Student Wellbeing 

Wellbeing News

Give girls social scripts

Help your daughters develop social scripts she’ll need for all sorts of situations from a four-year-old meeting new friends at pre-school to an eighteen-year-old negotiating ‘No’ when in a compromising personal situation. Give girls the language they need to be social and safe in a variety of situations along their path to womanhood.

Encourage perspective taking

Many girls, particularly eldest girls in families, can be inflexible in their thinking and have difficulty understanding viewpoints that are different to their own.  Debating two sides of a topic or argument with your daughter is a great way to develop more flexible, empathetic thinking that’s so helpful when keeping friendships.

 Play the game

Team sports help girls develop many valuable friendship skills including teamwork, cooperation, encouragement, resolving conflict and leadership. Encourage your daughter’s involvement in at least one group activity or sport.

Differentiate between friendships and a clique

Start a conversation about friendships with your daughter before she moves into puberty. In particular, talk about how a good friend acts and discuss the difference between a friendship group and a clique. The former is a supportive, healthy group whereas the latter is restrictive and unhealthy.

Teach the skills of optimism

Girls can be really hard on themselves when they fail. They are more likely to blame themselves when they fail than boys. This is a strength (taking responsibility) and a weakness (leading to perfectionism). Teach your daughters the skills of optimism so that they think of their failures and successes in ways that foster confidence, mastery and flourishing mental health.

https://www.parentingideas.com.au/blog/21-girl-friendly-parenting-tips-and-strategies/

Josie Mitchell, Secondary School Nurse

Flourish Program

Flourish was a program we ran in term 2 for a group of year 7 male students and it focused on enhancing their wellbeing.

The objective of Flourish is to create a space where students can thrive both in their school environment but also in life in general. Celeste delivered the program.

The students engaged in a range of group discussions and activities including expressing different emotions through participating in role-plays.

Over the course of 5 weeks we covered…

Strengths- Students were able to identify their strengths and shared them with the group. Students learned the importance of focusing on what they love, their gifts and the things they thrive in.

Self esteem- Students were given strategies they can implement in their life to maintain a positive self-esteem. One activity focused on replacing a negative thought with a positive thought about themselves. Furthermore, students were given a scenario about a person with a low self-esteem and it was up to them to help the person develop a positive self-esteem.

Emotions- Students were able to become aware of their emotions and develop ways they can manage them. One activity the students engaged in involved a coke can. This dealt with the importance of not keeping our emotions bottled up but learning to share how we feel before we explode so to speak.  Students also drew their facial expression on a blank face and shared how they were feeling on that particular day and why.

Stress- Students were able to recognise when they get stressed, what causes their stress and how they can overcome it. An activity they participated in was identifying five situations that makes them stressed and on the back of the paper they traced their hand and then identified five ways they can overcome their stress.

Resilience- Students learned the importance of remaining resilient when life gets challenging. One activity involved them eating jelly beans with chopsticks. This taught them that achieving our goals can be tricky but in the end the reward will be worth it.

In the last week we celebrated the program by eating together and sharing what we learnt. Muhammad (Rayaan) Khalil was one of the students that participated in the program. Here’s a bit of his experience...

Before the program:

Before participating in this program I didn’t know how to manage my emotions so when I felt angry I would not talk about it and hide how I felt. When I did speak to people when I was angry I would be disrespectful.

After the program:

After participating in the program I now know how to manage my anger. Before I would get involved in situations that would have negative outcomes, which would make me angrier. However now I chosen to walk away and not get involved in fights because I know that will lead me into getting trouble.

What I enjoyed the most:

I enjoyed getting to know other students in my year level. Before we knew of each other but now when we see each other in the yard or by our lockers we greet each other.

Favourite activity:

My favourite activity was during the first week when we learnt about strengths. We had to write, “I use my strengths to the best of my ability everyday” three times with the hand we don’t usually write with. This taught me that we usually don’t build on our weaknesses but we should focus on what we are good at.

Why I would recommend this program

My advice is to participate in this program because…

It will change your future because it will make you a better person.

Thanks

The Wellbeing Team

Placement Students

The Student Wellbeing Team will be supervising the following students as a part of their Social Work & Youth Work placement here at Brookside College. The Youth Work students will also be supervised Ms Fehmi on the days they are not with the Wellbeing Team. The placement students will working in the areas such as:

• Group work (observing, planning and facilitating)
• Case Management
• Mentoring students (supervised by counsellors)
• Breakfast Club
• Participating and working with college events and activities

My name is Kristienne “Krissy” Martin, and I am a second year placement student completing my Master in Social Work degree at The University of Melbourne. I graduated Year 9 from Brookside College in the year 2010 and have returned as part of the alumni working with the Wellbeing Team 5 days a week, Monday – Friday. I will be taking on the roles of counselling and group facilitating students, whilst completing various administrative jobs during my time here. I completed my first placement at the Brotherhood of St. Laurence under the Multicultural sector working mostly with migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Although it was a great experience, I wanted a chance to work in the field of my passion towards children, youth and families. Undertaking my placement at Brookside College is a great opportunity to enrich my knowledge and practice my social work skills in a unique school environment that will guide me in my future endeavours.

Placement Dates: Everyday, July 15th – October 25th

Keziah (Kaye) is a final year Youth Work student, and is currently doing placement at Brookside College. She aspires to be a Counsellor once she has graduated from university, and intends on completing a postgraduate course in order to further her knowledge and skills in the field. She has a passion for all young people— aiming to ensure that those she is able to work with receive equitable support and positive outcomes.

Placement Day: Wednesdays

Candice. D is currently in her final year of the Bachelor of Youth Work at Victoria University, and is here at Brookside College doing her placement. After she graduates, Candice plans to begin her career by working with young people who may be experiencing mental health issues and homelessness. Although Candice has these career paths in mind, she thoroughly enjoys working with all young people from any range of diverse backgrounds.

Placement Day: Thursdays

Tori is in her final year of study for the Bachelor of Youth Work at Victoria University. She is currently here at Brookside College to complete her placement. Once graduated, Tori would like to pursue a career working with at-risk and disadvantaged young people. In the future, Tori would like to find the opportunity to incorporate her love for travel into her career by working abroad. Overall, Tori has a strong passion for working with young people, and aims to give them a sense of empowerment while also strengthening their relationships with their communities however she can.

Placement Day: Thursday

Candice. A has previously completed a Cert IV in Community Services and is currently in her second year of the Bachelor of Youth Work at Victoria University. She has previous experience working with children and young people with complex backgrounds within programs, outreach and camp based setting. Candice looks forward to increasing her work experience and developing her knowledge further whilst on placement at Brookside P-9 College. Outside of work, Candice enjoys live music gigs, movies, exhibitions and musicals as well as spending time with family and friends.

Placement Day: Wednesdays