Wellbeing

St Cecilia's Primary School Glen Iris

We know that children thrive at school when they feel happy, confident and secure.

Student Wellbeing is at the forefront of all that we do at St. Cecilia’s Primary school. Wellbeing is integral to learning excellence and overall health and life success.

We work with our families and the community to strengthen the wellbeing and learning outcomes for all children within a safe, inclusive and respectful learning environment.

We focus on building strong relationships. This in turn enhances student wellbeing and increases feelings of connection and belonging. A sense of belonging improves happiness, focus and resilience. Our aim is to provide an environment and opportunities for all of the members of our school community to flourish.

To support and manage this, we have a Student Wellbeing Leader on staff.

All students benefit from:

The explicit teaching and learning of social-emotional skills;
Explicit teaching of being safe, responsible and respectful in the online world through our eSmart program;
Understanding of gender equality through our Respectful Relationships program;
Being safe through our Child Safety standards;
Having a voice in all that is important to them through Student leadership
Our commitment to the Resilience Project (as we are a Partnership School)
Access to School Psychologists

Social Emotional Learning Skills

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is explicitly taught in our curriculum. Social and emotional learning is about learning how to manage feelings, manage friendships and solve problems. These are essential life skills that support wellbeing and positive mental health. Social and emotional skills promote children’s ability to cope with difficulties and help to prevent mental health problems. Children who have developed social and emotional skills find it easier to manage themselves, relate to others, resolve conflict, and feel positive about themselves and the world around them.

Children are given opportunities to develop skills which promote resilience, problem solving and the ability to make good choices. We encourage empathy towards the feelings of others and respect for the rights of all. In keeping with our Christian ethos and The National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools. We teach St Cecilia’s values of Faith, Acceptance, Compassion and Excellence. We believe that directly teaching these values improves relationships, helps us to know ourselves and others, enables good decision-making, promotes ethical behaviour and increases understanding and acceptance of other people.

The Resilience Project

We are grateful and proud to be a partnership school with the Resilience Project. The purpose of this program is to share positive mental health strategies with the whole school community – teachers, students, parents and carers – to support the implementation of a wellbeing curriculum to build resilience, happiness, and drive sustainable change.

Much of our students' learning surrounds the following 4 principles.

The Resilience Project principles

Gratitude – Paying attention to the things that we have right now, and not worrying about what we don’t have. We practise this by noticing the positives that exist around us.

Empathy – Putting ourselves in the shoes of others to feel and see what they do. We practice this through being kind and compassionate towards other people.

Mindfulness – Our ability to be calm and present at any given moment. We practice this through slowing down and concentrating on one thing at a time. This could be our breathing, completing a colouring sheet or noticing the noises we can hear.

Emotional Literacy – Our ability to label our emotions as we experience them. Labelling our emotions helps us to manage our emotions (soften negative emotions and find positive emotions). We practice this by labelling our emotions as we experience different parts of our day.

Our goal at St. Cecilia's is:

Improved confidence and self-esteem, especially in relation to student peer relationships
Improved wellbeing and ability to express emotions
Improved knowledge and communication of emotions
Improved relationships both at school and at home
More supportive classroom environments

We are enormously excited about this journey.

Meditation

Mindfulness and meditation teach the children to fall still and quiet which helps to focus the mind and develop an inner peace, strength and steadiness. It is then easier to turn to the task at hand with greater focus and clarity of mind. This process is often referred to as ‘being in the present’ and helps to optimise mental, physical, emotional and spiritual pursuits. The children can continue to use these lifelong skills beyond primary school.

For example, from their first day at St. Cecilia’s, children learn to ‘pause’ and be still and quiet for a few moments before and after each activity. The pause involves the children being asked to ‘come to rest’ in an upright position with good posture. Once there is silence, the children may then recite together a brief dedication, this might be a prayer offering.

Across the curriculum, students are offered age-appropriate practice of other forms of meditation to focus their attention and experience mental quietness. This may include other prayers and singing of sacred music, and learning to recite, or reflect upon and understand various stories from scripture and fine literature and works of art, as well as through various physical activities. These activities enable the children to learn different ways to acknowledge and experience a greater consciousness and connectedness.

SRC

SRC stands for Student Representative Council, the SRC are a decision making team responsible for sharing the opinions and ideas of their peers. Each fortnight classes will hold a class meeting to discuss teaching and learning activities, good things happening at St Cecilia’s and areas children consider needs attention.

SCR representatives:

Lead others by good example in dress, word and action
Uphold the St Cecilia’s Ethos
Attend fortnightly meetings with Staff SRC leader for 30 minutes and report back to class
Make suggestions for school improvement and respond to issues raised by the student body
Give up some of their time to organize activities and take responsibility for tasks
Listen attentively and communicate effectively
Treat others with respect, regardless of age or gender
Follow school, classroom and SRC rules and helps others do this well

“St. Cecilia’s is a fabulous school. This is my 7th year at this school and there is so much I love about it. For 6 months in Year 3 I moved with my family to live in Hong Kong which was a great experience that I learnt a lot from. Going to another school in Hong Kong made me realise and appreciate how great St. Cecilia’s really is.

There are so many amazing things I love about this school, like all of the amazing teachers who always make learning fun and interesting, the students and friends who are kind, caring and funny, our school garden where we get to grow and harvest vegetables and look after the chickens, the extra - curricular activities drama club, choir, netball and running club and finally, this year the leadership program and all of the amazing opportunities that come with being a in Year 5 and 6. I am so happy at this school.”

Grace, Student

Hear From Our Students

Hear From Our Students

“These are the things I love most about my school: my friends, my teachers, our specialists and our property.”

Amelie, Student

“The decision to send our daughter to St Cecilia’s was nothing short of effortless. It’s exceptional reputation is firmly entrenched in Christian, community and academic values. The staff and teachers are personable, dedicated and caring beyond their defined roles, creating a special place for our children to learn and thrive.”

Katina, Parent

Hear From Our Parents