Mentone Girls' Secondary College Newsletter

Wellbeing

Parenting teens during uncertain times

Adolescents may be missing school, friends and their social life. It is important to provide them with extra support as well as the space to express themselves independently.

 

Spend time with your teen 

  • Plan creative ways to communicate with friends and family (eg. writing messages or drawing pictures).
  • Cook a favourite meal together.
  • Exercise together to their favourite music.
  • Talk about something they like: sports, music, celebrities, friends.

    Talking about COVID-19 
  • Involve them in fact-finding and listen to their questions.
  • Task them with exploring a topic and reporting back to the family from a radio programme, a newspaper article or the internet.

Sharing responsibilities 

  • Teens appreciate having extra responsibilities. Allow them to choose a special job that helps out.
  • Create a time during the day where everyone shares one thing that they enjoyed.
  • Share responsibilities equally amongst women/men and girls/boys.

Making routines

  • Involve your teen in creating daily schedules.
  • Set goals and rewards together.
  • Make sure your teen has time to relax along with structured time for chores and schoolwork.

Dealing with difficult behaviour

  • Talk through the effects of challenging behaviour.
  • Explore alternatives with your teen and let them make suggestions.
  • Decide together on clear and fair rules and boundaries.
  • Praise your teen when they behave well and follow guidelines.

Help your teen manage stress 

  • Teens will get stressed too - sometimes from different things than you.
  • Allow them to express how they feel and accept their feelings.
  • Try to listen to your teen and see things from their perspective.
  • Do relaxing and fun activities together.
     

Keep your teen safe online

  • Involve your teen in creating family tech agreements about healthy device use.
  • Help your teen learn how to keep personal information private, especially from strangers
  • Remind your teen that they can talk to you whenever they experience something upsetting online.

Referrals 

Students can continue to access Wellbeing support from our qualified practitioners. Referrals can be made through emailing the relevant Student Manager.

 

National 24/7 crisis services

Online Counselling

The Wellbeing Team