Respectful Relationships

Welcome to Respectful Relationships, our guiding light in helping our students and community develop the critical social, emotional and positive relationship skills they will need to know, show and grow themselves and connect positively and respectfully with others. As part of our whole school focus on embedding respectful relationships across our community, we will be sharing here: vocabulary, ideas, information, themes, and strategies that connect to the Respectful Relationships curriculum to develop home-school connections. 

Break It Down Project and RRRR Links

This term, our student leaders have commenced work on the the Break It Down Project, which has very strong links to the Respectful Relationships Curriculum. Our Brimbank-Melton Respectful Relationships Team in Student Support Services are helping us spread the word about it to other schools, which is very exciting. The RRRR Team have also confirmed that they will be in attendance, running some RRRR-specific activities, on our Break It Down Day on Friday 13th October 2023. 

Where did the Break It Down project idea come from? 

Last year, four of our student leaders attended the Dynamic Youth Citizens Program at Brimbank City Council. A part of that program was for young people to be able to identify a challenge/problem they are facing in their community and develop a solution for it. 

The students shared that stereotyping and bias was a big challenge for them in the Grade 6 area, and they wanted to make a documentary and magazine as well as a special day, to address this as their 'solution'. At the time, there were Youth Ideas Grants going at Brimbank Council. We pitched the idea in a grant and got $10K to make it happen. Unfortunately, when we found out about the grant, it was too late for last year's leaders, so this year's leaders have taken it on and are doing an AMAZING job. 

What is the Break It Down project? 

The Break It Down project is all about addressing stereotypes and bias, sharing our experiences and the impacts around this, and making a commit to BREAK DOWN stereotypes! The project invites all of the students of Sunshine Heights Primary School, and all young people in the West, to get involved by submitting written stories, poems, art works, photographs, videos about their experiences of stereotyping or bias - or breaking it down - to be a part of the magazine and documentary. 

We are also inviting all schools in the Brimbank area to host a Break It Down Day on Friday 13th October and run a day of bias-breaking activities. 

How can you support your child to get involved with the Break It Down project? 

We would love families to help their young people get involved in the project so they can learn and talk about stereotypes and their impact, as well as learn to advocate and take action. We encourage families to work with their children at home to create a submission for the magazine and/or documentary and talk to your child about stereotypes and bias at home. For some strategies and tips on how to do this, here's a great website! 

If you would like more information on the submission guidelines or need some ideas, please visit the Break It Down Website or you could also email Francine at Francine.Sculli@education.vic.gov.au 

Sunshine Heights Primary School Whole-School SEL Planning

This week during planning week, our teams excitingly sunk their teeth into mapping out and brainstorming what our dedicated whole-school SEL sessions will look like in Term 3.