Wellbeing 

G’day Miner’s Rest Community!

Social media use has skyrocketed during the Covid Era. Social Media has been great to help us keep socially connected with friends and families while we were physically distancing. As great as social media can be, it can also have a dark side.

There are a number of young people actively involved in chat groups with peers from Miner’s Rest Primary. While social media can be a useful tool in staying connected with others it can also be used harmfully and inappropriately. Whilst we haven’t been informed that students are using it to bully others we feel that it is important for us to let you be aware.

Monitoring a young person’s online activity and setting boundaries around acceptable online behaviour is important. Especially as many of these social media platforms have minimum age recommendations that are above primary ages.

At school we have a number of ways we keep our students safe online as well as to educate them on cyber safety. At home we would encourage you to also be aware of and take responsibility for your children’s online use and set boundaries to keep them, and others, safe online.

Here are a few links to the e-safety commissioner website which has some helpful ways of keeping young people safe online and for parents in approaching online safety. We also have a Miner’s Rest Primary School eSmart policy which can be accessed via our website.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/skills-advice/online-safety-basics

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/skills-advice/taming-technology

If you have any concerns or further questions you’d like to discuss please contact the Wellbeing Team via front office.

Kind Regards, Jesse Winter – school chaplain on behalf of The Wellbeing Team

Art Connections - Engaging student through Art

Throughout term 4, Miners Rest Primary has taken part in the 'Art Connection's' program organised by the Arts and Wellbeing team at Ballarat Community Health.

The program is based around the philosophy of ‘busy hands, calm mind’ and provides a range of art activities that teach new skills, inspire creative thinking, relieve stress, give a sense of achievement, and build resilience. 

Mr Searl has been supporting students to complete different activities each week this term, some of which the students have never tried before. The program finishes in Week 9.