Wellbeing Zone

Enter the Wellbeing Zone

Welcome to the Wellbeing Zone. When you enter the zone, you will find a wealth of information about all the things happening in the Wellbeing space at Sunshine Heights PS as well as strategies, articles, book recommendations and events that will help build our dream and culture of Wellbeing throughout our school community, inside and outside of school, so that we can sail together through a universe of possibilities with all the emotional and social skills we need to thrive.

Good Shepherd - Tuning into Teens Program 

Good Shepherd will be running Tuning in Teens starting Thursday 8th August 2024 and running until Thursday 12th September 2024, at the Brimbank Aquatic and Wellness Centre.

Please find attached our flyer along with an information sheet around what the program entails.

Parents/Carers can register using the QR code on the flyer or contacting the Good Shepherd office directly, on 8312 8800, and speaking to Lynda or Rachel. 

A light morning tea will be provided. 

E-Safety Feedback Workshop for Parents of Children Aged 11-17 years old 

Co-designer, Kate Goodwin, is working with the E-Safety Commission to review the usability of their website, and is seeking parents of children aged 11-17 years old to join a one and a half hour paid workshop on Saturday 10th August to provide feedback on how different people experience and use the website. 

 Workshops will involve a mix of individual on-screen, recorded activities, and focus group-style discussion. A trauma-informed approach will be used to guide these workshops. 

Participants will be given the chance to meet facilitator(s) ahead of the session, see the topic guide in advance, and be kept informed on reporting. It is important that candidates understand this and are comfortable to be contacted by facilitator(s) for these purposes.

Participants will be required to bring their own laptop and/or mobile devices, with Lookback and their camera and microphone installed/tested in advance (you will be helped with this). No other preparation is required in advance (and is actively discouraged). 

With participant consent, sessions will be audio and video recorded; they may also potentially be observed remotely by eSafety team members. 

Incentives inc. small allowance for travel, and pre-session setup with the facilitator(s): 

• $140pp (one parent only per session), paid in the form of a gift card on the day 

The workshop will be held on Saturday 10 August from 3.30-5pm in the Melbourne CBD (address tbc). 

Participants need to arrive 10-15 minutes early to sign in and settle in. 

They are specifically seeking parents of young people aged 11-17.  Their child may have experienced online abuse or traumatic experiences, or they may be concerned about it and want to ensure it doesn't happen to their teen or adult child. They may also wary of their own online safety and want to know what to do. 

They welcome diverse participation, incl. First Nations and/or LGBTIQ+- identifying folk and are also seeking representation of people who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, for example where English is not the main language at home (see next page for example languages). They also welcome people who are comfortable with conversational English, but might not be as comfortable reading and writing English

If you are interested to take part, please contact Kate Goodwin, UX Lead, Ellis Jones Email: kate@ellisjones.com.au Mobile: 0424 365 024

Mackillop Family Services On-Demand Webinar: Overcoming Separation Anxiety

Last term, we were due to have Mackillop Family Services run an onsite workshop to support parents in making school drop offs easier. Unfortunately, due to small numbers, Mackillop had to postpone the delivery of the onsite workshop. 

However, Mackillop Family Services, have put together this great on-demand, one-hour video called Overcoming Separation Anxiety. The video is suitable for parents/carers of children six months to 10 years over. This video will support parents who are struggling with day care drop off or finding mornings to be filled with tears and long goodbyes to head off to school. This webinar help explore the anticipated stage of separation anxiety and helpful things you can do to better prepare your little one for times away from you.

The video can be accessed here.

Mackillop Family Services offer a range of supportive videos for parents, which can be accessed here. 

Parent Diversity Ambassadors Program 

Our Diversity Ambassador Program kicked off last Thursday with our first meet and greet. We were so blessed with a group of parents who were open hearted, big hearted and brave hearted and committed to creating a culture of belonging and acceptance within our school community. 

A big thank you to the parents who attended. 

In two weeks' time, these parents will start a training program with Co-Design Specialists, Emma Blomkamp and Lina Patel, who will support the group in building their skills in connecting to diverse groups in our community and gathering important community voices to help shape our school. 

We will be sharing more about their work as the program continues. 

Happy Space Allied Health Speech Pathology Program

Our partnership with Happy Space Allied Health has been so amazing and having Liv onsite to support our students (and staff) has been so insightful and useful. 

Liv works at our school every Thursday and is now at capacity with the number of students she can see. But... in exciting news... she is keen to increase her days to 2 days every week, so if your child has NDIS and you are looking for a speech pathologist to support them with their communication and social goals and would love your child to attend onsite speech pathology sessions, please reach out to me to let me know what support your child needs and I can connect you with Liv! 

Wellbeing Curriculum Day

On Monday 5th August, our staff participated in a Wellbeing-focused Curriculum Day. 

We started our day connecting and sharing with a Berry Street-informed 'Welcome Circle' and by the end of the circle, all staff were letting loose with a karaoke session to Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody', which was all the feels. 

We were then joined by Claire from Learning for Life, who has been working with our school all year, delivering whole staff PD and coaching individual staff to best support students with additional needs, as part of our participation in the year long 'Inclusion Works' Project. Claire helped build our collective understanding of behaviours, function of behaviours and how we can support students to learn new positive behaviours with responsive strategies. 

After a well-deserved lunch break, we had Sucha and Afnan from Foundation House present to us on the refugee experience, as our school embarks on a 2-year journey with the RESP Project to better support families and students from refugee and migrant backgrounds. 

We are very proud of our staff for their ongoing commitment to the wellbeing of our students and families, and for being ALL IN with their energy and passion for creating a culture of inclusion and belonging at Sunshine Heights.