Wellbeing

PBL

At SFS, our PBL (Positive Behaviours for Learning) school wide expectations are:

Respect,  Responsibility and Kindness

We have a whole school social skills lesson where we explicitly teach an expected behaviour from our Behaviour Expectation matrix. 

The focus for this week has been on RESPECT: Use good manners in the toilet.  

The children discussed expectations around toilet use and how we show respect by keeping the toilet clean and the importance of good hygiene. 

Here are some of our lucky PBL raffle winners who have been seen demonstrating our school's expected behaviours. Well done to all the children who have received a PBL card during the week. Keep up the great work!

Harmony Day and Harmony Week

At SFS, we will be celebrating Harmony Day next week on Tuesday 24th March with a special day of activities with the children celebrating the richness of Multiculturalism. Please ensure you read the information on Nforma and respond to the question regarding the preparation and eating of food. The children will be exploring music, dance and food from Australia, India and Italy that day and sharing the food they make in class. Please note they still need to bring their lunch on the day, the food prepared will be just a taste to try. The children can come dressed on that day in clothes that represent their cultural identity (either traditional clothing or colours of the flag, etc) or they can wear orange, the colour used to represent Harmony week.There will be a special assembly on that day in the afternoon at 1.45pm including a presentation by Christine Sully who came to do some Bollywood dancing at the school picnic. Parents and families are warmly invited  to attend the assembly and celebration!

Peaceful Classrooms and Peaceful Kids

‘Peaceful Classrooms’ provides schools, organisations and wellbeing practitioners with engaging Mindfulness activities and meditations for children and teens. The program has been created to support all children in the classroom or groups to develop an ongoing Mindfulness practice, learn about Mindfulness and be able to embed this into their day to day lives.  

Simple, effective and proven exercises help students to stay calm, relax, focus and learn more effectively during the day.  Peaceful Classrooms help students to build their emotional resilience so they are better equipped to deal with the day to day stresses that life brings them.  

‘Peaceful Kids’ is a Mindfulness and Positive Psychology based program to lessen anxiety and stress and increase resilience in children from Prep to Year 12. The program gives children the skills, practice and support to utilise coping strategies that lessen the symptoms of anxiety and stress.  This program helps children to build their emotional resilience so they are better equipped to deal with the day to day stresses that life brings them. The program also involves parental involvement and commitment to supporting the strategies at home.  

Aims of the Program

• To minimise the symptoms of anxiety and stress
• To build emotional resilience 
• To empower children to self-manage their anxiety
• To teach children Mindfulness exercises they can use for life
• To build a reservoir of strength to enable children to cope with life more effectively
• To minimise anxiety symptoms occurring in the future
• For children to use a range of effective coping strategies
• Teaches children how to self-calm
• To develop emotional intelligence skills
• Teaches children life long skills to manage stress and prevent stress build up​
• Supports children so they know they are not alone with suffering from anxiety

Children learn life skills of:

• A range of Mindfulness meditations

• Positive psychology exercises

• Techniques to lessen worrying

• A variety of coping strategies 

• A variety of problem solving strategies

• Journaling and expressing their worries

• Facing challenges and fears step by step

• Preventative strategies to help prevent stress build up

• Being attuned to their own bodies and minds

• Being in the flow more regularly and enjoying more of the present moment

I am inviting all parents to attend an online meeting on Wednesday 22nd April 2026 (Week 1 of Term 2) from 7pm and 8pm for those who would like to find out more information, particularly if you feel like these programs would be beneficial to your child and family. A form will be shared via Nforma soon inviting you to attend the online meeting. Please respond to the form if you are going to attend the online parent meeting on Wednesday 22nd April at 7pm.

Child Safety standards

All Victorian schools are required to comply with the 11 Victorian Child Safe Standards. This is to ensure that the safety and wellbeing of children is promoted, child abuse is prevented, and allegations of child abuse are responded to properly and promptly.

At SFS, we have regular conversations about Child safety and ensure that we put the Child safety standards into practice.

Child safe standard 4 is Families and communities are informed and informed in promoting child safety and wellbeing. As part of this standard, schools need to ensure that

•  Families participate in decisions affecting their child.
• The school engages and openly communicates with families and the community about its child safe approach and relevant information is accessible.
• Families and communities have a say in the review of the school’s policies and practices.
• Families, carers and the community are informed about the school’s operations and governance.

You can find all the SFS Child safety policies on the school website if you would like to find out more.

Student Representative Council (SRC)

We have now had 2 SRC meetings for Term 1. We usually will meet on a Monday afternoon during Action Team time. Here is a report from the Semester 1 SRC students about what has been discussed during these meetings. We look forward to watching the SRC representatives for Semester 1 2026, bring some of their ideas into action this year.

We have had our first 2 SRC meetings this year. We learnt about what it means to be in the SRC, what our job is and how to be good leaders. We read a book called If I were Prime Minister and we came up with ideas of what we would do if we were the principal of the school to make SFS better.

We have decided this term to come up with some rules for the sandpit to keep everyone safe and happy. We will print them out and put them on the playground and teach the other students about the expected behaviours. 

If you have any concern about your child’s mental health or wellbeing, please do not hesitate to contact me or make a time to speak with me. My working days are Monday to Wednesday and Friday. I will also be available on the Parent Teacher interview evening at the end of term 1 to speak and can be booked on the interview app as well as with your child’s homegroup teacher.

Rachel Lenko

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader

rlenko@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au