Wellbeing

WELLBEING AT WEMBLEY

This term has absolutely flown! As we speed towards the school holidays, we just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all their hard work this term. The wellbeing team work tirelessly to support all staff, students and families across the school.  

The last few weeks the Year 4, 5 and 6 students engaged in the Attitudes to School Survey (ATOSS). We had an excellent rate of completion, managing to reach over 95% of the students in these year groups. The results from this survey will continue to help shape changes within school. Once the results are published we will share these with the students. 

As we head into the holidays, we hope that you all manage to get some time to reset and recharge. Holidays can be exciting for many, but can also be a time of anxiety for some. If you feel your child needs help over the holiday, there are a range of services available. Your GP is always a good first place to go to, alongside websites such as BeYou: https://beyou.edu.au/resources/mental-health-services-and-support-helplines

As a school we also have access to holiday food packs for any families that need them. You can confidentially email Lindsey on Lindsey.Delooze@Education.vic.gov.au if you would like to have a box of pantry staples provided (cereal, milk, beans etc). 

We hope you have a restful break and we look forward to seeing everyone back in Term 3! 

SCHOOL WIDE POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT

Building Resilience

This term at Wembley we have been focusing on our value of Resilience, with weekly lessons focused on different ways that students can show and build resilience. Resilience can be described as the capacity to overcome challenges and bounce back from adversity. It is an essential attribute for effectively navigating life's ups and downs and a crucial element for achieving success. Resilience has been linked with improved behaviour and academic performance in addition to greater life opportunities such as employment and relationship satisfaction. Children with higher levels of resilience are better placed to cope with stress. They are also often good at solving problems and learning new skills because they are more willing to try again even when things don’t go the way they wanted the first time. Several factors influence each person’s resilience, such as their past encounters, their self-perception, their coping strategies and their mindset.

By equipping students with the tools to cultivate resilience and build a growth mindset, we can minimise the impact of negative or stressful situations by empowering students to confront challenges, learn from them and develop strategies for leading a happy and healthy life.

If you wish to follow up on the work we have been doing with your child on resilience at home, you can ask them what they have been learning, as well as talking to them about times they have shown resilience, particularly when they have received a green stamp at school for showing resilience. 

Furthermore, according to the website, Beyond Blue, children’s resilience can be enhanced when they:

• are loved by someone unconditionally
• have an older person outside the home they can talk to about problems and feelings
• are praised for doing things on their own and striving to achieve
• can count on their family being there when needed
• know someone they want to be like
• are willing to try new things
• feel that what they do makes a difference in how things turn out
• like themselves
• can focus on a task and stay with it
• have a sense of humour 
• make goals and plans, both short and longer-term.

If you are looking for resources to help build your child’s resilience you may be interested in the following two resources:

Brave

Brave is a free online program designed to help children and teenagers cope with anxiety. While the focus is on anxiety management, the skills taught in the program, such as problem-solving and positive self-talk, can contribute to building resilience.  

https://brave4you.psy.uq.edu.au/

The Resilience Project

The Resilience Project is an Australian organisation that provides schools, parents, and workplaces with strategies for building resilience, happiness, and wellbeing. Their website offers resources for children and parents to help promote resilience in children and adults. 

https://theresilienceproject.com.au/

Previous Whole School Behaviour Focus - Being Courageous

Over the last fortnight we have continued to focus on our value of resilience and have focused on the behaviour of being courageous.  In every class students engaged in lessons about 'Being courageous'. As part of these lessons, students looked at scenarios where they could practise being courageous, they have watched videos about the ways many animals have to adapt to their environments and have read books where characters had to show resilience and accept and adapt to their circumstances. 

In Year 1 they wrote and published a book about how they have been courageous.

WEMBLEY VALUES AWARD WINNERS

Thank you to all the students who nominated their peers when they saw them showing last fortnight's behaviour focus of 'Being Courageous'. It was wonderful to read about all the great ways students have been showing courage with 357 nominations across the fortnight. Well done to all of our Year Three students, as this was the year level who made the greatest number of nominations with 113 nominations. Congratulations to each of the students, listed below, who won the Wembley Values Award this fortnight. 

New Whole School Behaviour Focus - Bouncing Back

This week we have introduced our next behaviour focus: ‘Bouncing Back’. Students have been learning what ‘Bouncing Back’ means and how they can use this skill to help them. Students and all Wembley staff, including classroom teachers, education support staff, specialists, members of leadership and our office staff will be watching for when students are showing resilience by bouncing back and recording a nomination for these students. If your child comes home with a green resilience stamp, be sure to ask them what they did to earn this stamp. 

Watch the video below where some of our students explain what ‘Bouncing Back’ means to them and why it is important. 

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING

Each week at Wembley, students take part in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). This can be a stand alone lesson or interwoven with other lessons. This term, students and teachers have been focusing on the topics of; positive coping, problem solving and stress management. As part of these lessons students have looked at how they can use positive coping strategies to help them manage their anger, stress and other emotions. They have also explored methods they can use to identify different solutions to a problem and then select what they believe is the best solution. In the upper years they have also begun to discuss the importance of positive self-talk and how to increase positive self-talk and decrease negative self-talk. 

If you are interested in support or suggestions of how to build your child’s positive coping strategies, the online program, Brave, mentioned above, can teach students how to problem solve and engage in positive self-talk. In addition to this, Smiling Mind, an Australian not-for-profit organisation, provides free mindfulness meditation programs for children and adults. Their programs are designed to help people to develop emotional resilience, improve focus, and reduce stress. They have specific programs for different age groups, including children, teens, and adults. You can access their programs at https://www.smilingmind.com.au/. They also have an app. 

FAMILY EDUCATION

Parenting Children Who Worry

Hobsons Bay City Council are offering a free online session for families on 'Parenting children who worry'. The session is aimed at families of children aged 2 - 13 years and is focused on offering basic information and strategies to help children worry less, as well as how to develop an action plan for helping children move from feeling anxious to more empowered and able to act when they are uncomfortable. This free session is being presented online by Helen Rimington of Drummond Street Services on Wednesday 21 June from 7:00pm - 8:00pm.  You can book your place via email or phone.

Email: earlyyears@hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au 

Phone: 1300 179 944

BREAKFAST CLUB

A reminder that breakfast club runs Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8.30 - 8.55am. 

Thanks to everyone for their continued support with Breakfast Club. There have been some supply issues over the last few weeks, which has meant that we did not receive our order of fruit cups or Messy Monkeys. We appreciate the resilience that everyone has shown without the much loved and favourite items! 

Breakfast club will run during the last week of term on Tuesday 20th June and Thursday 22nd June. 

WELLBEING DOGS

This week Ginny loved spending some 1:1 time with some very special students!

As a school we are continuing to remind all students about the key rules when they see Ginny. Lots of people are getting stamps for empathy when giving Ginny the space that she needs in the yard.