Woori Wallabies Playgroup –Starting Tuesday 2nd March 1:30-3:00pm in the Multi-purpose room .

Breakfast Club Tuesday & Thursday-cooking room 8:00am onwards.

The recent changes to COVID-19 Level Restrictions have been challenging times for all of us. Safety, connection, mental wellness, physical health and maintaing relationships are important to supporting ourselves and our families. Please reach out to others for support if you need it and let us all play a positive role in getting through this. Our welfare team can assist with any enquires or welfare supports. Many services and supports are changing their ways in order to provide direct access for families.

Random Acts of Kindness Week is February 14-20, 2021

We can all use more kindness in our lives and this week it is National Kindness Week. Scientific evidence shows us the positive effects of doing kind acts for others as well as receiving or even witnessing kindness. Even the smallest act of kindness can change a life. Practicing gratitude, empathy and mindfulness are key to looking after ourselves.

Junior school council students will speak to their grades about acts of kindness and the small yet powerful things we can help everyone around us. “Explore the Good” is the Random Acts of Kindness slogan and all students can enter in a colouring-in competition where the junior school council will vote on the top entries. There will be some prizes and we look forward to all the amazing posters coming our way. Students can find the colouring-in sheets on the table outside the welfare counselling office. We will display the posters around the school and we look forward to seeing and hearing more examples of people being kind.

Wellbeing Tips at Home

Checking in with each other using the Blob Tree.

Create a gratitude display on your fridge with photos, drawings, affirmations and quotes. Every day get your family to talk about something they are grateful for. To track your gratefulness, you could even write the family highlight straight onto the calendar. It will be a fantastic reminder and it can be seen by everyone.

Make a gratitude jar. Start with an empty jar and decorate it however you would like. Every time you witness an act of kindness, write it down and place the memory in the jar. Collect memories, observations and unexpected surprises of kindness throughout the week. At the end of the week, read back through the notes and enjoy reliving those moments.

Free Happy Families Membership

If you are a new family at the school you may not be aware that the school has a free membership to the Happy Families website. The school will have free access until August and I would like to encourage everyone to join. The Happy Families membership gives you access to a number of resources which will help families, staff and students to thrive. Every member will receive a weekly "Lighten the Load" email, which includes a quick, easy to apply tip from Dr Justin, as well as some updates about other features in the membership. There is a library of parenting resources which offers calm assurance, direction and solutions you can try out on your families.

Click on the link to join- https://members.happyfamilies.com.au/woori-yallock-primary-school

Woori Wallabies Playgroup

Veronica and I are looking forward to playgroup starting! Woori Wallabies Playgroup is open to anyone in the community, for all children from birth to kinder. We welcome all parents and carers to be a part of our group and we appreciate parents helping us run the program. We look forward to getting to know you and your children over the year so please don’t hesitate in speaking further with our Playgroup Team. For further information, please call the office or speak to Veronica and myself. Playgroup will start soon on Tuesday the 2nd of March.

Wellbeing & Mental Health Supports

Last year the Federal Government extended psychological supports through Medicare by providing an extra 10 sessions to the current Mental Health Plan criteria. It means that for people who are affected by the Corona Virus pandemic they will be able to access up to 20 sessions. Please contact your GP or health professional. For further information-

https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/additional-covid-19-mental-health-support

During these times, many reputable services including Beyond Blue are regularly updating their websites-

https://coronavirus.beyondblue.org.au/

Stories like these can help parents explain things in “kid” language.

https://www.childhood.org.au/app/uploads/2020/07/heroes.pdf

https://www.childhood.org.au/app/uploads/2020/07/hug-two.pdf

If you are looking for ideas the Smiling Minds app has some fantastic mindfulness resources to help families and students. Go to- https://www.smilingmind.com.au/

The BRAVE program have an on-line program supporting families and young people who are experiencing anxiety.

Check out- https://www.brave-online.com/

The program also has video resources to help children and teenagers cope with stress in the time of COVID -19- https://www.brave-online.com/coping-with-stress-in-the-time-of-covid-19/

Mindfulness activities help people to focus, cope with stress, and quieten the mind. Apps can be a quick go to. Have a look at-https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/assistive-technology/finding-an-assistive-technology/8-meditation-apps-for-kids

Primary Wellbeing Officer-

Andre Campbell

We all need a Coffee!

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