Merri-bek Mail

Leadership Report

Michelle Carland - Disability and Inclusion Leader

Mindfulness

Working on mindfulness gives us opportunities to develop our ability to pay attention to the present moment and our thoughts. Practising mindfulness daily can help us stay focused on set tasks and reduce stress and anxiety.

 

Whole Family Activity:

Mindful Walk

  • As a family, go on a walk outside in nature. This might be around your local walking track, at your local park or just around your streets.
  • While walking, tune into your senses and observe what you can see, hear and feel. Or you might choose to focus on one of the senses. Eg: Hear: what are all the noises you can hear on your walk?
  • On your way home or when you return home, share what each person saw, heard or felt.

 

Family Habit Builder:

Each night at dinner, ask everyone to take one mouthful of food more mindfully than the rest and think about the flavours they can taste and how it makes them feel. (They can also thank the chef!).

 

 

Emotional Literacy

Working on our emotional literacy gives us opportunities to develop our ability to understand and express different emotions. When we improve our emotional literacy, we can work towards recognising our own feelings and our ability to manage them. This allows us to cope with different life situations, such as managing conflict, making friends, coping in difficult situations and being resilient when dealing with change.

 

Whole Family Activity:

Feelings Charades

• Gather together as a family, this might be around the dinner table, lounge room, around the fire outside.

• Take turns to act out a feeling or emotion. Use your face and body language to act this out, For example: Make an angry face and stamp your feet or 

• Other family members need to guess the feeling/emotion.

• After someone has guessed the feeling/emotion, have family members discuss a time they have felt this way before and why. If it was a negative emotion, how did they overcome it?

 

Family Habit Builder:

Around the dinner table, ask everyone to share a feeling they felt during that day. Discuss how they dealt with that feeling and then discuss and share strategies you could use when faced with particular feelings.

 

For access to The Resilience Project Parent Carer Hub, click on the following link:

https://theresilienceproject.com.au/2023-parent-carer-hub-inspire-hugh/ 

 

 

Kind regards,Michelle Carland

Disability Inclusion Leading Teacher

Costa Missailidis - Wellbeing and Engagement Leader

Open Streets

Open Streets continues to thrive, evolving into a significant community event. We extend our heartfelt appreciation to the parent volunteers who generously dedicate their mornings and afternoons to make this event possible.

We are also thrilled to announce that the parent volunteers from Merri-bek Primary School have been nominated for the 2024 Merri-bek Community Award. This prestigious event will take place on Monday, September 16th, at Coburg Town Hall. Congratulations and thank you again to the following volunteers:

  • Sal Mcleay
  • Katy Ingram
  • Andrew Barker
  • Anna Cook
  • Jake Phelan
  • Julien Viard
  • Marian Turner
  • Mariko Oya
  • Beth Angus
  • Imogen Trevaskis

Our most recent Open Streets event, in celebration of Father’s Day, was a resounding success. We are grateful to the PNC for organising the coffee morning and providing delicious muffins. It was a truly wonderful day!

 

BlueCross Hilltop Nursing Home

On Friday, August 2nd, a group of Grade 5 students visited the BlueCross Hilltop Nursing Home along with Costa and Lexie. The day began with an enjoyable bus ride on public transport, followed by a 15-minute walk filled with lively conversations.

The residents eagerly awaited our arrival and were thrilled to see us when we got there. It was heartwarming to witness the interactions between the residents and students—sharing experiences, asking questions, playing card games, performing magic tricks, conversing in different languages, and participating in mindfulness activities.

Both the students and residents have greatly appreciated the community engagement and partnership that has been established, and we look forward to continuing it throughout the year.