Student Wellbeing
Every year St Joseph’s is proud to be part of the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA).
The theme for 2022 is Kindness Culture.
National day of action was March 18th, the same day we celebrated St Joseph’s Day.
A virtue of St Joseph was kindness and it was very fitting that we celebrated as a school community, St Joseph and who he was, on this day of action.
By building a Kindness Culture together, we can promote inclusion, respect and community belonging for all students.
Year levels have been exploring the theme of Kindness, throughout this term and will continue to focus on what kindness looks like, sounds like and feels like.
Planning for a safe and supportive school community requires a whole-school community approach.
Whole-school responses to bullying prevention build positive and supportive school environments by incorporating strategies for intervention at all levels, inclusive of students, teachers, parents and carers.
Three key characteristics outlined in the national definition of bullying distinguish bullying behaviours from other forms of peer aggression behaviours that do not constitute bullying.
The key characteristics of bullying include:
1. power imbalance
2. deliberate intent to cause harm, and
3. ongoing and repeated behaviour.
While the following behaviours of peer aggression do not constitute bullying, these behaviours may still be serious and require intervention at home and at school:
- arguments and disagreements (where there is no power imbalance)
- single acts of social rejection or meanness, or
- isolated incidents of aggression, intimidation or violence.
It is important for our entire school community, including our staff, parents, carers and students, have a clear understanding of the definition of bullying to be able to distinguish these behaviours from peer aggression and correctly identify and respond to incidents of bullying. The full national definition can be found by clicking below.
What is bullying? - National Definition of Bullying
Knowing the types of bullying behaviour can also help you identify if the incident is bullying or peer aggression. While neither of these behaviours are tolerated at St Joseph’s, they do require different management strategies, and the first step for responding is to correctly identify the behaviour.
Leadership and Staff at St Joseph’s frequently meet, discuss and revise our school policies supporting behaviour management, student behaviour and our positive relationships.
Kindness is as simple as a morning smile or friendly wave and greeting. Holding a door open for someone, thinking of someone else’s needs and of course using our manners towards one another. It costs nothing to be kind to others and can make the world of difference to someone who may just need a little act of kindness in their day.
eSafety
Today students took part in our annual cyber safety incursion facilitated by Police Officers Matt and Trent from the Somerville Police, Pro-Active unit. All year levels were fortunate to be guided and informed by Matt who knows the facts about being safe online. Highly engaged and informed were all students in this timely and most important incursion highlighting healthy wellbeing online. It was wonderful to see parents attending these sessions as well.