Wellbeing and Inclusion 

Dear Karoo Community,

What an exciting week! Celebrating the Matilda's and expanding our curiosity through Science Week.  Karoo PS is definitely the place to be!

Wellbeing @ Karoo PS

Wellbeing continues to be a key focus every day in our school.  We know that it is important to support the whole child to provide an environment where they can thrive.  An important part of supporting a students wellbeing is working closely with families to identify student needs and provide appropriate supports.  To do this effectively, it is important that we all continue to engage in learning about supporting students.  At Karoo PS, one way in which we do this is through our partnership with Real Schools.

Last week on Wednesday, our Real School facilitator, Shelia Bollard, came to visit.  During the day, Shelia worked with all teachers across the school to engage in further learning about restorative practices, being proactive about building positive relationships with others, response circles and how to support students further in showing that they are sorry or a 'shorry', if conflict has arisen.

The day was a fantastic day of learning as we continued to deepen our understanding of how to utilise restorative/relational practices to support our students to do the same.

On Wednesday evening, Shelia also presented 'Building a Resilient Child' at our Parent Information Session, as part Karoo PS's Parent Education Partnerships Series (PEPS). This evening was an opportunity for parents to engage in further learning about how to support their children to develop resilience.  Thank you to all the parents that came along on the evening.  It was definitely an informative and engaging session.  

If you weren't able to attend the session, please find the link below:

'Building a Resilient Child' with Shelia Bollard from Real Schools

https://vimeo.com/854224670?share=copy

Resilient, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR Curriculum)

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships supports Karoo Primary School to promote and model respect, and positive attitudes and behaviours. It teaches our students how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence.

The Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships learning materials have been designed for teachers in primary and secondary schools to develop students’ social, emotional and positive relationship skills. Efforts to promote social and emotional skills and positive gender norms in children and young people has been shown to improve health related outcomes and subjective wellbeing. It also reduces antisocial behaviours including engagement in gender-related violence.

The RRRR program is broken into eight different units:

Unit 1 – Emotional Literacy

Unit 2 – Personal Strengths

Unit 3 – Positive Coping

Unit 4 – Problem Solving

Unit 5 – Stress Management

Unit 6 - Help Seeking

Unit 7 - Gender and Identity

Unit 8 - Positive Gender Relationships

RRRR - Unit 7 & 8 Overview

At Karoo PS, all students will be learning about topics 7 ‘Gender and Identity’ and unit 8 'Positive Gender Relationships' as part of our Respectful Relationships and RRRR/Wellbeing curriculum throughout Term 4. 

As part of this learning, classes will be discussing how we can build more positive, gender friendly relationships in our classrooms and community. These lessons take age-appropriate forms. For example, discussions in Foundation around how boys and girls can be the same and different; everyone can be strong and gentle; and how we can engage in fair and friendly play. Year 5 and 6 students take a deeper dive into critiquing gender norms; investigating facts about gender and opportunity; understanding power relations; and setting boundaries around consent.

Unit 7 – Gender and Identity

Learning activities within this topic assist students to challenge stereotypes and critique the influence of gender norms on attitudes and behaviour. They learn about key issues relating to human rights and gender identity, and focus on the importance of respect within relationships. The activities promote respect for diversity and difference.

Unit 8 – Positive Gender Relationships

Learning activities within this topic focus on building an understanding of the effects of gender-based violence and focus on the standards associated with respectful relationships. Students develop the skills needed to solve problems, set boundaries within relationships, and play an active role within the prevention of gender-based violence. They develop peer support and help-seeking skills that can be applied in response to situations involving gender-based violence in family, peer, community or on-line relationships.

Read more about the Respectful Relationships program here. 

There are many different resources that can be used at home to facilitate and support conversations around these topics.  However, the use of a picture story book can be a powerful tool and an excellent starting point.  Below is a list of high quality texts that you can use at home (they can often also be found as read aloud texts on YouTube).

• The Every Body Book by Rachel E Simon
• A House for Everyone by Jo Hirst
• It Feels Good to be Yourself by Theresa Thorn
• All Bodies are Wonderful by Beth Cox

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact the school.

I hope you all have a fantastic fortnight and I look forward to seeing you all around the school!

Kind Regards, 

Courtney Hoffmann

Assistant Principal (A)