Wellbeing Report 

Welcome back everyone and we hope you enjoyed a relaxing break!

Families

Families are the biggest influence on  children's development and play a vital role in the school community.  Parents and carers are encouraged to participate in school activities which helps shape a sense of community.   By strengthening relationships between home and school help people understand each other and work towards common goals. 

Relationship Building Tips

• Learning each other’s names, greeting each other and getting to know one another.
• Sharing and showing an interest in children’s activities both at home and at school.
• Letting each other know their involvement and support is valued. 
• Acknowledging both can learn from each other.
• Sharing experiences that might be affecting children’s feelings and behaviour.
• Sharing the best way to communicate with each other, for example, face-to-face, email or telephone.
• Respecting each other’s differences and being committed to working together.

As your child grows, they’ll become more and more independent. It might seem that they want you to have less input into their learning, but they still need your support and encouragement, it’s just in different ways.

Tips

• Trust their judgment-for example, if they think they’re ready to play a sport, let them try it.
• Consider their point of view-for example, if they don’t want to continue with an activity, let them end it and look at other options.
• Sense when they’re upset-for example, if they are struggling with a task, ask them how it’s going.
• Accept them as a person- this could mean appreciating that they are strong in some areas and not so strong in others.
• Respond to their feelings-for example, share their excitement when they master something new, and be supportive when they don’t.
• Understand what they are going through-you could try thinking back to your own learning experiences, both the enjoyable ones and the challenging ones.
• Have a good relationship and communicate with their teacher-for example, if your child seems to be struggling with one area of schooling, talk to their teacher to see if there is anything you can do at home to support and encourage him.
• Be there to actively listen!  

Urgent-Clothing needed

Thank you to those parents for the donations of spare clothing.  We regularly assist children with toileting accidents and we are desperate for leggings/track suit pants in all sizes.   We try hard to avoid asking parents to come down to change their child so any donations will help out enormously.    Also, provide your child with a change of underwear in their bag. 

Lost Property

This is a shout out for parents to collect lost property. We have a large stock pile of lost jumpers in the alcove (in the corridor near the staff room).  Please drop by and go through them, if clothing is found around the school it eventually makes it way here. Thanks!

Social & Emotional Wellbeing Programs

We want all students to develop positive ways to interact with each other and to form healthy relationships. We are offering social skills groups to a number of students across the school and we are continuing with the Resilience Project and Respectful Relationships program in our classrooms.  The more we talk about and discuss these skills, the more they become an automatic response and behaviour.   

Across the week we have a number of opportunities for students to feel supported with their friendships whether it’s during break times out in the yard/electives, seeing our welfare team or being a part of our social skill groups.  In Week 3, we will start with some of our grade 1/2 students in social skills groups with Caitlin Carlos who is a Provisional Psychologist from Strong Minds Psychology.  Lily Dix who is a member of our Welfare team, has returned from leave and she is working on Wednesdays.  Lily will work with students one to one and she will run some friendship groups with students from grade 3-6. If you are interested in enquiring for wellbeing support please speak to your child’s teacher or speak to Veronica, Lily or myself. 

For selected Grade 6 boys, the Peaceful Warriors program is being facilitated by Anglicare Victoria.  The program will start on the 27th of July and the program runs at the school in the evenings from 6:30pm to 8pm.  In the past, we have had many positive comments from parents and students and we are looking forward to the boys enjoying the program.  Some of the topics covered include friendships, feelings, mental health, becoming a man, healthy relationships, consent and future goals. 

Attendance & Absences

It’s great that parents are using COMPASS and I am pleased that parents are calling to explain absences. This really helps us as we are able to communicate effectively with all relevant staff early in the school day. 

Regular attendance at school is essential for students to achieve quality life outcomes. Schools, in partnership with parents, are responsible for promoting the regular attendance of students.   We encourage parents and carers to refer to COMPASS for information happening at school. We encourage all parents to communicate when your child is going to be away and to notify the school through COMPASS.  Thank you!

Activities at break times-LEGO Club Wednesdays at Lunchtime

Our activity timetable is being updated and we will announce the activities shortly.    Many students will enjoy a range of supervised activities over the course of the week. Some of the things on offer include Dodge Ball, colouring, choir, LEGO club and bring your device to school day.  If your child is interested please speak to staff for more details. 

Head lice Update

Head lice will be a problem from time to time at Woori Yallock Primary School and it is important to work together as a school community to minimise the frustration caused by the problem.  Please call the office or tell your child’s teacher when you treat your child. Lice Alert notifications are uploaded to COMPASS. Head lice are spread so easily because when children play together they usually have very close contact. When children play closely or cuddle each other it's easy enough for a louse to, literally, walk from one child's hair to another. Generally speaking, the longer the hair the greater the chance a child has of getting head lice. I encourage all families to continually monitor and treat your children. The only way to stop lice from re-infesting is to stop their cycles, so repeat treatment and removal of the eggs is your only option.

Please remember if any parents have any questions or need advice about head lice and treatment options please see me. 

Reminder-any child found with live lice will be excluded from school until they are treated. 

Annual National Disability Data Collection-August 6th

The Australian Government collects statistics about students with disability.  This information helps the government to have a better understanding of students with disability.   Data will be collected by schools from all around Australia.  The main reason is the legislation to the Disability Discrimination Act 1992.  Under this law, students with disability have the right to take part in their education, just like all other students and schools may need to make changes to support students with disability. These types of changes are called adjustments. Schools must make adjustments that are reasonable – so this means they are balanced and fair. Some examples of reasonable adjustments for some students and schools include:

• Providing school work in more than one way – such as large print, Braille or audio information
• Extra time to complete work
• Small group or one to one learning support
• Help with getting around the school facilities. 

Please speak to me further if you have any questions. 

Free Happy Families Membership

It’s not too late to sign up!  The school has a free membership for all parents to join the Happy Families website.  The school has free access until August and I would like to encourage everyone to check out the website.  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

Tuesday’s 1:30-3:00pm in the Multi-purpose room

20th July- Winter 

27th July- Mini beasts

3rd August- Books (Eastern Library Story Time visit) 

10th August - Pets 

17th August - Circus 

31st August - Father’s Day

7th September - School Production Matinee performance - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - special time at 11am, parents need to register with playgroup. 

Woori Wallabies Playgroup is open to anyone in the community.  We have so much fun, children meet new friends while they play and learn.  We welcome all parents and carers to be a part of our group and we appreciate parents helping us run the program.