Student Wellbeing

Student wellbeing

At Theodore Primary School we support students' social, academic and emotional well-being. This is a joint responsibility between home and school.

We believe in supporting our students to become caring, considerate, compassionate and active citizens. We do this by explicitly teaching social skills that complement our school values of compassion, integrity, personal best and respect.

In order to improve teaching and learning, educators at Theodore Primary School have developed a strong understanding of how their own and their students’ brain functions. Teachers have adapted their teaching, the learning environment and whole school practices to better meet the learning needs of our students. At Theodore we have a consistent, whole school approach to student wellbeing made up of the following suite of programs:

Social Emotional Learning (SEL): The school uses the Friendly Schools Plus resources which is informed by evidence about social emotional learning and bullying. The lessons and learning resources are designed and sequenced to develop students’ ‘Self Awareness’, ‘Self-Management’, Social Awareness’, ‘Relationship Skills’, and ‘Social decision making’. These keys areas are linked directly to the General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum under the Personal and Social Capabilities.

Zones of Regulation: This whole school approach is an empowering program to build safe, supportive environments that foster learning and wellbeing for all students. Learner benefit from increased self-awareness, and social and emotional skills, having a common language for problem solving and communication. Students refer to four zones to identify how they are feeling and to use strategies to manage their emotions. These include the red zone (elated, panicked, angry), yellow (worried, frustrated, silly, excited), blue (sad, bored, tired), and green (happy, focused, calm).

Everyone Everyday: This program aims to create a cultural shift in thinking about disability and equip children with the skills they need to take personal and collective action that promotes inclusion and belonging. The key concepts delivered through Everyone Everyday align with the social model of disability. The social model states that a person’s experience of disability is highly influenced by barriers imposed by society. These include attitudinal, physical, communication and social barriers. Removing these barriers ensures people living with disability can access all aspects of community on the same basis as their peers. The resources support teachers to explicitly teach inclusion concepts to create a classroom culture where everyone belongs, and diversity is valued. These concepts are applicable to all individuals and broader discussions on inclusion.

At Theodore Primary School we aim to:

  • Build a school environment based on safety, respect and quality learning
  • Manage inappropriate behaviour in a positive and professional manner
  • Establish well understood and logical consequences for student behaviour

We do this by:

  • Having a code of conduct which places significant emphasis on the development and recognition of positive behaviours and which outlines, agreed behavioural development and management strategies
  • Ensuring that we maintain an up-to-date database of student behaviour
  • All staff undertaking professional development about student behaviour and management
  • Ensuring the school curriculum includes units on resilience, peer pressure, positive choices, bullying, conflict resolution and leadership
  • Implementing individual behaviour plans focussing upon agreed goals for students experiencing difficulty achieving positive behavioural outcomes
  • Implementing consequences for ongoing inappropriate behaviour which may include counselling, mediation using the restorative questions or suspension
  • Keeping parents informed and actively encouraging them to assist in the development of their child's behavioural choices.

Our Student Management procedures align with Directorate policy and a copy is available upon request.

Student Support and Intervention

We examine and assess the individual needs of students during Student Wellbeing meetings. Here the Student Wellbeing Team identify student strengths and areas for development, they then create action plans to support further development.

Our school offers support to students through the access to:

  • School psychologist
  • Small Group Program (SGP)
  • English as an Additional Language Dialect teacher (EALD)
  • Learning Support Assistants (LSA)
  • Individual Learning Programs (ILPs) and Positive Behaviour Support Plans (PBSPs)