MITS Year 7 Wellbeing Program

Why is the Wellbeing of our students such a focus at MITS?

MITS creates a culturally safe place for our students to learn and thrive, through students having regular contact with families, students learning about our cultures in class and from each other. MITS appreciates how living away from your loved ones and off country can affect how our students feel each day, how they learn and how they understand and build relationships.

What guides our Wellbeing practice at school?

Berry Street Educational Model (BSEM)

The MITS staff have engaged in the Berry St training over the years, most recently Lia and Tara completing the four-day training program in Richmond.

The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) provides strategies for teaching and learning that enables teachers to increase engagement of students with complex, unmet learning needs and to successfully improve all students’ self-regulation, relationships, wellbeing, growth and academic achievement.

Morning Check-in

Students complete a ‘Morning Check-in’ each day to let staff know how they are feeling – physically and emotionally, whether they would like to have a one-to-one discussion with staff about any concerns and relay to staff their readiness to learn.

DEAR (Drop Everything And Read)

Reading a book of choice to an adult each morning offers students the opportunity to improve their oral reading skills and feel supported by the wider school community.

Morning Circle

The primary purpose of the Morning Circle is to support each student to establish connectedness and trust with their peers and the adults that support them. We share in an Acknowledgement of Country to start our Circle each day, and move on to warmly greet each other, share announcements and focus on a Positive Vibe for the week. This term our Positive Vibes are derived from the MITS Values of Respect, Care, Courage and Culture.

We would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land, the Wurundjeri people. We, the MITS mob are 22 Indigenous students from across Australia who’ve moved to Naarm to come to live and study on Wurundjeri land of the Kulin Nation. In our culture, respect is very important and at MITS our school values are respect, courage, culture and care. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation and local elders who are doing all they can to protect and take care of the land we are on today. We pay our respects to all Indigenous people present from right around Australia. Written by Olivia, Amarah, Peter, Soraya

Acknowledgement of Country: “The Acknowledgement of Country is how we start the day off being respectful.” Lexi

What do the MITS mob think about how we promote and maintain optimal states for learning?

Brain Breaks: “Brain Breaks reset your mind so you can have better understanding and better focus for the next task.” Des

Positive Primers: “Positive Primers help us to focus better, plus they get our brain working.” Olivia

Mindfulness: “Meditation and colouring keep us calm.” Jamelia

Track the Speaker: “It means you have to look at the speaker and listen to what they are saying.” Lily

Listen like Patty (Mills): “It’s about treating people with respect and being interested in what they are saying.” Nariyah

Who else supports our students Health and Wellbeing at MITS?

Our doctors

Each Monday and Wednesday, our students have the opportunity to consult with our doctors Sally Manuell and Jon Gillies. These visits are important to keeping our students physically healthy and both doctors have a strong rapport with our students, built on trust and care.

Dr Jon – “He is a good doctor because he helped with my hearing, and he is a nice man.” - Munyari

Dr Sally – “Dr Sally always makes sure that nothing is wrong and if something is wrong, she does everything she can to make it go away. She is very caring.” Mahkylah

Our psychologists

Each Friday or students are fortunate enough to spend some time with a psychologist in Yarra Park either walking amongst the trees or cycling along the paths. These sessions support the mental health of our students as they navigate living away from family and going to school in a big city.

“I can connect and talk to Rose about footy and things I can’t talk about to other people” Des

“Karen checks in about my week, I appreciate the time and Karen is really nice.” Emma

“I like riding with Remy. I get to talk, and I feel relaxed and supported.” Ryan

Ruth Dunn has a very special connection to MITS and has been supporting the Year 7 program since its conception. Ruth has been walking and talking with several of our students all year with either Toby or Betsy by their side. Ruth also kindly offers to host afternoon tea with a small group of students on a Wednesday throughout the school terms, which the students think is wonderful!

Sam Weily has supported our MITS students and staff for many years now, and continues to support several of our fellas, as well as the teaching staff on a regular basis.

“He is really fun and makes me do challenges. He is helping me not be worried about things”-Winnie

Our additional support teams

Speech Therapist

Miya St John from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute supports several of our students working on targeted goals each week at school.

Osteopathy

Leena Stocks-Ramsey sees students with muscular skeletal issues when needed at her clinic close by to school.

Dental

The Chompers Van from the North Richmond Community Health have completed their annual check-ups. The dental team are always very friendly and make the students feel at ease.

Audiology and Optometry

The University of Melbourne have completed their annual assessments for the year, and several of our students have benefitted greatly from the addition on glasses to help them learn.

Immunisation

Immunisations are accessed through City of Yarra as required and recorded with Medicare.

All in all, the MITS mob are very well taken care of by a group of incredibly supportive and caring people, for which the students and staff are very grateful!!

MITS Family Newsletter 2022

Respect, Courage, Culture & Care

August · 19 Aug 2022

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