Wellbeing & Engagement

Today is a great day to be you!

Welcome back for 2024!

We have had a wonderful start to the new school year here at Rangeview! Our staff have really enjoyed welcoming back all of the students after the school holidays, with a special welcome, of course, saved for all our new Foundation students! Students across all other year levels are always very excited to meet our new 'littlest' students - and I have been so pleased to see how well they have all settled in.

I spent some time earlier this week visiting a few Foundation classes whilst they were taking part in their first ever specialist classes (such as Art, Music, P.E. and Mathematics), and they also demonstrated incredible listening skills at their first ever Junior Assembly. We are really proud of their start to primary school life and can't wait to see the amazing growth they all show across the year.

The Resilience Project

Once again, we are proud partners with The Resilience Project (TRP) for 2024. This will be our third year dedicated to this program as a school, and we are keen for the values of TRP to continue to extend beyond the school gates this year.

Our aim is for our Rangeview families at home to utilise more of TRP's resources and commit to some proven, evidence-based strategies to support individual and family wellbeing.

The key pillars of TRP are:

Gratitude
Empathy
Mindfulness

Known as the 'GEM' principles, gratitude, empathy and mindfulness underpin all of TRP's lessons that our students will participate in across the year.

Gratitude - showing an appreciation for what you already have, and not worrying about what you don't have (or what others have)

Empathy - understanding the thoughts, feelings and perspectives of others; 'walking in their shoes'

Mindfulness - being present in the 'here and now'; focusing your energy on the moment

These principles, along with a developing understanding of emotional literacy (the ability to identify/recognise and label emotions - of yourself and others) will be explicitly taught in all classrooms.

Hanging out with Hugh van Cuylenberg - founder of TRP!

Later this year, we will also welcome a member of TRP's team to come out to the school to speak to our whole school community live and in person for an Information Night! We are very excited to offer this opportunity and will provide event details down the track.

Resilient Youth Survey - 2023 Report

There are many reasons why we are investing in programs such as The Resilience Project - because the research and evidence tells us just how important it is to explicitly focus on the mental health and wellbeing of our young children.

Our Year 3-6 students participate in the Resilient Youth Survey every year. In 2023, nearly 140,000 students (Year 3-12) across Australia took part in the survey (just over 61,000 primary-aged participants). Snapshots of the primary-based data are included below:

Peaceful Kids Program

We are very fortunate and pleased that Natalie Powell, our school social worker, is now going to be onsite two days per week. Natalie provides a wonderful support for our students and parent community.

This year, a key focus is on all of our Year 3 students participating in the Peaceful Kids Program. Natalie has run this program for many years at Rangeview, and with the extra day each week at school now, will be able to pass on this learning to all 95 Year 3 students across the 2024 school year.

The Peaceful Kids Program links closely to the work we are doing with The Resilience Project - it has a strong focus on Positive Psychology and Mindfulness strategies to help students manage emotions effectively.

We are very proud of the overall Wellbeing program we are able to offer our students!

Student Leadership Team

With every new school year comes new leadership opportunities for all of our students. As always, we have our formally recognised student leadership team, which consists of 38 highly capable role models who are going to set a wonderful example for others across the school this year.

We have already started our weekly student leadership meetings, which will be held every Friday morning before school in the library.

For our parents and carers of our new student leaders, we will hold our badge presentation at the whole school assembly on Monday February 19th. The assembly will begin at 2:45pm and our badge presentation will be one of the first items.

Whilst we recognise our formal student leadership team, we truly believe that leadership extends well beyond this group. Leadership at school is all about 'setting a positive example' - it can be as simple as lining up correctly outside of classrooms, putting your hand up and waiting your turn to speak, seeking help when someone is troubled, or asking someone else to play. We see leaders across every level and in every classroom - and we look at all of our Year 6s in particular as leaders for the school.

Anglicare ParentZone Community Supports

Please find attached below ParentZone's Term 1 'What's On Guide' for the East. There are many wonderful courses on offer, including:

You can view the entire ParentZone catalogue here.

Liam Sommers

Assistant Principal

Wellbeing and Engagement