Wellbeing
Wellspring for Woman
Thanks to all the parents who were involved in the MConnect group this year. It certainly has been a challenging year and we had to be creative with how we could connect the school with the parent community whilst in lock down or not being able to come into school.
During the remote learning period, we ran a weekly Zoom meeting to chat for those parents who wanted the opportunity to connect to the school and other parents.
In Term 4, a group of Mums worked on a craft project decorating a square of fabric for a Values quilt. This quilt will soon be completed and displayed at school.
We would love to continue the partnership with Wellsprings for Women in 2021. If you have any ideas as to if you would like to be involved in this group next year and in what way, please email me on rlenko@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au. In the past we have had holiday excursions, cultural celebration days and parent workshops. All feedback is welcome.
Next year in 2021, Wellsprings for Women will be working with us to develop a Parent Gardening group. If you have knowledge and expertise in gardening or it is something you enjoy doing or it is a skill you would like to learn, then we would love you to come along and be involved. We will have a weekly meeting day where parents meet in the garden. Robyn from Wellsprings will get this group started and we will have some garden beds for this group to access and grow plants in. Parents will be able to take home what they grow in the garden and share the produce with their family. If this is something that you would love to be involved with next year, please let me know.
BeYou is a resource for educators that promotes the mental health of all members of the school community, children, teachers and parents. This week’s fact sheet from the BeYou website is all about transitions.
What are transitions?
Transitions are periods of change and continuity.
They are a period where children and families must adapt to new circumstances, expectations, people, environments and routines. Transitions are an important time to consider continuity between environments, expectations and relationships.
The transition to a new learning environment usually brings changes to a child or young person’s relationships, physical and social environments and daily routines. Transitions also bring challenges and opportunities for social and emotional learning.
This is also a time where educators, schools and early learning services adapt to their new entrants, and respond to their needs.
While education transitions bring exciting opportunities, some children and young people, and their families, can find these changes stressful. Ideally, learning communities start to prepare for a transition in the year (or years) before the change.
- Impact of transitions in education
For some children and young people, change is stressful.
Transitions in education require children and young people to adapt to new circumstances. The experience is different for everyone, and some children and young people, and their families, need extra support.
There are many ways that educators and families can support children and young people make positive transitions to early learning services and schools, including by identifying when support is required, and how to access and offer support.
Child Safety
Child safety is of the utmost importance at St Francis de Sales. This year Christine and I have been working with a group of senior students who were chosen to be a safety team. Their job has been to look at all our school policies and practices around student safety and rewrite their understandings in child friendly language. The safety team also created a simplified version of this document for the Junior school. This week the children have been actively promoting the message of student safety by presenting their slideshow to the Senior school. The senior students involved in this project have done an amazing job and they have impressed us each week with their dedication, enthusiasm and willingness to share ideas.
The Resilience Project
We will be continuing our partnership with the Resilience Project in 2021. The senior students will be working through the Resilience Project journals and the students from Foundation to 6 will be developing their understandings of the concepts of Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness and Emotional Literacy. Staff will have some professional development around how to implement the program and imbed these principles into the day. There will also be a Parent information session run by the Resilience Project on March the 23rd 2021. More details to follow.
If you have any questions or concerns about the wellbeing of your child, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Rachel Lenko
Student Wellbeing
rlenko@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au