Wellbeing Update

We are incredibly proud of the work we are doing in the area of Wellbeing here at SKiPPS this term. In this week’s update we aim to give you an overview of:

• Play Leaders Program
• Pivot ‘Wellbeing for Learning’ surveys
• Pivot ‘Student Survey’ on Teaching
• Respectful Relationships Topic 7 – Gender & Identity
• Anti-Racism Policy development

Play Leaders

After a slightly stuttered start, due to swimming, the Play Leaders program is now back in full swing and with the sun shining this week we can’t wait to get out there!

Our leaders have shown great commitment to the program and maturity when adapting to the endless challenges and changes, often at the last minute.

They continue to meet every week to reflect on what is going well and how they might improve. Leaders share ideas and support each other to solve problems. They collaborate and make space for each of their team members to have have equal status.

The confidence they have gained from the Play Leaders program has been enormous and the opportunities they create for younger students to play games and socialise with others continues to have a positive impact throughout the school.

Quotes from our leaders:

‘Sometimes things don’t go as planned with our sessions, but we make it work. This week we had to combine our groups because we didn’t have as many people come. (Chloe Saliba 5/6A)

‘We found that the kids were very intense in dodgeball because they are very competitive, and they came to win! (Rosalie 5/6A)

‘Because we’re more experienced we’re better at adapting and changing things in our sessions.’ (Tomi 5/6G)

Pivot Surveys

Wellbeing Surveys:

Last term each class completed a 5-week cycle of Wellbeing check-ins using the PIVOT survey platform. Using the data collected, each year level team chose a DOMAIN (one of the survey areas) they felt the students needed the most support with. 

They then designed activities to gain further insight into what the students were thinking and their level of understanding within the DOMAIN.

Here are the key focus areas as selected by teams:

Teaching teams are engaging in ongoing professional learning in these areas to ensure that the program they design, and deliver, in the second half of this term gives students the tools and experiences they need in order to improve these areas.

Student Survey on Teaching

Specialist Teachers have been piloting a different use of the Pivot survey platform this year; a survey on teaching. Baseline surveys were completed by students in selected classes within each Specialist area in Term 1.

These surveys provided feedback to Specialist teachers about the programs they run, and the lessons and activities students take part in. Using the data provided they delved further into areas which had scored lower than others and devised a plan for using this information moving forward.

Here is an insight into what this looked like for Chantel in Visual Arts:

Chantel: Students identified ‘Teacher Knowledge’, ‘I know how to behave’ and ‘This teacher respects me’ as strengths. The additional survey showed that 73.3% of students used something they have learnt in Art in other aspects of their schooling and while 25/45 gave art a relevancy score of 3 or above, 30/45 gave the same score for the relevancy of the Art we do in class. The responses showed a pretty narrow understanding of why Art is important. I’d like to explore this further and resurvey them to hopefully show an improvement in that. 

For more information about the PIVOT platform, see: https://www.pivotpl.com/

In Respectful Relationships 

This term, classes from F-6 we will be working through Topic 7 – Gender and Identity. All lessons are designed to be delivered at an age-appropriate level and build on the work done in the year level before.

The key themes include exploring gender norms and stereotypes, comparing personal preferences, inclusive gender stories, gender roles in children’s media, using personal strengths, and facts about gender and opportunity.

SKiPPS Anti-Racism Policy

In last week’s Newsletter Neil highlighted the important work we have started as we look to work together as a community to create a SKiPPS Anti-Racism policy. We are being guided through this process by representatives from the Centre for Multi-Cultural Youth. 

Thank you to those of you who have already put yourselves forward to join our working group. We know that your voices, your perspectives and your experiences will help to ensure that this policy will help to provide a safe environment (physically, psychologically, emotionally and culturally) in which all students from any background have the best opportunity to learn and achieve.

If you are interested in getting involved in this project, please complete the short form at https://forms.gle/khRjSy8oVNDA8qTY7 and we will be in touch.

Mel Borella

Learning Specialist

Wellbeing