Editorial

From the Deputy Principal

Welcome back PVCC community. We finally have some sunshine and things are actually feeling like a “normal” school this year. Students have come back in various modes; some fresh-faced and raring to go, while others are apprehensive and worried about what the new year will bring.

Isn’t God kind to have us all so different, so that we can complement and support one another in the various stages of our life journey? I am so thankful that we are becoming increasingly aware of mental and emotional health in particular, as we now know that the mind-body link is undeniable. Our emotional and mental health affects our physical bodies, our ability to sleep, to think and for students – their ability to learn.

Plenty Valley Christian College is committed to daring our students to be engaged, equipped and empowered. It takes both successes and failures to learn to navigate life well, and we need tools to use in both those circumstances.

We are pleased to continue using a wellbeing monitoring tool, called “Pulse” (by Educator Impact), where students track their own wellbeing week by week. It helps them to see that ups and downs are normal and also gives them the ability to reach out for help when things are too tough to do with their current skillset. Our staff uses this tool too, and so we are able to see where our college is “doing well” and where we need to equip our students and staff further, to enable them to strive for excellence.

This year we will continue with bullying (or anti-bullying) education, with engaging incursions showing acrobatics, dancers and music. We will be providing further resourcing on wellbeing through Open Parachute and providing resources to parents with Open Parachute forums at school (stay tuned), and offering up-to-date, expert video resources through SchoolTV.

Last year we “tried” a company called Elephant Ed, to help us navigate the difficult conversations and learning area of consent education. They did a great job and have helped us immensely in our understanding. However, as a Christian school, we really wanted to go deeper and believe we can only do that with like-minded professionals who are Christians. This year we are grateful to engage the services of “Big Kids Table”, to help workshop areas of sex education, consent, partying, relationships and the tricky world of being a teenager. These Christian education professionals felt called to develop educational resources in this area, and we will be learning from them, both students and staff, throughout the year. We will be informing you in more detail as the dates approach.

The college is resourcing wellbeing as a priority for our students, for our staff and for you as parents, as we believe that each of us is valuable and made in God's image. Our world doesn’t always reflect his perfect plan (well mostly doesn’t really), and so we need help at times, to cope with the effects of an imperfect world, and imperfect people.

As the executive member who oversees wellbeing for the college, I consider it an honour and a privilege, to lead a team of great people, who can help us be proactive in developing resilience, coping strategies and relationship “toolkits”, and also help work through difficulties when things aren’t going to plan!

Lily McDonald

Deputy Principal