Wellbeing Report 

Hi everyone, we have a fantastic Wellbeing Team with me, Sally and Libby. We can help with any parenting worries or support your family with home or family concerns. The Wellbeing Team are on before and after school duty and we can help with any questions or queries you may have. 

If parents are looking to purchase school uniform, we sell second hand school uniforms.  We accept donations from families, and we often need spare socks and boys’ and girls’ underwear to change children. When a child has a toileting accident or gets wet, having a supply of spare clothes. This means there’s no disruption to a parent’s day where you would get a phone call to come down to the school with a change of clothes. 

Also, when families are feeling financial strain and hardship we can apply to State School Relief for school uniform, underwear, socks and school shoes and runners. Keep in mind that State School Relief can also help families replace eyeglasses. Students can get one free voucher per year which is particularly handy when a child breaks or loses their glasses.   

For any enquiries, please email the Wellbeing Team at-

Andre.Campbell@education.vic.gov.au

Sally.Marshall@education.vic.gov.au

elizabeth.martin3@education.vic.gov.au

Many children regularly complain when they come to school that they are tired, couldn’t get to sleep or they had a late night.  This impacts on their ability to tune in and retain their learning and can affect their relationships and problem-solving skills. 

As adults we understand how we are affected when we are over tired. I would like to encourage parents to have reasonable expectations about bedtime routines. 

Having a consistent and early enough bedtime during children’s younger years is likely to pay dividends when they are older, with research showing that children who have non-regular and late bedtimes are more likely to perform worse in reading and maths. The longer the irregular and late sleep patterns continue, the more likely it is that a child may suffer these cognitive effects.

How Much Sleep Do Children Need?

Babies: at least 15 hours sleep and up to 20 when they are very young

Toddlers & Pre-schoolers (1 - 5): about 12 to 14 hours sleep

Primary School: about 10 to 12 hours sleep

High School: at least 8 hours but up to 10 hours sleep.

Activities at Breaktimes

Across the year, at break times, the Wellbeing Team run activity clubs. If your child is looking to make friends, have some fun and be creative, tell them they can come to the activity clubs. The clubs run in the main building outside the specialist classrooms and in the library. In the past, students enjoyed making key chains, bracelets, fidgets and cat’s eyes, turtles, finger knitting, bookmarks and they created some amazing Lego builds. 

We are always looking for donations, especially wool, crochet hooks, craft/haberdashery items and Lego. This term, we are collecting the Woolworth’s Lego Bricks. When you are doing your weekly shop or if you have a family member interested in collecting them, we would appreciate you keeping the school in mind. In the past, we have collected the series called the supermarket and farm.  The students still love making different shops and farms.  If you are having a clean out, please feel free to bring your items to the office/wellbeing office. 

 Playtime-Arguments 

The Wellbeing Team have been supporting students on dealing with arguments. This week’s shout out comes from Piper in grade 3/4A, “If you are feeling angry that your friend won’t listen, just walk away and take a break. A teacher on duty can help you or you could find other adults or me.  We like listening and helping kids with their problems.” Great advice Piper! 

For children trying to make things work when they are playing with their friends, they often have arguments. Tell your child that arguments happen to everyone and that having an argument doesn’t mean the end of a friendship or being enemies.  Point out that in all arguments both people think they are right. Sometimes an argument can be resolved when it occurs. At other times people need to avoid hurting the other person’s feelings too much at the time by going away to calm down and then trying to resolve it later. Dealing well with arguments protects friendships and reduces bad feelings. 

Tips

• Try to stay calm and talk through the problem using a respectful voice.

• If you or the other person is getting angry or out of control, say” We’re getting too angry. Let’s talk about it later” and walk away.

• Make sure you do talk about it later. When you’ve calmed down, recognise that allowing the bad feelings to continue is not a good thing. You are responsible for dealing with them.

• When you feel calm, go and talk to the other person.

• Put your point of view and talk about your feelings e.g. I felt bad when you didn’t include me in the game”.

• Let them put their point of view.  Listen without interrupting until they have finished.

• Try to find a way to be friends again.

Personal Hygiene Alert

This week we’ve had reports of gastro from parents and carers. Viruses can spread quickly throughout the school and it’s important to keep reminding children about washing their hands. 

Kids are often too busy to value and understand practising personal hygiene Please talk to your children, remind them to always wash their hands before eating or preparing food, after going to the toilet or playing, and after touching animals or dirty objects. Regular baths or showers will help keep your child clean and healthy. Bathing at the end of the day can also be part of an enjoyable bedtime routine. 

DET School Nurse Program- Preps School Entry Health Checks Due 

Thank you to all our prep families who completed the online health questionnaire for your child. If you haven’t got to it, it’s not too late.  The postcard QR Code allows you to access information on how to access and complete a health questionnaire. The questionnaire information helps the nurse look for any health issues.  If the nurse has concerns, they will contact you to talk about options to help your child. If this is a problem, then we do have hardcopies of the health questionnaire so please ask the office or your prep classroom teacher. 

Our DET nurse, Sarah Torsello, will start the health screening program in Term 2. She is booked to come out on Wednesday the 22nd of April. 

Attendance & Absences

We encourage parents and carers to refer to COMPASS for information happening at school. Schools are required to work towards IMPROVING THE ATTENDANCE and PUNCTUALITY RATES of our students. We encourage all parents to call the office when your child is going to be away and to notify the school through COMPASS. This really helps us as we are able to communicate effectively with all relevant staff early in the school day.

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

This past fortnight, we have celebrated 8 out of 9 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.

ADHD Webinar Series

Recently I have been attending a ADHD webinar offered for free by Youth Services.

The webinar is presented by Tony Vallance from Building Better Brains. Last week the session was called Big Feelings, Bigger Hearts. He spoke about ways to connect with our children when they are experiencing big emotions, he encouraged us to use touch as a way to calm our children in small ways such as reaching out and touching their foot, asking them to hold out their hand and tracing around their fingers which also helps regulate breathing. He uses a lot of play therapy at his clinic to help children regulate and encouraged parents to introduce them at home, some of these ideas were using bubbles, play-doh, push against your hands, count the squeezes when holding hands and so many more. If you would like to join the last three sessions here is the link flyer

Second hand uniform

Available, contact the Wellbeing team to access free second hand uniform.

Breakfast Club

If you would like your child to make use of our yummy breakfast foods, send them to school that bit earlier so they will have time to eat and enjoy their food. We serve toast until the music is playing for the start of the school day. Please remind your child that if they want to have something to eat before school that they need to head straight down to the German Room. While the music for the bell is playing there are only fruit cups and milk drinks available.

Food Pantry

Cereal is so expensive at the supermarket but it is free at the pantry! Come down to pick up a box or two from our healthy cereal options provided by Foodbank.

The food pantry is open on Wednesday and Friday afternoons between 2:30 and 3:30pm.

Chaplaincy

Sally Marshall – Chaplain: is happy to catch up with your child if you feel they need that extra emotional support during school hours. Sally is available on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and can be contacted via email 

sally.marshall@education.vic.gov.au

 or by phone call 5964 7258.