Wellbeing

PBL

At SFS, our PBL (Positive Behaviours for Learning) school wide expectations are:

Respect, Responsibility and Kindness

We have a whole school social skills lesson where we explicitly teach an expected behaviour from our Behaviour Expectation matrix.

The focus for this week has been KINDNESS outdoors, USE APPROPRIATE LANGUAGE.

We talked to the children about why this is important. At SFS we do not accept racist comments. We do not use unkind words or swearing to put others down or speak rudely to them. Everyone at our school is unique in their own way and it is important to understand and respect everyone’s culture and religion. No matter who you are or what you look like you deserve to be treated with kindness. We believe in the dignity of the human person.

Here are some of our lucky PBL raffle winners who have been seen demonstrating our school expected behaviours. Well done to all the children who have received a PBL card during the week.

Harmony Day and Harmony Week

Harmony Week (16–22 March 2026) is an annual Australian celebration recognizing cultural diversity, inclusiveness, and respect for everyone, regardless of background. Centered around the theme "everyone belongs”.

At SFS, we will be celebrating Harmony Day on Tuesday 24th March with a special day of activities with the children celebrating the richness of Multiculturalism.

Please ensure you read the information on Nforma and respond to the question regarding the preparation and eating of food.

The children will be exploring music, dance and food from Australia, India and Italy that day and sharing the food they make in class. Please note they still need to bring their lunch on the day, the food prepared will be just a taste to try. The children can come dressed on that day in clothes that represent their cultural identity (either traditional clothing or colours of the flag, etc) or they can wear orange, the colour used to represent Harmony week.

There will be a special assembly on that day in the afternoon at 1.45 pm including a presentation by Christine Sully who came to do some Bollywood dancing at the school picnic. Parents and families are warmly invited to attend the assembly and celebration!

Peaceful Classrooms and Peaceful Kids

Last week I was fortunate to participate in 2 days of training to facilitate the programs Peaceful Classrooms and Peaceful kids.

‘Peaceful Classrooms’ provides schools, organisations and wellbeing practitioners with engaging Mindfulness activities and meditations for children and teens. The program has been created to support all children in the classroom or groups to develop an ongoing Mindfulness practice, learn about Mindfulness and be able to embed this into their day to day lives.

Simple, effective and proven exercises help students to stay calm, relax, focus and learn more effectively during the day. Peaceful Classrooms help students to build their emotional resilience so they are better equipped to deal with the day to day stresses that life brings them.

‘Peaceful Kids’ is a Mindfulness and Positive Psychology based program to lessen anxiety and stress and increase resilience in children from Prep to Year 12. The program gives children the skills, practice and support to utilise coping strategies that lessen the symptoms of anxiety and stress. This program helps children to build their emotional resilience so they are better equipped to deal with the day to day stresses that life brings them. The program also involves parental involvement and commitment to supporting the strategies at home.

Aims of the Program

To minimise the symptoms of anxiety and stress
To build emotional resilience
To empower children to self-manage their anxiety
To teach children Mindfulness exercises they can use for life
To build a reservoir of strength to enable children to cope with life more effectively
To minimise anxiety symptoms occurring in the future
For children to use a range of effective coping strategies
Teaches children how to self-calm
To develop emotional intelligence skills
Teaches children life long skills to manage stress and prevent stress build up
Supports children so they know they are not alone with suffering from anxiety

Peaceful Kids is based on evidence-based therapy and research from the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR), Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (MiBCT), Positive Psychology and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

The Peaceful Kids program is endorsed by the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES)

Peaceful Kids has been independently reviewed and listed in the 'Be You' Programs Directory. It meets the minimum requirements set by 'Be You' and has been awarded a rating for evidence and implementation.

Research has also been conducted through EACH on both the Peaceful Kids and Peaceful Parents program, and evaluated by Save the Children for their 'Cool for School' Program.

Peaceful Kids is now an accredited Quality Assured External Student Wellbeing Program through NSW Department of Education.

I am inviting all parents to attend an online meeting on Wednesday 22nd April 2026 (Week 1 of Term 2) from 7pm and 8pm for those who would like to find out more information, particularly if you feel like these programs would be beneficial to your child and family. A form will be shared via Nforma soon inviting you to attend the online meeting.

Child Safety standards

All Victorian schools are required to comply with the 11 Victorian Child Safe Standards. This is to ensure that the safety and wellbeing of children is promoted, child abuse is prevented, and allegations of child abuse are responded to properly and promptly.

At SFS, we have regular conversations about Child safety and ensure that we put the Child safety standards into practice.

Child safe standard 3 focuses on the following:

Empowerment and Information: Informing children about their rights, including safety and participation.
Participation: Actively involving children in decisions that affect them.
Valuing Views: Ensuring children are listened to, taken seriously, and that their input is considered.
Peer Support: Encouraging positive social connections and friendships, which can act as a support network.
Accessible Information: Providing child-friendly resources, such as posters or, for older children, websites and newsletters, to help them understand their rights and how to raise concerns.
Addressing Concerns: Implementing processes for children to raise safety concerns and providing access to sexual abuse prevention programs.

You can find all the SFS Child safety policies on the school website if you would like to find out more.

If you have any concern about your child’s mental health or wellbeing, please do not hesitate to contact me or make a time to speak with me. My working days are Monday to Wednesday and Friday. I will also be available on the Parent Teacher interview evening at the end of term 1 to speak and can be booked on the interview app as well as with your child’s homegroup teacher.

Rachel Lenko

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader

rlenko@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au