Wellbeing and Engagement 

Engagement and Wellbeing

Becoming a More Inclusive Community

A key component to being an inclusive community is monitoring the language that we use in our discourse and the way that we communicate with each other. Using respectful and inclusive language makes each and every individual feel valued, supported and included within a community such as our own. 

Our pronouns (he/she/they) are words that relate to us as individuals. They are what we use to refer to ourselves and to others, they also can play an important role in identifying our gender identity. 

As we strive to become more inclusive and supportive of everyone in our community, we are making a step forward with our conscious and deliberate use of pronouns at Woodmans Hill Secondary College. 

From Monday 6th March, pronouns will be displayed on Compass on student and staff profiles. Our students have told us, through feedback and forums, that they want a better way for staff to identify their chosen pronouns and to use them more correctly in the day-to-day. We also want our emergency teachers to use the correct language and pronouns when working with your children. 

If your child has expressed to you a wish to identify as a different gender or use different pronouns, and you are unsure of who to contact at Woodmans Hill to discuss further, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s home group teacher who can explain the process involved. 

Resilient Youth Survey 

All of our students, from 7-12, have been completing the Resilient Youth Survey at school over the last two weeks. This survey collects, analyses and reports the resilience of young people in terms of their strengths, life satisfaction, hopefulness, anxiety and depression, coping style, and risk and protective behaviours. Gathering this data will enable us to plan whole school, year level, small group and individual interventions which will address the specific needs of our students. 

In 2022, as a result of our analysis of data, we were able to plan for and introduce a range of interventions and programs to support our students to feel more connected to and more resilient at, school. 

Blue Edge: engagement and student leadership program for students in Years 7-9 in partnership with Vic Police. 

Engage with Woodmans: an engagement program to build connection with new and different peers through a focus on Art as a medium. 

It will also be valuable for us to review how the data has changed from 2022 (first year post lockdowns) into 2023. We look forward to being able to share some of this data with parents in future discussions.