Wellbeing

WELLBEING AT WEMBLEY

Wow! What an incredibly fast paced term we have had, and here we are at the end of Term 1 already! It feels like the pace of life has picked up again and we are all now as busy as we ever have been. Remember to plan some down time into your weekends and time away from school to recharge, ready for Term 2. There are lots of fun events happening both locally and in the city over the school holidays. 

The local libraries have Autumn holiday programs running: 

https://www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au/library/Programs/Autumn-School-Holiday-Program

https://www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/Libraries/Children-Youth/School-Holiday-Programming

There are lots of events happening in the city for the Melbourne Comedy Festival: 

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2023

We all hope you have a restful, relaxed and fun time over the holidays and we thank you for your support! 

BREAKFAST CLUB

Breakfast club will run as normal this week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). 

When we return for Term 2, we will be able to begin in week 1 so there will be no gap to the service provided. As the first Tuesday back is a public holiday, breakfast club will resume from Wednesday 26 April. 

Food Bank provide food for anyone in need over the school holidays. If you feel that you would benefit from some pantry staples over the holiday period, please let us know and Lindsey will organise this directly with you. 

WELLBEING DOGS

We wanted to share a huge thank you to all our wonderful students and families for their support of Ginny and River. Following the last newsletter and the work going on in school, the key reminders about how to act around both dogs has made a huge difference and both Ginny and River are now feeling much more comfortable coming into school again. We cannot praise everyone enough for their care and empathy of both dogs. 

Tom P will also be bringing Ginny through the yard on Tuesdays and Thursdays from the beginning of Term 2, so remember to say hello to Tom and give both Tom and Ginny space as they navigate moving through the yard again. 

The three key rules to remember are:  

DISABILITY INCLUSION REFORM

Each week we will be updating you on aspects of the Disability Inclusion Reform that is currently being rolled out. Read more on the DE website: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/learningneeds/Pages/disability-inclusion.aspx 

Last week was very exciting for the whole Executive Leadership team as we went through the process of a practise Disability Inclusion Profile (DIP) meeting.  We had two external facilitators attend the meeting and it was a very positive experience going through the domains and the evidence in place to support the targeted student we discussed. 

As shared in the past, there are six domains that are considered during the DIP meeting. Each domain has a variety of dot points that are discussed in detail. In the practise meeting, we only managed to get through two of the domains, but in reality when a meeting takes place, we should be able to get through all six domains in the allocated two hour period. 

Going through the DIP process has highlighted again how much evidence we need to demonstrate the supports that are already in place for the targeted student. Katie and Mel have been working hard on fine tuning the paperwork that we use to gather our evidence, both on a leadership level and for class teachers to be using. The meeting also showed us how important it is to have clear recommendations that are informing the adjustments we have in place. For example if you have a speech therapist working with your child outside of school, reports with recommendations from the therapist can help us alter what we provide in school and provide evidence as to the reasoning behind why we need to make those changes. 

Now that we have completed the practise DIP, we have compiled a list of targeted students that we already feel we have a lot of evidence in place for (any adjustments need to have been in place for at least 10 weeks). These are a mixture of children already funded and some students who have not been eligible in the past. As a school our aim is to try and get 3-4 students through the process this year. We are aware there may also be a bit of a backlog for DIPs to take place as many schools in our area will be applying for their first one at the same time. If your child is one of our targeted students then we will let you know and will keep you updated throughout the whole process.  

SWPBS - SCHOOL WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT

In Term 2, we will be introducing a number of things to support the implementation of SWPBS. 

Fortnightly Behaviour Focus

Each fortnight across the school, we will have a particular behaviour that we will focus on. These behaviours will all link to the same value throughout a term. In Term 2, we will be focusing on the value of ‘Resilience’. You can see a list of the behaviours we will focus on each fortnight, listed below. Each fortnight students will be explicitly taught the behaviour so that they understand what it is, why it is important and how they can use it. 

Watch the video below where some of our students explain what 'Focusing on the Positive' means to them and why it is important to do. 

Stamps

All staff and Peer Mediators will be provided with a set of four different coloured stamps. Each stamp’s colour will match one of our school values. When a student is seen displaying one of our school values, they will be given the matching stamp in order to acknowledge and reinforce this behaviour. All staff throughout the school will have a set of the stamps including Specialist teachers, RTI teachers, Education Support Staff, office staff and leaders. Students can be acknowledged for displaying this behaviour in the classroom, yard or while attending a school event such as camp or an excursion.

Nominations

Every class will have a nomination box with a set of nomination sheets. Students, staff and all community members can nominate a student or staff member they see displaying the focus behaviour and put their nomination in the box. There will also be a nomination box at the front office which families are welcome to use if they wish to add their own nominations if they observe a student or staff member displaying our fortnightly focus behaviour.

At the end of each fortnight, Junior School Councillors will collect all the nominations from their year level to give to the Wellbeing Team. A nomination from each year level will be selected to be shared at assembly. These nominated students will then have their photo and nomination added to a celebration display in the school.