Term 1 Report: On Inclusion and Values 

We want all students to feel connected as members of our school community. Inclusivity, though, is not just the invitation to be a part of a community but requires that everyone is known and valued as an individual. Opportunities for students to get to know each other, then, have been an important priority in the Year 7 and 8 Wellbeing Program this term, and will continue to be a priority this year. 

For Year 7s, the Integr8 Transition Program culminated in the very successful Year 7 Camp to Marysville this term. Students had the opportunity to work with and develop a range of new and positive relationships across the year level. Students stayed in cabins with their peers and participated in a range of adventure and other activities that offered rich experiential learning for the development of resilience, responsibility and team-work skills. This shared experience was an important and formative experience for Year 7 students this year. And, it contributed to the aim of inclusion by building the school’s understanding of each child. 

In Year 8, students have been involved in a few notable sequences as part of the Wellbeing Program. Students were engaged in learning more about their learning preferences and devising strategies so that they might harness their strengths for their benefit. Students learnt important study techniques with the aim of developing an increased sense of confidence in learning. This comes at an appropriate time in the students’ journey through the Middle Years, as we want students to have greater self-awareness and exert more control over their learning, so that they might develop into competent learners and individuals. The Year 8 students also engaged in a sequence on leadership and collaboration and were challenged to think about the traits of good and effective leaders and the value of collaboration in achieving shared aims. Both are important aspects of being part of a community and in creating an inclusive community. 

Next Term, we look to other rich opportunities that await each year level in the Wellbeing Program. Year 7 students will have the opportunity to reflect and learn about the dynamics of personal relationships. They will learn more about emotional regulation, so that they can develop greater self-awareness. Year 8 students will begin the Thrive Program, a mental health awareness project unique to Shelford, which draws upon the expertise of the school’s psychologists to provide greater awareness to students about their mental health and equip them to more fully direct their development. It is a great component of the Wellbeing Program and I hope students enjoy this opportunity.  

Everything we do at Shelford is rooted in the school’s values: Respect, Integrity, Creativity and Passion. To this, the Middle Years have added Resilience and Focus as core values for our work this year. At the beginning of the year, all students were invited to collaborate and reflect on the community they wanted to be part of and to think about how the values of the school can be inspirational in their journey this year (and beyond). Together, the Year 7 and the Year 8 students created a document that expressed, in the students’ words, what they hoped for in our community; and what they expected from their community. This has become an aspirational document for all who operate in the Middle Years – students and teachers – and it has become the bedrock of our efforts to grow together. I am very proud of these documents and the determination that they represent that everyone in our community is compassionate, moral, curious, resolute and robust. These values and behaviours present an ongoing goal for everyone, of course, but a worthy goal representative of the students’ ambitions individually and together. We will continue to revise and revisit these aspirations together. We look especially, now, to students being ‘upstanders’ in our community: paragons of these shared values and advocates for the good. The Wellbeing Mentors and I have been working to support students in this aim. As I have said to the students, being a representative of these values, being an inclusive citizen in our community, can be exhibited by kindness and, as a student reminded me just the other day, courage: kindness out of a sense of the innate dignity of each person in our community and courage to stand up for what is right.  

In the ongoing project of creating an inclusive and nurturing community, I am delighted to work with our newly elected Parliamentarians: 

• Francesca W 
• Ginger G 
• Mylie F 
• Sophie N 
• Cindy Z 
• Grace P  

Each student is a brilliant exemplar for the values of our school, and I look forward very much to working with them. Already, their positive influence has been noted. 

As a cohort of Year 7 and 8 students and teachers, we strive to be kind to and empathetic of others; we strive to understand that people are doing the best they can where they are at; and we strive to be compassionate of others. As community at Shelford, we know that every person has great potential and that everyone yearns to make positive contributions that enrich all, but we know, too, that sometimes we need the strength, the patience and the kindness of others, that these strengths can shine bright for all. 

Tristan Hill

Middle Years Coordinator