Wellbeing

As Wellbeing Leader for St. Bridget’s, I am always looking for new and exciting ways that I can implement to enhance our wellbeing program.  Wellbeing has always been important to me, not only in regards to student wellbeing but also for the staff and for our community. Wellbeing is all about the fundamental health of the individual. In the school setting, students who are mentally healthy will be able to overcome any difficulties they face and achieve high levels of success.  

At St Bridget’s we take our responsibility of student wellbeing seriously and work our wellbeing program into each day. Each student takes part in ten minutes of mindfulness after lunch. They are required to undertake a quiet activity such as drawing, reading or writing. Mindfulness is a way for the children to reset after a busy day. In addition, each classroom teacher provides their students with brain breaks to help with transitioning between lessons.  Every week on a Tuesday, we have Wellbeing groups where students separate into multi-aged year levels and participate in a rotation of activities such as cooking, sport, art, or STEM.  

Each teacher also incorporates ‘Bounce Back’ into their classroom program. Bounce Back is a positive education approach to wellbeing, resilience, and social-emotional learning for primary school. One of the activities from the Bounce Back program is Circle Time. Circle Time is a great way to give students the opportunity to share something that has been upsetting them or to ask their peers for support in a judgment-free zone where all students are treated with care and respect.  An integral part of Circle Time is that the children all understand that nothing from Circle Time can be repeated outside the classroom. This helps our students to feel safe in sharing their feelings. These discussions are invaluable for our children as they help all our students to be empathetic listeners and compassionate towards each other as we learn that we never know what another person may be going through.

As you may be aware, part of our school improvement plan was to create an opportunity that allows students to have their voices heard. In order to help achieve this, I am currently exploring avenues that will lead us to provide students and staff of the school with a survey. The survey will provide us with the information we need to really hone in on about what we are doing well in the school and some areas that we can improve on.  I believe it is always important to find out what you are doing well and also what you can work on. The last thing we want to do is change something that is already working well.

I have very much been enjoying my time as the Wellbeing Leader and I am looking forward to continuing to make Wellbeing a priority at St. Bridget’s.

Kind Regards

Mr. Tom Brophy

Wellbeing Leader