Wellbeing Team Update

The Wellbeing Team is available before and after school and we are always happy to help with any questions or concerns you may have. Whether you have parenting worries, need some guidance, or would like support with home or family concerns, please know that we are here to help.

A Positive Start to the Day

This term, we have experienced many calm and positive starts to our school day. The children have been settling quickly into their morning routines, and we are so proud of the effort’s families are making to ensure children arrive at school on time and ready for the day.

Supporting Children with Anxiety and Worries

We have spent time talking with parents about strategies to help children cope with anxiety, worries and fears. Parenting can be challenging, even on a good day, and according to Google, “how to be a good parent?” is the most googled question parents have each year.

We have encouraged families to have open conversations with their children to check in on how everyone is doing. Giving each other space and time to process worries, feelings and questions can be really helpful.

Rather than rushing to solve every problem for your child, try giving them time and encouragement to work things out themselves. Talking openly about feelings helps children learn to share their worries and fears with people they trust.

It is also important to acknowledge our own mistakes. When children see adults make mistakes and learn from them, they learn that mistakes are a natural and important part of learning and growing.

Most importantly, always remind children of their worth. Sometimes one small moment of reassurance, kindness or connection can mean the world to a child.

Conversation Tips

Here are some questions and prompts you might like to try at home:

“I can see you are feeling challenged. How can I help?”.
“Tell me more.” Keep gently asking until you get to the heart of the problem.
“What could you have done differently?”.
“You guys seem to be struggling with getting ready in the mornings. How can we make this better for everyone?”.
“Tell me about the feelings in your heart. Can you name the feeling?”.

Prompting children with open-ended questions can help them explain what is happening, make connections and develop their own understanding of a situation.

GEM Strategies

This term, students have been learning many social and emotional skills. There is a growing body of research supporting the benefits of these skills for our mental and physical wellbeing, as well as their ability to strengthen relationships and contribute to greater joy and connection in our lives.

Gratitude – being thankful and noticing the things we appreciate.
Empathy – thinking about other people's feelings and showing kindness and understanding.
Mindfulness – being present and aware of our thoughts, feelings and surroundings, which can help us develop calmness and self-awareness.

These are simple strategies that can become part of everyday family life.

How We Can Help

Over the past few weeks, the Wellbeing Team has been particularly busy supporting families with school uniform requests and food hampers.

Please know that families can email us directly if you need support. We can help with a range of concerns and, where appropriate, connect families with additional support and resources.

Our community pantry can also be opened at another time if families are unable to access it after school. Please reach out to us and we will do our best to help.

For any enquiries, please email the Wellbeing Team at-

Amy.Cleary@education.vic.gov.au

Sally.Marshall@education.vic.gov.au

libby.martin@education.vic.gov.au

Andre.Campbell@education.vic.gov.au

RUOK?

In preparation for RUOK? Day, the past few weeks the students made posters and signs for our window display. It was wonderful to see the students get involved and share their messages of care and connection within the school community.

Last Thursday, we celebrated RUOK? Day by playing the RUOK? Videos outside the specialist classrooms and the students checked in with each other. At lunchtime, we ran a range of activities including making friendship faces and emotion stickers as well as creating chatterboxes. These activities provided opportunities for students to talk about different approaches they could take when faced with problems or challenges at school.

The activities and conversations were lots of fun, but more importantly, they helped build the children's confidence to notice when a friend might be struggling and to ask the simple but important question: “Are you okay?”

We hope our students continue to look out for one another, listen with kindness and remember that asking for help is always okay.

Smile Squad Dental Program

In 2027, Term 3, we will be partnering with EACH to run our school dental program called the Smile Squad. The Smile Squad is a Victorian Government program that provides free dental care to all Victorian government primary, secondary and specialist school students. Next year, we will let you know when Smile Squad will be coming to our school to offer dental examinations.

Your child will soon receive a free oral health pack to bring home. The pack contains a toothbrush, full sized toothpaste, and an oral health brochure. Please take the time to read the brochure. It’s full of helpful hints and tips to help your whole family eat well, drink well and clean well – for life!

E Safety Commissioner-Online Safety Guide

We regularly have conversations with parents about keeping children safe online. The online world is constantly changing, and it can be challenging for families to keep up with the different platforms, apps and online experiences that young people are using.

The E Safety Commissioner has put out a new online safety guide for parents and carers to support families in navigating these challenges. The guide covers a range of important online safety topics, including gaming and social media to cyberbullying and AI-generated content.

