Wellbeing News
We are proud to announce that St Brigid’s is now officially a Peaceful Kids School!
The "Peaceful Kids" program is a Mindfulness and Positive Psychology-based initiative designed to reduce anxiety and stress while boosting emotional resilience in children. By equipping students with these vital skills, we help them better navigate the day-to-day challenges that life can bring. Staff and students, we will be exploring different ways mindfulness and meditation can increase focus and help with stress and anxiety.
Body Education Program with Kelly Nash
This term, we are excited to welcome back Kelly Nash from Body Education.
Kelly is a qualified educator with extensive experience in health promotion, including three years with the Royal Women’s Hospital health promotion unit and seven years with Family Life Victoria. She aims to create a relaxed, inclusive, and fun environment that fosters informal, respectful learning. Her sessions are designed to empower young people with knowledge and understanding of their bodies, with the ultimate goal of supporting families through this vital part of their children's education.
The Sessions:
Foundation to Year 2 - Age appropriate language is used to help children understand the differences and similarities in humans, families, bodies and body parts. We discuss how bodies can be the same and how they can be different. We talk about private parts and what being “private” means. Students are reminded that private parts are for private places. We also discuss feeling safe in our bodies and identify who children could talk to if they weren’t feeling safe.
Families are given the opportunity to discuss how babies develop and how they are born. (This session does not include sexual intercourse but does include introducing the terms egg and sperm).
Year 3 & Year 4 – This session begins by acknowledging that human beings, families and bodies, have similarities and differences. We go on to name parts of the body that are the same and different and acknowledge that it is the differences that make it possible to reproduce. From there, conception (including sexual intercourse*and a brief and basic explanation of assisted reproduction) is discussed and is followed by an explanation of foetal development and birth. This session includes elements of protective behaviour as we will be discussing private parts.
*Whenever sexual intercourse is included in a program, part of the explanation will include the “Rules of Sex” which are discussed as being based on the law and are there to keep us feeling safe – for students of this age I explain the Rules of Sex as being:
Sex is for Grown ups (the legal definition of adults is explored further in secondary school).
It must be a Choice.
Private (Private to those people and also done in a private place).
The Rules of Sex are a great way to reinforce respectful relationships – although not a great deal of time is spent on this area so it’s great if families can discuss this further at home and it’s a great opportunity for families to discuss their values regarding this topic.
Year 5 & Year 6 – This session is for students and their families to prepare for the changes of puberty. The common physical, social and emotional changes that are experienced by everyone will be discussed (eg: pimples, growth spurt, body odour, shape, hair, voice), allowing time for students to talk with their attending adults about management strategies. Then specific changes are explained (sperm production, wet dreams, periods) and again, students have the opportunity to discuss management strategies with their adults.
Kelly will be visiting St Brigid’s on Wednesday, August 12 and Thursday, August 13.
The session times are as follows
P-2 - Wednesday 12/8 from 5:00 - 6:00
3/4 - Wednesday 12/8 from 6:30 - 7:30
5/6 - Thursday 13/8 from 6:30 - 7:30
Price: $25 per family for one session $35: per family for two or more sessions
Book now via the CDFpay.
Allergy Aware
As we commence Semester 2, I thought it timely that we remind families that we do have students at St Brigid's with life threatening food allergies. Please be mindful when packing lunches that there are students with allergies to nuts and eggs. We will be reminding students that we do not share food at school, please chat with your children at home regarding this as well. We are an allergy aware school. See the attached flyer about what it means to be an allergy aware school.
With thanks
Christine Thredgold
Wellbeing and Learning Diversity Leader
