Wellbeing

 PBL

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

Respect, 

Responsibility and 

Kindness

For this week’s PBL lesson we focused on RESPONSIBILITY: 

Be safe. We have seen some children using physical contact with others during lunchtime on the Adventure playground and during games. 

The teachers discussed what we should do if we are feeling frustrated while playing with others outside and practiced some self-regulation strategies. The children will practice how to have a respectful conversation with someone when we disagree on the rules of play or in a game. The juniors will focus on the safe use of equipment on the Adventure playground particularly the slide.

Here are some of our lucky PBL raffle winners from last week who have been spotted demonstrating our school expected behaviours. Well done!

We celebrated National Walk to school day today at SFS. The children met some of the teachers at 2 different meeting points and we walked to school together. It was exciting to catch up with friends and teachers and chat together as we walked to school. When the children got to school, they went to the community room for some breakfast provided by our wonderful Parents and Friends. The children counted up how many students walked to school or rode their bikes. 

It is important for children and young people to be active every day. Physical activity has many social, emotional, physical and mental health benefits. Walking to school is a great way to incorporate physical activity into a daily routine to support healthy development. Regular physical activity, especially walking, can improve self-esteem and confidence, help concentration and improve overall fitness. 

Encouraging kids to be active each day establishes good habits that can stay with them throughout their lives. 

OBJECTIVES:  BETTER HEALTH  • CLEANER AIR  •  REDUCED CAR-DEPENDENCY IMPROVED ROAD SAFETY  • INCREASED USE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT

The children wore bright colourful socks to promote the message of the day. Thanks to everyone who participated in the day. A huge thank you to the parents in the P and F who organised the breakfast and prepared some delicious cheese toasties for the children to eat. 

We could not have had such a successful morning without the help of these wonderful parents!! 

We have never had such a huge turn out of students and families walking to school with us! 

Dress in your dream job

The children are very excited about our first ever come “dress in your dream job” this Monday 26th May. 

Children need to dress up as a job they aspire to do when they are older. 

If the students do not dress up, they need to come in school uniform, not casual clothes. 

We will be talking to the children about what a gender stereotype is and the children will get a chance to talk about their hopes and dreams for the future. We have some parents coming in on Monday to speak to the children about their jobs after 2nd lunch from 2.30pm. We also have had a few parents make a video to be shown to the children about what they do for work. 

A big thank you to those parents who have contributed. It is not too late. If you would still like to make a video of yourself talking about your job, please email me rlenko@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au

If you can come in on Monday afternoon, or at another time this week, please speak with your child’s teacher or let me know. We are looking forward to a fun afternoon exploring this topic with the students.

Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS)

My role is the Mental Health and Wellbeing leader (MHaWL) in the school. I have been receiving ongoing training since last year from the Melbourne University education department as part of the Mental Health in Primary school’s program. 

One of my roles is to help support families with their child if they have wellbeing or mental health concerns. We can support your child at school and other times we need to refer for external support. If parents would like to discuss a wellbeing or mental health concern, please call the school to speak with me, email me or make a time to come in for a chat to see how I might be able to help you. If you need help with a referral to an external service like a psychologist, speech therapist, occupational therapist, paediatrician or other health care profession or wellbeing support, I am able to help with referral pathways. I am also able to assist families who may be considering applying for the NDIS and need support. 

Key facts about the program:

Key Facts

• In Australia, 1 in 12 children aged 4-11 years have a diagnosed mental health disorder
• 20 per cent of children experience mental health difficulties that affect their daily living
• The MHiPS initiative has been rolled out to more than 1000 Victorian primary schools so far
• Over 95% of participants undertaking MHiPS agreed the MHWL model had increased whole-school capacity to support student mental health and wellbeing

If there is an area of interest that parents would like to find out more information about regarding Mental Health and Wellbeing, please reach out and let me know.

Respectful Relationships

After the popular turn out from our first Respectful Relationships parent and child workshop this term, we will be offering a second online parent and child workshop in Term 3. 

Our focus at school for Term 3 will be on the topic 5 Stress Management. This will be on Wednesday 30th July (Week 2 of Term 3) from 7pm until 8pm. 

Here is some more information about why teaching stress management is so important taken from the Respectful Relationships Primary teaching resource. 

“Informed by the evidence base

Stress is a normal part of life, especially as children get older. Children who cope better with life stressors develop good mental health and wellbeing. However, students need assistance to recognise their personal signs and symptoms of stress. They also need practice in how to develop suitable strategies for dealing with stress. These learning opportunities will better prepare children to cope effectively with challenges in the future.

A study with children from grades 3 and 4 investigated the stressors they experienced at school, along with the strategies they used to cope. It found that students faced a ranges of stressors including interpersonal conflict arising from unfair play, anxiety about asking for help from peers or teachers, and worry about ‘bad grades’ or performance challenges related to

schoolwork and expectations.

The 2022 Mission Australia Youth Survey found that almost 3 in 10 young people aged 15 to 19 years (29 per cent) reported high psychological distress, 16 per cent reported their overall mental health and wellbeing as poor, and almost a quarter reported feeling lonely most of the time. Many young people reported feeling extremely or very concerned about mental health 

and school or study problems. Close to 2 in 5 (38 percent) young people who expressed strong climate concerns reported they were also experiencing high psychological distress and one in 5 (23 per cent) of these young people had a negative outlook about their future.

Students reported finding it hard to generate coping strategies, indicating the importance of an applied focus on developing coping strategies suitable for a range of contexts. A review of mindfulness interventions used with children and young people found that body-centered meditations and mindful observations guided by explicit instructions led to improved socioemotional outcomes.”

More information will come out on Operoo soon about the Parent and Child online workshop. 

Annual SFS Twilight Market

We will be having our annual SFS Twilight market this year on Thursday 6th November 2025. This is an event always enjoyed by our school community. I am in the process of looking for stalls. 

If you have a small business you would like to promote or you know of someone that would like to promote a small business, please email me or contact the school for an expression of interest form. 

The market will run from 5pm to 8pm and the cost of a stall is 30 dollars. You need to provide your own table, chairs, float of money for change and whatever you need for the stall. 

It is an outdoor market unless in the event of rain, will be held in the hall. There will be a variety of delicious food trucks to choose from and some student lead stalls from the Action teams. If any students are interested in having a stall they will need the help and supervision of a parent or carer. 

Applications for stalls will close at the end of term 2 so please make sure to get your expression of interest form filled out and returned to school. For more information, please contact me on rlenko@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au

If you have any concerns about the mental health or wellbeing of your child, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am available to speak to at school, via the phone or email on rlenko@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au

Rachel Lenko 

Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader