Engagement and Wellbeing
Student Attitudes to School Survey - Years 4-6
This week, our year 4-6 students at both campuses will be taking part in the annual Student Attitudes to School Survey.
The survey will provide us with another great insight into the thoughts and feelings of our students on a broad range of areas, not just those related to COVID.
By now, those parents/carers with students in Years 4-6 should have received login information for each of their children in those years. If you have not yet received an email, please contact your child’s classroom teacher for login information.
We look forward to hearing from all of our Year 4-6s about their schooling experience this year and once we receive the results, will workshop these with the students in an attempt to better understand their voices and work on specific areas of focus in an attempt to understand what is working and to also rectify any concerns that they may have.
Wellbeing Focus - Spotlight on the BRAVE Program to Support Young People with Anxiety
BRAVE is an online program supporting young people and their families who are experiencing anxiety.
Given the fact that we are about to enter another period of change for the students, we thought it timely to share this with everyone, particularly those who have little ones who may battle to reintegrate back to school after another lengthy period of time with their parents.
As we know, anxiety can affect many children and teenagers. We often think our child is “going through a phase” and that there is nothing to worry about. Children themselves tend to avoid their negative feelings. However, it is imperative to be able to read the signs because:
- Around 8-10% of children and adolescents are affected by anxiety.
- Anxiety can be extremely debilitating and cause significant problems in a person’s emotional, social and educational functioning.
- Children and adolescents with anxiety may worry about all sorts of things: meeting new people, being away from home, performing in front of people or even things going on in the world.
- Other children and teenagers worry about very specific situations (such as getting injections or flying on planes) and others just seem to be worrying about something all the time.
With BRAVE, children, teenagers and their parents have access to a proven online cognitive-behaviour therapy in the comfort of their own homes.
BRAVE was developed for children and teenagers who experience Separation Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, Specific Phobia and Generalised Anxiety Disorder. This online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program helps young people to learn new ways to manage their anxiety and fears. Young people complete one session per week over 10 weeks. It can help with social worries, anxiety about separating from loved ones, fears of specific objects or situations (e.g. dogs, needles, storms, darkness), worries about friendships, school performance or other everyday worries. More recently we have developed a new program to help young children aged 3-7 years.
BRAVE also has designated sessions for parents of children and teenagers respectively. Parents can better understand and manage their child’s anxiety. The program for young children is completed by the parents rather than the children.
Currently, there are two ways in which Brave is offered:
- The BRAVE Self-Help Program
- The BRAVE Online Therapist Program
The Self-Help program includes versions for children, teenagers, their parents and most recently the parents of young children aged 3-7 years.
Although BRAVE was not designed specifically for treating Panic Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, young people with these problems may find some of the program strategies useful. They may, however, require additional treatment approaches that are designed specifically for these issues.
If the above is something that may interest you and support your child/family, please hop onto BRAVE and take a look.
Father’s Day Photos
In last week’s broadcast, we asked students to send in a photo of their father, grandfather or special man for this week’s broadcast (with a caption as to why they are a superhero).
We would love it if all parents/carers could remind their students about this and prompt your child to share this with our community by uploading their photo to the broadcast submission learning task by midday on Thursday.
To submit a photo, please go into COMPASS, hover over the PENCIL, click on LEARNING TASKS and look for the following submission:
Broadcast Link from Last Week
For those people who may have missed last week’s broadcast (or would like to jump on and see it again), please click on the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNIFLC2q7dU
