Respectful Relationships & Wellbeing News

Berry Street and Respectful Relationships

On Wednesday, I had the privilege to present to the other catholic schools regarding the fantastic job our school community is doing with the Respectful Relationships program. Paul Zappa the head of Respectful Relationships in Victoria declared Sacred Heart a lighthouse school for others to inspire to. He acknowledged our brilliant whole-school approach, and the generational change we are making. This is something we should all be proud of as our students are having real life and brave conversations facilitated by our wonderful teachers. This week, we had a visiting wellbeing leader from a school in our area who was simply blown away by our students' responses and maturity. As we move to straight classes next year the students will be working on a two year rotation using a scope and sequence to target year levels and their needs.

Positive gender relations

Studies show that school based violence prevention and respectful relationships initiatives can make a real difference, producing lasting change in attitudes and behaviours in students. In effective programs, children and young people learn about the ways in which power relations inform gender relationships. They learn how to translate a belief in respect for others into respectful communicative practices. This requires a focus on skills as well as attitudes. Studies show that effective programs employ participatory and interactive pedagogy. Participatory pedagogies stimulate the critical thinking necessary to interrogate social norms and to develop the social skills needed in daily life.

Children in preschool and the early years of school are often seen as being too young to understand or to have experienced gender discrimination or gender violence. However, young children can and do experience gender discrimination and violence. Hence they need the language and strategies to challenge these experiences and to protect themselves. Self-care and help-seeking strategies (e.g. the NO, GO TELL strategy used in our grade 1 and 2 activity this week) empower children to assert their rights over their own bodies and to gain the support they need if someone is breaching their rights. While people are often worried that knowledge of things ‘wrong’ in the world may tarnish children’s innocence, it is essential that they are aware that their body belongs to them and that they have the right to say no and get help. School-based abuse prevention programs have been found to be effective in increasing student knowledge and protective behaviours.

Wellbeing podcast of the week

This is a brilliant podcast which I think our wonderful Sacred Heart Primary parents will relate to. Being a parent is the most important role we have but also the hardest. We praise you for all your hard work.