A huge thankyou to the Wellbeing Services team for their work in putting together a huge range of activities for students and staff for Mental Health Week, September 6-10. There was online cake decorating, soccer tricks, dance classes, HIIT Exercise sessions, trivia competitions, drawing activities, tennis ball challenges and much more. Meanwhile, the staff were also encouraged to focus on their health – body, mind and soul – by getting involved in Step Challenges and Dad’s Joke Challenges, to write a reflection on the COVID experience and to take their classes outside into the sunshine. For more details on our Mental Health Week program, see the reflection from our Wellbeing Services team further on in this newsletter.

This term we undertook selection of our 2022 School Leaders and the Student Wellbeing Team has been overwhelmed by the outstanding candidates who have applied. I would take this opportunity on commending all candidates for their courage in putting themselves forward and to congratulate the Student Leadership Team for 2022:

This term we welcomed a new school counsellor into our Student Wellbeing Team to extend the support opportunities available to our students. In addition to working with young people in a counselling capacity, Rick Frost is also a qualified teacher and founder of the Youth Empower Project. He has abundant experience in supporting young people to develop their social-emotional skills. We are delighted to have Rick on board at Kolbe!

During Term 4, we will be conducting a trial of a new approach to our daily Pastoral Care sessions. House Leaders will be working closely with PC teachers to use daily Pastoral Care sessions for short, sharp and engaging social-emotional learning. This social-emotional learning will include the integration of the Respectful Relationships learning and teaching program.

To support this change, we will be restructuring the day to move daily Pastoral Care to a new time, as shown below:

Start and finish times will remain the same; however, in Term 4, the day will commence with Period 1, instead of Pastoral Care. We will be collecting feedback from students and teachers throughout this Term 4 trial in order to identify any challenges or opportunities we can address ahead of full implementation in 2022.

We hope students will enjoy and benefit from this SEL program, and that it will have positive effects on their learning and wellbeing.