School Holiday Activities for Wellbeing

As we approach the school holidays I thought I'd share Dan Siegal's Healthy Mind Platter. This platter (see below) helps to create balanced routines for families which can be utilised during the school holidays. The aim is to build this platter into your family’s routine without turning holidays into hard work.

What Is the Healthy Mind Platter?

The Healthy Mind Platter offers a “mental nutrition” model, encouraging balance across these seven areas:

Platter Element	Description
Sleep Time	Getting enough restful sleep for brain and body repair.
Physical Time	Moving the body to strengthen the brain and release stress.
Focus Time	Engaging deeply in goal-directed activities without distraction.
Play Time	Spontaneous, creative exploration that’s fun and unstructured.
Connecting Time	Relating to others or nature to build empathy and belonging.
Time In	Quiet moments for mindfulness, reflection, and emotional awareness.
Down Time	Doing “nothing” — no goals, no screen time, just mental rest.

Each slice plays a unique role in supporting emotional regulation, executive functioning, and social wellbeing — especially important during holidays, when normal routines are disrupted.

For more information head to the blog on the Amaze in Minds website:

https://www.amazeinminds.com.au/school-holiday-activities-wellbeing/

Young Minds: Our Future Study

The Australian Government has funded an Australia-wide study of child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing. The study, known as Young Minds: Our Future (#YMOF), will survey families across the country. This research, led by Curtin University and The University of Queensland, will help improve mental health services for all young Australians.

Selected households in our area will be approached in person by interviewers from Roy Morgan over the next few weeks. You may also get a flyer in your mailbox. You can’t opt in but, if you're invited, we encourage you to make your voice count. For more information, visit www.ymof.org.au where you can watch this short video about the survey. You can also contact youngminds@curtin.edu.au.

End of Term Dance Party

The Captains held a dance party to celebrate the end of term. Students enjoyed dancing to the Cha Cha Slide, Freeze Dance, Macarena and they also did some free dancing. What a fu way to end the term!

Lunchtime Clubs

Our Lunchtime Clubs are being utilised and enjoyed by many students. Run Club has been a huge success with over 100 students running laps of the oval on a Friday morning. The students have now run from London to Paris!

The music choirs and bands are humming and the students are enjoying getting their hands dirty in our garden. Chess is being played when the library is open, and many students are enjoying being creative in Art Club.

The Wellbeing Hub has become the place to be during the afternoon recess break on a Tuesday-Thursday if you need some quiet time.

Education Sessions

Raising Sensitive Kids - A free webinar on how to support your sensitive child to thrive

Thursday 26th March 12pm & 8.30pm

https://raisingconnectedkids.com.au/free-webinar-sensitivity/

You will learn:

Why sensitivity isn’t the problem and how sensitivity is a strength (when supported correctly)
The four foundational areas sensitive kids must learn (but aren’t taught at school)
The common patterns that unintentionally makes anxiety and self-doubt worse – even when you’re trying your best
Determine whether your child needs emotional support.
Practical ways to help your child feel calmer, more confident, and socially secure

Useful Websites:

Looking after your child's mental health:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/parents/family-health/your-childs-mental-health-advice.pdf

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.

Schoolwide Positive Behaviour Supports

Reward System

SWPBS focuses on multi-tiered interventions to promote positive behaviours. As part of the approach to enabling a strong school culture which embodies our school values, we have put in place a whole school sticker rewards system.

Aim of the Reward System

At DPS we have implemented a reward system to reward positive behaviours that are necessary for promoting a positive and supportive school environment. These positive behaviours are based on our four values of Compassion, Resilience, Respect and Responsibility. Part of our reward system includes the handing out of stickers which are distributed by staff when the students are "caught" displaying one or more of the values.

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