Student Wellbeing

Week 3 of Term 3 already and it has been so great to see all the students have settled into the term so well! It has been wonderful to see students of all ages engaging together on the playground through tag, downball, soccer and in the sandpits! It is one of my favourite things about St Joes- How all of our students are happy to play with one another and support each other so much! It was great to have Friendship groups back this week and catch up all together! Having these groups is like having a whole other support network within the school. I love seeing the kids form new connections with students in other grades and seeing them build one another up in Huff and Puff!

Friendship Groups

This Term for Friendship Groups we will be continuing on our Social Thinking journey. This week we were learning about 'Flexible Thinking'. I have attached below the content that we went through together in our Friendship Groups. It was great to see students using their problem-solving skills to determine how they could think flexibly in different situations. In our groups, we discussed the important points of Flexible Thinking: Using our brain and eyes to work out what is going on, accept changes, learn to compromise and try new things. You may like to have a look through the information and see how you can implement Flexible Thinking at home!

PBL

This week and next we will be focusing on 'Being Respectful and Responsible in the Classroom'. This week in each class, students looked at the Behaviour Matrix to determine the Behaviour that is expected within the classroom. These are outlined in the image below.

Students broke down each behaviour by thinking about the steps they needed to complete in order to meet that behaviour. This was really successful! From there students made individual PBL goals for them to work on. The discussions that classes were having were so amazing to hear! Students didn't believe that our PBL Behaviour Matrix is a set of rules, rather they are the skills to help us be kind, caring and nice humans.

On Tuesday I caught up with a few students that have been excelling in all three areas of PBL. Together we shared biscuits and Milos and talked about PBL and what they liked and potentially didn't like about it. It was great to catch up with these students and get their ideas and opinions on how we can improve. It was great to celebrate their great achievements as well! We love seeing students who are fantastic role models.

Leadership Workshop

Last Monday, the grade 5/6 students had a Leadership Workshop! The students learnt what a leader is and the different types of leaders. They also discussed the types of communication leaders need as well as the resilience and confidence to be a leader as well. This week and last week I had a chance to spend some time with the grade 5 and 6 students, it was great to catch up with them and discuss future ideas they may have! Recently we have had our Sports leaders running lunchtime games as well as K-Zone! We are looking forward to continuing those and a few other events over the next two terms.

5/6 Wellbeing Workshop

The 5/6 girls engaged with a wellbeing workshop led by Ms Hetherington who works for 'Live, Life Whole Project'. The girls engaged in this workshop by discussing what stress is and learning strategies to cope with stress. The girls spoke about emotions and the state in which we can control our emotions. They enjoyed learning through scenarios and recording their personal thoughts. The girls also were led through some meditation.

Upcoming Important Dates:

8th August- 3/4 Friendship Workshop (incursion)

16th August- Human Development Workshop for Students and Parents (Time to be confirmed)

17th August- F/1/2 Resilience Workshop

Police Visit on Cyber Safety for Students (TBC)

Parent information session around the use of social media (TBC)

Important Information you may be interested in:

Healesville Eastern Health currently has availability for counselling services. Please see the information listed below. 

Dads Matter

For fathers and male carers

Dates: Monday 31 July - 4 September 2023 (6 evening sessions)

Time: 7.00pm to 9.00pm

Where: Online via Zoom

Registration: Click here (this registration link will close when the group is fully booked)

Parenting Anxious Children

For parents of children aged 2 to 12 years

Dates: Tuesday August 1st to September 5th 2023 (6 afternoon sessions)

Time: 1:00 to 2:30pm

Where: Online via Zoom.

Registration: Click here (this registration link will close when the group is fully booked)