Climate and Culture- Social Emotional Wellbeing & Learning
Upwey South Primary School
If you wish to hear more about our SWPBL culture and climate across our school, please contact:
Llewela Humphries
Assistant Principal - Wellbeing and Inclusion
m: 0428 959 358
llewela.humphries@education.vic.gov.au
Respectful Relationships
Beginning in early 2024, Upwey South Primary School began integrating a new initiative from the Department of Education called Respectful Relationships into our whole school teaching and learning curriculum. The program was developed out of the findings of the Royal Commission into Family Violence in 2014, and is designed to improve the emotional literacy of young people, and to build a culture of equality and respect.
“Victoria’s Respectful Relationships initiative supports school leaders, educators and school communities to promote and model respect and equality – and to teach our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence.” DET
We will deliver the program using an outstanding curriculum developed by Melbourne University called Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships. The program runs on a two-year cycle so all content is covered over a two year period.
The eight areas covered are:
- Emotional literacy
- Decision making
- Problem solving
- Positive self – regard
- Stress management
- Positive coping
- Help seeking and peer support
- Gender and identity
- Positive gender relationships.
Examples of some lessons:
Year 1/2 – Labels are for jars, not for people. Students will brainstorm “People in this class like to…”
Students are asked if they have heard “that’s a girl’s colour not a boy’s colour?” etc. It is then explained that these ‘labels’ are not useful, and can stop you from doing something you enjoy. The students will learn to say when they hear a statement such as, “girls can’t play football” the class will turn the can’t into can and say, “Anyone CAN play football.”
Year 3/4 – Investigating gender roles in children’s media. The students will look at children’s advertisements and become media detectives. They will look at what it is trying to sell, how they are getting the message across and what roles men and women/boys and girls play in the advertisement. A question asked is, ‘Does it give a message about what boys and girls are expected to be like?’
Throughout the initiative, students will build their emotional literacy and resilience, as well as learning resilience strategies and ways to cope with stress in a positive way. All of the lessons are curated for each year level, meaning that students are introduced to appropriate themes and ideas in a sensitive and fun way. Lessons are also designed to be interactive and involve lots of hands on activities and engaging group work, which students love! We pride ourselves on creating a safe, inclusive and respectful environment at Upwey South Primary School, and this new program will help us to continue to do this for all of our students and our valued school community.
If you have any questions about the program, please feel free to contact Lachlan Prasad, Llewela Humphries or Damien Kitch.
SUPPORT SERVICES FOR FAMILIES
Inspire Health and Medical is partnering with our school!
(https://www.inspirehm.com.au/the-story-behind-inspire/),
Throughout schools across Victoria, student counselling is a much needed (and under resourced) service. Many of our families are currently experiencing first-hand the difficulties associated with trying to gain access to support services for their children. Therefore, we must be grateful that we have been presented with the opportunity to enter a partnership with Inspire, as the resources do not exist for this partnership to occur across schools within our region.
Our allocated and fully qualified School Counsellor is Vicky Procyck.
Vicky's contact details are:
Vicky Procyk
Counsellor
Upwey South Primary School
w: 9757 0200
Please be aware of the information below:
Is there a cost involved to access the service, and does my child require a Mental Health Plan?
There is no cost involved for the family.
Your child does not require a Mental Health Plan to access the service. This is due to the fact that the counselling sessions are delivered by a fully qualified School Counsellor, as opposed to a medical practitioner.
There is also no limit on the number of sessions a child may access. Access to sessions, and duration (in weeks) will be determined between the Counsellor, the school, and the parent/carer.
How are sessions structured?
Our School Counsellor, Vicky, is in the school two-three days per week, with days dedicated to individual therapy sessions and to proactive group sessions as directed by the school. Student-needs are prioritized in partnership with the school and the parent/carer. Prior to any child commencing, a confidential discussion will take place between the Counsellor and the parent/carer.
Will each child who is referred be able to access the service?
Unfortunately, this is not achievable within the current mental health environment. Referrals will be prioritized on a needs basis from within our own school cohort.
If I wish for my child to access the service, what do I need to do?
Please download and return the attached consent form.