Wellbeing

Term 1, Week 8

Last week, students learnt about being responsible and telling the truth.  We explored why it is important to tell the truth even when you could have done something that you may get into trouble for. 

This week, in our Respectful Relationships lessons, students moved on from Topic 1 (to develop their emotional literacy) to Topic 2: Personal Strengths. Our WALT was to identify our character strengths and when we might use them. This topic aims to get students thinking about the positive character strengths they show at home and school and how these can help them in challenging situations or when dealing with others. This can filter into students showing and developing the character strengths of bravery, fairness, compassion, courage and kindness.

Activity

You may like to complete an activity at home with your family, which is taken from the Year 5&6 Respectful Relationships booklet. Using our strengths in everyday life: Talk about the following scenarios and discuss what strengths each character could use to manage each challenge/situation. What advice would you give each character? 1. Jack’s maths homework is particularly challenging this week. 2. Yin won a novel signed by the author in the school writing competition. It is her friend’s favourite author, and she knows her friend cannot afford to buy the book. 3. Shanti really wants to go on the flying fox at camp, but the thought gives her butterflies in her tummy. 4. Mark’s younger brother is being very annoying, and making lots of noise while Mark is trying to watch his favourite TV program. The character strengths below may help the conversation.

Harmony Day

We celebrated Harmony Day today (Thursday, March 21st) across the school. It was wonderful to see students expressing their identity and culture through our free dress day, as well as wearing a splash of orange to represent social communication and meaningful conversations. Students shared their ideas and reasons for their dress choices with classmates, and many classes realised just how diverse the Old Orchard community is and why it’s important that we celebrate this! 

Students also participated in a whole-school ‘Reading for Pleasure’ session at 9:30, which showcased our love for reading and sharing our passions through texts. We also squeezed in our whole-school Dojo Pear Reward of a movie afternoon, so well done for achieving our 100 Pear Goal already this term. A huge thank you to all of the parents/carers and staff who attended the Harmony Day afternoon tea today. Families and staff brought along different foods from their cultures and enjoyed trying new foods, meeting new people and learning about different cultures. Our Year 6 S.R.C. captains, Avina and Ishaan also did a wonderful job of welcoming families to this special afternoon.

We will share some photos of this afternoon in the newsletter next week. If you have any questions about Wellbeing at OOPS, please do not hesitate to email Adam Todd at: adam.todd@education.vic.gov.au