Student Wellbeing

The wellbeing of all students is central to our vision for a happy healthy school. In fact our vision Statement says that we try to “develop skills necessary to face challenges with hope, faith and resilience.” This year we have focused very heavily on the necessary social and emotional skills that children need to develop in order to be positive contributing members of society. Through the use of some established programs e.g Bounce Back, the teachers and children have explorared how we treat each other and like to be treated, what happens in certain situations and how we can make and keep friends. We will continue to strive to make St Thomas Aquinas a happy and safe place to be for all students free from bullying by students, parents and staff.

Creating resilience in students is not just about what happens in discussions in the classroom or playground. Before children can learn they need to have the emotional and social skills necessary for them to perform in a classroom situation. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity and difficult situations and get on with life, to learn from what has happened and grow into a stronger person with the skills to tackle different situations.

In creating resilient children we are proactive in many and varied ways. We are part of the Catholic Education Office Melbourne (CEOM) “Schools as a Core Social Centre” project and have worked with CEOM on improving children’s social and emotional learning.

This year (2007) our Year 3-6 children are involved in a Barwon Health / Royal Children’s Hospital initiative with five other primary schools and one secondary school in the Corio Norlane area, called The Festival for Healthy Living. This festival aims to provide good mental health and wellbeing amongst the students. It provides opportunities for the students to explore these issues using the performing and visual arts. The students work with a performing artist to develop arts based solutions to various problems.

The Prep – Year 2 children are involved with The Song Room which again is an arts based activity. An artist for The Song Room is working with the children on music and drama. Working in arts based activities allows the children to take on roles that they may not usually try, and helps them to problem solve relationship issues in a fun and non threatening way. It also challenges the children to step out of their comfort zones and grow as a result of this.

Other activities that we have introduced to improve the wellbeing of our students include our Breakfast Club that runs each Tuesday morning. The children are offered cereal, toast, juice and milo. Any child can be part of this and parents are also encouraged to come and share breakfast with their children if they wish. On average we have approximately 30+ of our 80 children attend each week. It is a great social gathering and sets the children up for a good day after having breakfast.

During term two our produce garden was built by a group of volunteers. This will become a large focus of our outdoor learning for children from Prep – Year 6 as well as beautifying our playground and providing an area for passive play.