Mental Health & Wellbeing

What a joy it has been serving breakfast to the school community. Over the four days that we run the program, on average, we have cooked 216 slices of toast. For those students with gluten or dairy allergies they can come to the window and let us know and they too can have something before they walk into the classroom. Whether it be first, second or third breakfast, the hot toast and other food items have been greatly appreciated.

The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) aims to provide educators with knowledge and strategies to support the complex learning needs of all students. BSEM acknowledges that every classroom contains some students who require a trauma-informed approach to build safety and connection and achieve their potential as learners.

On 21st of May we completed our third day of the Berry Street Education Model, 'Domain 3: Stamina and Engagement'. This domain priorities stamina for on-task learning and increasing student engagement. The domain builds on a foundation of student resilience.

Learning requires vulnerability as students go through the learning cycle, making mistakes and building onto their prior knowledge. Making mistakes in front of peers may make some students feel more vulnerable. Learning requires resilience and courage for the student to sit with uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, and continue to persist. Building students' resilience empowers them to navigate those difficult moments when learning is uncomfortable. 

There were four focus areas:

Focus area 1: Positive climate for leaning - Positive climates for learning create conditions that optimise student stamina, engagement and daily task completion. 

Focus area 2: Positive Priming - Positive Priming aims to prime learners with positive emotions before taking on new challenges. This is a short task/activity that aims to get learners positively focused and ready for learning.

Focus area 3: Emotional intelligence -  Emotional intelligence plays a vital role in student learning and wellbeing. It is the capacity to perceive emotions of the self and others, to discriminate between different emotions, and to us this awareness to guide how we think, act and treat others.

Focus area 4: Resilience - Resilience is one of our School Values. It is the capability to overcome difficulties. BSEM aims to build students' self-esteem in moments of challenge so they understand that, while a task might feel hard today, this does not mean we are not successful learners. It just means that we have not learnt it yet!

It was a very informative day, with everyone buzzing with new strategies to support all of the learners at Spring Gully, even the adults!