Assistant Principal - Wellbeing & Welfare

When we ask parents what they want of their children we usually get the response ‘I want them to be happy!’  At Park Ridge Primary School we are committed to developing kind, grateful and positive students.  Over many years, our school has been on a journey to embed positive education into the curriculum.  This initiative brought together the science of Positive Psychology with the best practice teaching to encourage and support individuals, our school and the community flourish.  Positive Education focuses on specific skills that assist students to strengthen their relationships, build positive emotions, promote a healthy lifestyle and enhance resilience, mindfulness and gratitude.

At Park Ridge Primary School we have implemented the Berry Street Education Model (BSEM).  This is a highly researched best practice approach to the teaching of Positive Education in schools, in order to improve a school’s capacity to address the engagement of young people so they can achieve their personal social potential through academic achievement.

This model is made up of lessons, strategies and brain breaks and is broken us into five key areas.  These five domains of the Berry Street Education Model correspond with child‑development capacities that each student must build in order to be ‘ready to learn’. When considering how to best meet the needs of students, we focus on building self-regulatory ability, relational capacity and then nurture willingness to engage in learning.

The five domains are:

Body - Building students’ capacity by increasing physical regulation of the stress response, de-escalation and focus

Relationship - Nurturing on-task learning through relational classroom management strategies

Stamina - Creating a culture of academic persistence by nurturing resilience, emotional intelligence and a growth mindset

Engagement - Motivating students with strategies that increase their willingness to learn

Character - Harnessing a values and character strengths approach to instill students’ self-knowledge for future pathway

At Park Ridge Primary School we believe the Berry Street Education Model is strengthening our teaching as it focuses on educating the heart as well as the mind.

For families with students in Year 1 to Year 6 you will have seen the new BSEM Student Home Learning Diary.  This provides your child with a structured daily reminder of the well-being and learning principles at the core of the Berry Street Education Model. It’s still a diary and retains all the usability you would expect, but with so much more.

We believe there is no better way to reinforce and embed Park Ridge’s Positive Education and Well-being approach than to echo the core learnings and values from within your child’s diaries.