Student Wellbeing

Welcome back everyone, week 1 is always busy but was great to hear the hustle and bustle of families, staff and students returning to our school for 2024. One particular change is our straight grade model that we are excited about. Visiting classrooms this week, a really positive change that we loved seeing is the whole class merged together without the odd division with composites. We look forward to the benefits socially and emotionally straight grades will provide our students in years to come. A credit to our students for their respectful and calm return to school, there is a real sense that 2024 is going to be a really great year for everyone!

Berry Street Education Training 6/2/24

Our staff will continue their training in the Berry Street Education model, with this sessions focussing on Student to Teacher relationships. We have always prided ourselves on our strength of student and teacher relationships, going back to our roots of being one of the first schools to have our teachers called by their first names. We will explore modern ways to skill up our teachers in building effective, positive relationships with our students to help them thrive academically but equally importantly emotionally and socially as well.

We thank parents for their patience and understanding that this training is being conducted in Week 2 which we acknowledge isn't ideal but being relationship based it needed to be completed as close to the start of the school year as possible with Week 1 booked out. Thanks again for understanding.

For more information about the Berry Street education model and what benefits this will provide your children's educational environment please visit https://www.berrystreet.org.au/

Cyber Safety Incursions

We are excited to welcome back our friends at Inform and Empower who will be running CyberSafety incursions for all classes over the next few weeks. The focusses of these sessions will be sent out via Dojo and I'm sure our students will enjoy the learning and activities that go with them.

Student Wellbeing support

A variety of challenges present our students every day in the area of wellbeing, mental health and social and emotional capacity, if any student or family needs support please refer to the following support structures we have at our school to support you and your children. We recommend discussing with your child's teacher for the majority of concerns, and when necessary, they will triage issues to members of leadership. Please don't hesitate to reach out if need be.

Student supports:

Classroom teachers and LSOs
Learning Diversity Leaders - Rachel and Kaitlin
School Counsellor - Rosario
Wellbeing Leader - Ben
Deputy Principals - Rachel and Kayla
Principal - Duncan

Play Time - Recess and Lunch

Every new year presents new challenges for our students, one of the main ones is play time at recess and lunch. With new classrooms, peers, levels and play areas this can be challenging in the first few weeks. It's not uncommon for students to say they are struggling to find their friends or are lonely on the playground, if this is the case a simple message to class teacher to inform them so they can help your child plan their playtime area with their friends and a strategy to meet if they lose each other.

For parent information, there are 6 main play areas of the school with extra details below:

Top Courts: This area has a roster which alternates the courts to the P-2 group and 3-6 group. These areas of play are strict as we are mindful of older students playing ball games in the same play space with the younger students.

Oval: Same as the Top Courts.

Middle Area: This area consists of the 3/4 digging pit and the general quiet eating area space. This area is where students from Grade 2 and 3 can connect as the other play spaces have a division which can make these connections tricky.

Prep Area: This area is for Prep only.

1/2 Play space: The area between the Top Courts and Eating Area, this space has the digging pit and the 1/2 area around the other side of the 1/2 building. This play space is for the 1/2 students only.

Student Buddy Program

We are excited about start our buddy program in Week 3 which focuses on students in the senior school supporting our junior school through being a supportive role model, buddy. We provide time for these connections to form throughout the year which help give our junior students extra support on the playground and around the school if need be. We look forward to our Prep - 2 students settling in to their new classes and beginning our buddy program soon.

Wellbeing / Family Resources

For those who don't know about the ParentZone podcast please feel free to explore their content below:

Podcast Series 1

Episode 1: Family Meetings - click here

Episode 2: Dealing with Anxiety - click here

Episode 3: Sibling Rivalry - click here

Episode 4: Getting Children to Listen - click here

Episode 5: How to Respond to Kids' Behaviour - click here

Episode 6: How to Stop Yelling at your Kids - click here

Podcast Series 2

Episode 1: Positive Discipline - click here

Episode 2: School Refusal- click here

Episode 3: Parenting our Teenagers - click here

Episode 4: Meltdowns vs Tantrums - click here

Episode 5: Couples Parenting Together - click here

Episode 6: Dads Parenting Today- click here

Here is to a great year, take care.

Ben Lannen

Wellbeing and Maths Leader