The guide can help you-

understand common online risks and issues
learn what helps in different scenarios
talk with your child about what they do online
know how to respond if something goes wrong.

You don’t need to read the whole guide at once. Start with a section or topic that feels most relevant to your family right now, or dip in and out whenever you need it.

Our goal is to help parents and carers feel more confident supporting young people to have safer, healthier and more positive experiences online.

Download your free copy:

www.esafety.gov.au/parents/resources/online-safety-book

Attendance Data-It’s Cool to be at School!

This past fortnight we have celebrated 10 out of 12 students who came to school on their special day. When your child comes to school and it’s their birthday, we are bringing the buzz to make their day even more special. When they arrive at school in the mornings, we are presenting them with a special birthday sticker badge. I must say the kids are really loving this!

Over the time a child attends school, having 1- or 2-days absence does not seem like much but it does add up and can impact on missed learning opportunities.

Head Lice

This fortnight, we have had only 2 reports of live head lice in the school. We ask parents to work with us to keep our reports low and to continue to treat and monitor your children’s hair. Please notify the office or tell your child’s teacher when you treat your child so lice alert notes can be issued on COMPASS. Reminder-any child found with live lice will be excluded from school until they are treated.

Activities at Lunchtimes

Activity	Recess	Lunchtime
Monday	No clubs	Lego club-library & colouring
Tuesday	No clubs	Wool craft, board games & colouring-outside the specialist rooms
Wednesday	No clubs	Diamond Art, board games & colouring-outside the specialist rooms
Thursday	No clubs	Lego club-library & colouring
Friday	No clubs	Lego club-library & colouring

Recess and Lunchtime Activities

Lunchtime activities and clubs continue to be a big hit with the students. We are pleased to offer a range of supervised activities where students can socialise, be creative and develop new skills. Students have loved completing puzzles together, helping their friends and creating some wonderful things.

Wool Craft continues to be a favourite, with students making snowflakes, turtles, pom poms and cat’s eyes, while also developing some early crochet skills.

At Craft Club, students have been enjoying making diamond art stickers and bookmarks, showing plenty of creativity and attention to detail.

Lego Club is always popular, with children working cooperatively and sharing ideas as they bring their designs to life.

It is wonderful to see our students making new friends, supporting one another and enjoying these opportunities to learn, create and have fun together.

Donations Welcome

If families have any wool or crochet hooks that they are no longer using, we would greatly appreciate donations. These resources provide our students with opportunities to practise their skills, explore their creativity and develop confidence.

To inspire our students, we often use short YouTube clips that demonstrate how simple skills can be developed and combined to create wonderful craft projects. It is fantastic to see students watching, learning, practising new techniques, and then proudly creating something of their own.

Learning Never Stops

During the holidays keep in mind that everyday activities can be fun learning opportunities. Pretending, creating, and helping allows your child to discover new things.

Let your child’s imagination run wild! Encourage them to play dress ups or pretend to be a favourite character. Ask them to tell you about it!
What meals can you and your child prepare together? Cooking teaches about healthy food, numbers and measurement, science, sharing and new words.
Read with your child every chance you get, words are everywhere! Talk about signs, food labels, and always keep a book handy. Encourage your child to draw or tell stories about things that they see around them.

Have a wonderful break!

Holiday fun

The school holidays are a great time to reconnect with your children. Activities don’t need to cost a lot and can be free.

Here are some ideas for things you could do at home:

Cooking together, reading a book, dancing to music, planting some seeds in the garden or making a small fairy garden. Playing with playdough, playing board games, making craft projects and building cubbies inside or outside.

If you need some days out here are some options:

We have plenty of parks available in this beautiful area where we live: Maroondah Dam, Donnelly’s Weir, Badger Creek, Mt St Leonard, Donna Buang, the Redwood Forest and La La Falls just to name a few. Head to one of these and you could go for walks with the kids, which is great for the mind and body or have a picnic. Eating meals outside together can make this everyday activity feel like a holiday.

There are lots of local playgrounds, water play parks, pump tracks and rail trails. Great for playing at the playground, flying a kite and bike riding adventures. You could visit an op shop or visit the library where there are plenty of arts, craft and storytime activities planned. Or if you are up for a big day out, head in to the city for the AFL grand final parade.

Playing with children builds connection, strengthening the relationship during down time creates a healthy starting point when times become busy again. Play is important for adults too, it creates healthy thought patterns and releases stress. There are plenty of scientifically proven benefits of playing together, so make sure to utilise these spring holidays to improve your own and your families mental health and wellbeing.

School Holiday Care