Meet the team

The wellbeing team comprises of Celine Tsang, the Student Wellbeing Leader/ Counsellor, and Fosia Mohamud, the Mental Health Practitioner. We have enjoyed getting to know and supporting the young people of WHSC in 2022. We are excited to continue to provide a safe space where student wellbeing and mental health is supported and advocated for.

New Wellbeing Space and Referral Process

We have revamped the wellbeing space and our new location is between the canteen and staff room. All students are welcome.

Parents can contact the Learning and Wellbeing Leader (previously known as the Year Level Coordinators) to discuss any wellbeing concerns and the referral process. As a first point of contact, students are encouraged to raise any wellbeing concerns with their teachers and the Learning and Wellbeing Leaders for referral. Students can also self-refer for wellbeing supports via student referral form (see below link). Referral forms can also be accessed via the wellbeing office, which is open to all students. Wellbeing staff will be in touch with students as soon as possible.

We encourage all parents and students to flag any wellbeing concerns early, so we can provide early intervention. Counselling sessions are confidential between students and the wellbeing team; unless there are any safety risks identified.

I AM Mindful Event

This term WHSC wellbeing team partnered with City of Monash School Focus program to deliver a series of I Am Mindful workshops for a number of our students from Year 8-12 cohorts. I Am Mindful (I.A.M) is a prevention focused school program designed to help young people and their families learn mental health coping strategies. Students also received a tool kit to use at school. The program taught students how to cope with tough times in a healthy, fun and evidence-based way. So far, we’ve had sessions with Year 11 and 12 students. In the following weeks prior to end of term, Year 8, 9 and 10’s will be undertaking the workshops.

In addition to the student workshops, the program was also delivered to parents and staff to enhance a whole school approach to supporting our students with their mental health and encouraging them to use the strategies learnt in the workshops at home and at school.

The sessions were fun and interactive where students responded and engaged positively.

Below are some student reflections:

Year 12 students: “The most useful thing I learnt at the workshops is how to understand when I’m feeling stressed and how to get out of feeling that way.”

Year 11 student: How I’ve used the tool kit: “I’ve used the lavender oil and breathing technique learnt in the session to help calm my nerves when I had to go out on my own. It helped me massively!”

Year 12 student: “I’ve learnt that it’s normal/ ok to feel bad sometimes and that I’m not weird because of it. And everyone goes through something; it might be similar to your situation.”

Looking after your mental health and staying safe over the holidays

As term one comes to an end and we enter into the holidays, we want to give you some resources to take with you to ensure you are taking care of yourselves and each other. Remembering that wellbeing encompasses many different elements and we need to tend to each element in order for our tree to thrive.

Image from: https://headspace.org.au/yarn-safe/mental-health-and-wellbeing/

The Department of Education have provided a wonderful resource for parents and carers regarding wellbeing support for students during the school holidays, which can be found here. It covers:

Actions that support positive mental health
Signs a child or young person may need mental health support
Mental health support resources
Family violence support and resources
Self-harm and suicide prevention resources

If you have any questions about Mental Health resources or would like any particular Mental Health theme to be covered in the wellbeing newsletter; please feel free to get in touch with Fosia-our Mental Health Practitioner- fosia.mohamud@education.vic.gov.au

We hope you all have a lovey and safe term break and we look forward to reconnecting with students in term 2.

Wellbeing Team

WHSC Newsletter

Respect | Excellence | Creativity

Issue 4 · 24 Mar 2023

In this issue