|
St Michael's Collegiate School, Hobart
The Journey from 2003 and Beyond Collegiate has embedded the MindMatters material into its comprehensive Health and Physical Education programs since 2000. Its intended outcomes from involvement in the MindMatters Plus project are that:
- Staff are more knowledgeable to confidently identify students with high support needs, and are clearer about their roles and responsibilities.
- All students are more resilient and empowered.
- All students report a safe and more supportive school environment.
- Incidences of bullying are addressed more effectively and reduced.
- Staff report a higher level of wellbeing.
- Parents are actively involved in the MindMatters Plus approach.
Student connectedness ? Connectedness is one of the most important issues for the school and the strong house system is only one of the initiatives that contribute to this. Collegiate has also created common rooms for Houses, which have their own individuality including limited kitchen facilities to allow students to interact socially and give them ownership of a 'space' within the school. Further to this the school has created pockets of garden areas around the senior campus to allow students to sit and interact with other students. It is also looking at further redesigning and altering building and classroom usage to minimise the classrooms and buildings that students (and teachers) utilise, particularly in the middle school.
The vertical grouping of the school?s house system can lead to students attending the school for several years and not making connections with other students from their year level. To begin addressing this issue the school has created specific times that students from the same year level meet and are given the opportunity to create connections with others form their own year level.
The school also runs a "Big Sister/Little Sister" program for Years 6 and 9 to enable the younger students 'know' someone when they move to the Senior school campus in Year 7. A future recommendation for this program is to evaluate its effectiveness and modify it, to try and improve the outcomes of this initiative.
Collegiate's emphasis is on whole staff ownership of wellbeing and health. Because of this, Pastoral care is accepted as the responsibility of all staff. The MindMatters core team plans to utilise whole staff professional development days and whole staff meetings to further raise awareness of health and wellbeing.
One of the success stories promoting health and wellbeing has been the Year 10 Health Forum that involves all Year 10s as part of the HPE curriculum. The students are required to study health related issues and present their findings not only to class but also to their parents in a parent night health forum. Parents select different workshops where students give presentations on health issues related to them.
In junior school, wellbeing is embedded into the curriculum with the Bunji program where HeartMasters resources are used to engage students. The students are also exposed to one health lesson a week. Parents are also invited into the school to see what the students are learning and undertake some HeartMasters activities. Also the primary students present (their learning regarding wellbeing) to the senior students at assemblies. One of the many benefits that can be seen from this initiative is the primary students are developing a common language and taking it into the Senior School as they progress. Staff have noticed an increase in students taking ownership of their own wellbeing and students are resolving issues and conflicts themselves in a mature way.
When applying to become a MindMatters Plus pilot school, Collegiate ran an audit of what was already being done to assist our students to become resilient, connected and caring members of the community. We found that our excellent pastoral care program, the Years 10-12 leadership program, school connectedness, VET in Schools, community-based learning programs, outdoor education programs, the values education project, the extensive range of co-curricular activities as well as the health and physical education curriculum were all contributing to the mental health and wellbeing of our students.
National funding allowed training of all our staff in one program and selected staff in other programs that aim to assist our students to become well-rounded, resilient and caring.
In 2003, annual winter festival was a Health and Wellbeing festival. The festival's aim was to enhance the spiritual, intellectual, physical and social wellbeing of our students. Andrew Fuller spent time with each year group in the senior school and there were activities such as philosophy, spaghetti bridge-building, Pilates, knitting, Aussie Rules and yoga, to name just a few.
Over the three years Primary and Junior Primary students have presented work from their Heart Masters programs at assemblies. The Junior Primary has a board for their resilience stars and a friendship connections bowl in their crash pad. Each primary class has introduced a 'Bunyip' so that students can think about what it would be like to be a new student in their class. Students of the representative council in the senior school have worked with The Deputy Principal in designing a poster that demonstrates clearly to students how they can seek help with problems that arise. These posters have been adapted for the younger students and are now prominently displayed around the school.
All Year 11 students were involved in a Reach Out! presentation. The senior drama presentation of Dags was seen by all Year 8, 9 and 10 students, as it dealt with issues facing adolescents. Another drama class is preparing a short presentation on building resilience to be showcased at the National Drug Strategy Conference to be held in Hobart.
As part of the MindMatters Plus initiative and the Community Based Learning program, Year 9 students, working with a Web design company, are developing a Web surround as part of our intranet site. This site will link to Reach Out!, Kids Help Line and include The Help When You Need It resource as well as provide online referral to our school psychologist. Students, staff and parents will be able to access accurate information and advice about health and wellbeing in young people.
The school is using Families Matters to create working partnerships with parents. By providing a range of services such as accurate knowledge and information through the Web surround, information forums with guest speakers, parenting tips through Do You Know?, and information sessions on the programs within the school, it is hoped the partnership between home and school will be enhanced.
|
