Wellbeing News

Hello Pakenham Hills Community!

We are looking forward to supporting our   school community this year.

Introducing our Wellbeing Team:

Courtney O'Brien                         Assistant Principal - Wellbeing

Kate Joyner                                     Psychologist

Georgia Winwood                        Social Worker

Kerry Bugg                                     E.S Team Leader

Rebecca Rattigan                          Wellbeing Leading Teacher

Buddy's Besties Lunchtime Group

We are so proud of the group members of our lunchtime group - Buddy's Besties, named after one of our school wellbeing dogs, Buddy. 

Our group project was to build Buddy a kennel, which our clever maintenance man Mick helped us with. The group loved learning how to use tools safely and practised how to listen to and follow instructions as a team. It was so rewarding to see the kennel built after everyone's hard work. 

Buddy loves his kennel, thanks to Buddy's Besties and Mick!

School Counselling Opportunities

We also have the wonderful Richard Dalziel, our Mental Health Practitioner who is here on Mondays and Tuesdays for counselling. 

(Richard is our only source of therapeutic support. Kate and Georgia do not provide counselling or therapy.)

• This is a free service covered through Medicare and we will cover the gap payment, so you will not be out of pocket at all.
• All you will need is: Mental Health Care Plan from a GP and signed consent form
• Students are typically scheduled every three weeks. 
• There are limited spots, so please email me at georgia.winwood@education.vic.gov.au to confirm a spot prior to obtaining a Mental Health Care Plan.

Easing into adolescence

The Department of Education has launched an Easing into adolescence webpage for families of students aged 10 to 14 (Grade 5 to Year 8). The webpage has information and strategies you can use to help ease your child into adolescence and secondary school. These include: 

• a guide to emotion coaching: staff from The University of Melbourne’s Tuning in to Teens Kids program developed the guidance.
• how to support your adolescent with their studies and more generally. Parenting expert and clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller helped develop this resource.

Subtitles for videos by The University of Melbourne on the webpage are available in 10 languages. You can select your preferred language on the translations page. For questions about these resources, contact the Strategic Partnerships, Transitions and Student Voice team. You can email them at Secondary.School.Transition@education.vic.gov.au.