often when least expected.
The Wellbeing team at St Andrews is here to support your young people through these times and we encourage you to keep the lines of communication with us, with your young person’s classroom/Home Room teacher/ Coordinator or Head of School. We encourage you to look at the College HUB Wellbeing page or email the team at wellbeing@standrews.vic.edu.au.
Parent Resources including free webinars: HERE
Lisa Wilks-Beasy
Head of Wellbeing
Teen Mental Health First Aid
We are very grateful to have been engaging our Year 8, 10 & 11 students with discussion around mental health. The teen Mental Health First Aid program supports young people to identify signs and symptoms of mental health problems and crisis in others, and to help them until a trusted adult takes over.
Session One focused on the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviours, emphasising the need to aim for helpful and realistic thinking, rather than positive thinking and deconstructing the stigma around mental health. Session Two focused on teaching the Mental Health Action Plan, ‘Look, Ask, Listen, Help, Your Friend’, specifically in a crisis situation. Session Three gave time to work through scenarios, practice the Action Plan and learn more about specific mental health conditions. Thank you to our wonderful families for partnering with us on caring for our students and equipping them with essential life skills.
Marina Heading
Secondary Wellbeing Coordinator
Hot Chocolate & Nessie The Therapy Pup
To help ease the stress that can surround exam time, our awesome Student Leaders organised hot chocolates for all year 10 & 11 students on Friday the 3rd June. We also had a very special guest named Nessie! The students loved having Nessie at school for the day, and everyone thought she was a great addition to the college. A big thank you goes out to Mr Crotty for bringing her along!
Marina Heading
Secondary Wellbeing Coordinator
Child Safety
The Child Safe Standards have been in effect since 2016, however on July 1, 2022, the Victorian Government has introduced new standards which will take effect. As a college we are working towards addressing these and will be outlining these to all members of our St Andrews Community over the next few additions of the newsletters and HUB pages.
The month of August will be ‘Wellbeing Month’ with resources available, volunteer and parent helper information and activities to share with your family.
Lisa Wilks-Beasy
Child Protection Officer