Student Wellbeing
We Are A Child Safe School
MACS (Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools) ensures that as a Child-Safe School, St Joseph's School leadership must take time to examine each of the 11 Child Safe Standards in depth with staff during professional development across the year.
The Victorian Child Safe Standards are a set of 11 minimum requirements that all organisations working with children must meet. These standards are designed to:
- Prevent child abuse and harm
- Make child safety a shared responsibility
- Support the wellbeing of all children, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and children with disabilities
- Promote the participation and empowerment of children and young people.
These standards apply to all school staff, volunteers, contractors and anyone working with children in schools.
Please see the following Parent Flyer for ideas on how to best support this standard within our School Environment:
Term 2s Flow Friday Activities
Have you ever found yourself completely lost in an activity, and suddenly realized an hour had passed and you thought it had only been a few minutes?
During 2026, the Year 5/6s have finished off each week on Friday afternoons engaged in activities that aim to allow students to feel a sense of what is known as "FLOW". The concept of FLOW and achieving MAXIMAL ENGAGEMENT, according to research, leads to feelings of happiness and enjoyment in performing a task and improves skills of concentration and perseverance.
A Hungarian-American researcher in the 1970s named Mihaly Csikszentmihályi invented a word for this. He called it flow, and his research is referred to as “flow theory.”
Choosing an activity that you find intrinsically rewarding that you become fully immersed in, is the most likely to trigger the flow state. Some examples could be cooking, gardening, hiking, reading, fishing, running, swimming, gaming, yoga, painting, crafts, and so on. Kotler (2021) recommends at least 60-90 minutes once or preferably twice a week to immerse yourself in the activity undistracted.
This trains your brain toward intrinsic enjoyment and the experience of flow, with the evidence showing that over time flow can be learnt and even transfered to classroom activities that may be considered less enjoyable and can also increase one's level of focus, concentration and persistence at tasks with just the right level of challenge.
Thanks again to our 5/6 teachers, Mrs Cameron and Mrs Hayes, along with Mrs Dimogerondas, Mrs O'Shannassy and myself for the organisation involved in providing activities that the students have suggested provide them with a sense of flow and a level of challenge within their engagement of these. Thanks also to Terry Mountain with his assistance with the Fishing, Bec Pater as our Special Guest Dance Teacher and Sarah Pancic for her help with the bike-riding as rear-rider.
Our final week for the first block will conclude this Friday before commencing the second block of 4-weeks in Bike Riding, Choreographic Dance, Fishing and Hiking.
Kind regards,
Jenny Todd
(Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader)
jennyt@sjsorrento.catholic.edu.au
