LINDEN PARK PRIMARY SCHOOL

INTRODUCTION

• Student Wellbeing Leaders should facilitate the explicit teaching of social and emotional skills. For me, that includes being aware of your physical stress responses and having successful and appropriate strategies to manage them
• That is why I am happy to tell you that right now my heart is pounding and my stomach feels like it’s in knots, I am so nervous
• So, for my sake, to help to ease my nerves, to help to break the ice and to demonstrate a classroom strategy that I use with children, if you don’t mind, I would like to do a quick activity / game with you.
• This is a Berry Street strategy call a Positive Primer. Positive Primers help to set the tone in a classroom and encourage engagement and participation in learning
• The Name Game
• What went well - Tilt to the positive

THE ROLE OF A STUDENT WELLBEING LEADER

• To put it simply, I work work to build capacity within the key stakeholders of the school to improve the wellbeing of my students. Those key stakeholders being:
• Teachers / school staff
• Families, and most importantly
• Students
• I say that students are the most important because schools exist primarily for students and consist predominantly of students. Therefore, students should be at the centre of everything we do
• And in addition to that, when we are looking at student voice, as was asked in your question to me, if students are at the centre of everything that we do, then it goes without saying that they should be included in the decisions affecting the learning and wellbeing of themselves and their peers

STUDENT WELLBEING LEADERS AND STUDENT VOICE

• And that brings me to student voice.
• I believe that the role of a Student Wellbeing Leader when considering student voice is best stated in the opening sentence of the Student Wellbeing Hub’s, Australian Student Wellbeing Framework and you: Student voice checklist (dark blue folder)
• It states, “for students to take an active role in their own learning and wellbeing it is essential that they learn to build their social and emotional skills”
• It then goes on to use the Australian Curriculum Personal and Social capabilities that I referred to in my application (A3 poster)
• This continuum also addresses each of the Linden park school values of Respect, Responsibility, Creativity and Diversity and the school’s vision of developing “resilient, innovative, curious and creative lifelong learners”
• So, this leaves me two distinct areas for discussion:
• 1 - what evidence do I have of the skills and abilities that I bring to building these capabilities within my students, and
• 2- what evidence do I have of my students putting these skills into practice

STUDENT VOICE AND STAKEHOLDERS

• As I stated at the beginning of my presentation, my role as a Student Wellbeing leader is centred around building capacity with key stakeholders
• So, now that I am speaking about student voice, I feel the need to discuss how I develop the skills, knowledge, confidence and attitudes of the students and how I positively impact the beliefs, perceptions and skills of the adults (families and school staff) around them

CAPACITY BUILDING IN STAFF - MY SKILLS, ABILITIES AND EXPERIENCE

• BESM strategies while they are predominantly considered as strategies for trauma impacted students, they are applicable to all students and truly do. Work to share the power within the classroom and give the students a voice - here is some of the evidence of my work with staff in BSEM practices (Classroom norms template, escalation PD (green folder), school diary and safety plans (currently for 75 % of students)
• Embedding and promotion of school values (of which I lead the review and amendment of in consultation with staff, students and families) across the site in a consistent and structured manner as seen in the school diary and whole reward system (Class Dojo)
• Promotion of the concept of behaviour as communication and the belief that all behaviour serves a purpose. Understanding that purpose and meeting the need of the student is crucial in responding to challenging behaviours. (Cream folder)
• Highlighting the importance of understanding and appreciating the background and context of each student (student data spreadsheet and ACE score). Knowing where a student comes from means that teaching can be personalised
• Implementation of structured, consistent, fair and restorative behaviour management practices and record keeping procedures
• Regular (termly) bullying and wellbeing surveys in addition to the annual WEC data to allow us (particularly me) to reflect on our practice and inform our future practice (light blue folder - note page 3, question 2, page 4, question 1 and page 5)

CAPACITY BUILDING IN STUDENTS - MY SKILLS, ABILITIES AND EXPERIENCE

• Implementation and overseeing the explicit teaching of social and emotional skills, often with the additional support of our PSW, social work students and OT students that I have sourced and managed. This has included Bounce Back, Play is the Way, Boxall Profiles and Nurture groups, Interoception and Regulation Stations (photo’s of spaces and resources)

OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS AT OSBPS

• Successful SRC
• Confident and competent school captains and house captains
• Participation at Amanda Rishworth Student leadership days
• Student interest groups - YELP, colouring competitions, handball competitions and $40000 nature play grant application and concept design process
• And Ultimately, Students that have the Skills, willingness and confidence to offer feedback on teaching practices and shape the direction of their future learning

QUESTIONS

• I have seen on your website and the 2019 annual review that this is a new position, why has it been reintroduced?