Wellbeing

There has been lots happening in the Well Being team this term that is worth celebrating.

The Breakfast Club has started, courtesy of Foodbank, and has been a great success.  We often hear from students that it is difficult in the morning for a whole variety of reasons to eat breakfast before coming to school.  Every day approximately 30 students are coming through the club, either staying for toast or cereal or picking up a healthy snack for the day.  On Toastie Thursdays the team are making approximately 70 toasties that students look like they are enjoying.  Fruit is now available outside Well Being most days, and every week I order more boxes to meet demand.  Parents would like to hear that, when made easily available, the school is going through approximately 80 kilos of fruit!

The Breakfast club has been supported by a team of volunteer students – I can’t thank these students enough. They help us set up and pack up every day and make and cook the toasties.  These volunteer students are also helping with a Teacher Champion program that Alex Tiver in the Well Being team is rolling out.  Students were called upon to nominate teachers that they felt were doing a good job supporting students and the Well Being volunteers will be delivering certificates to these teachers next week.

The Well Being team has also welcomed Bo-Daniel Pinder into the team.  Many parents will know Bo as a teacher who has been with Vermont Secondary College for a number of years.  We are trialling having Bo spend time in classrooms and student managers offices, as a way of trialling a different approach to supporting students here at the school.

As the term draws to a close, I thought parents might be interested in a summary of the different programs that have been rolled out this year across all the different year levels. Programs are chosen based on feedback from students and student managers about emerging issues and concerns at each year level:

Year 7

Toolbox Education – Thinking Traps workshop helping students challenge anxious and unhelpful thoughts

Brainstorm Production – The Flipside production on cyberbullying

Year 8 

Toolbox – Mental Movies workshop helping students spot and re-write unhelpful narratives they tell themselves

Year 9

Butterfly Foundation – Workshop called Lets talk appearance (Term 4)

Victorian Responsible Gambling Assocation – Be Ahead of the Game (Term 4)

Year 10 

Elephant Ed – Healthy choices in relationships

Elephant Ed – Consent education

Year 11

Sexual Health Victoria – Safer Sex

FVREE – Lets talk – how to identify red flags in relationships and how to support  a friend in a difficult relationship

Year 12

Elephant Ed – Sexual Violence – how to support a friend 

As always, I would like to thank parents for their communication and support of the school and students and encourage parents to reach out if they have questions about the above content on leesa.moar@education.vic.gov.au