Student Well-being 

Community Spotlight: Year Prep

Focus: Returning to School

In the Year Prep Community, we have been talking about our upcoming return to school! 

Although some of us are excited to return to school on Monday, it is important to identify that some of us are feeling a little nervous. After being at home for so long it is hard to remember what life at school was like! Although we are very excited to play with our friends and work together in the classroom.

Each day we count how many days we have been at school and use this as a visual to understand how many more days we have until we are back in the classroom. 

As we get closer, we will continue to prepare ourselves for Monday morning by discussing things like the school rules and routines. Reading a social story is a meaningful way of understanding what school life will be like when we return. Here is an example of our return to school social story, it might look different across the year levels.

World Mental Health Day - October 10

Imagine if all children were taught about mental health from a young age – how to cope with big emotions, what helps make us feel good and the importance of taking time to engage in these activities, and what to do when times are tough.

Mental health promotion is all about creating environments that promote and sustain positive mental health for everyone. That’s where we can come in. As a parent-teacher partnership school, we are key to promoting the mental health of children.

Mental health can be a tricky concept to discuss with our young people, so it is important we discuss it in language that makes sense to them. You can use the below article to help you discuss mental health with your young ones. 

Mental health is the way we think and feel about ourselves and the world  around us.

When our mental health is good, we are able to:

• feel happy and positive most of the time
• cope with challenges
• manage our feelings
• have positive relationships with others

When our mental health isn’t so good, it can be difficult to: 

• manage challenging situations
• bounce back when things don’t go our way
• get along with other people

Our mental health can change! And there are things that we can do to make it strong.

You can help your mental health by taking time to:

• Get healthy (get active, eat well, get more rest)
• Keep learning (learn something new,  build something)
• Show kindness (give someone a compliment, pick some flowers for someone you love)
• Connect more (eat lunch with someone at school, invite other children to play at the park)
• Take notice (breathing deeply, closing your eyes and listening to your favourite music)
• Embrace nature (go for a walk, sit by a creek, river or ocean)

You could come up with a list of things you could do in  your household to address each of the above headings. It is so important to have these meaningful conversations.

Take care  and stay safe, 

Lauren Borg

Student Well-being Leader