At St Catherine of Siena Primary School, we prioritise a safe, nurturing and inclusive learning environment through our social and emotional curriculum and ongoing staff professional development.
Student Wellbeing is embedded into our daily experiences, enabling all students to achieve improved emotional, social, physical and academic outcomes and enhance individual and collective wellbeing.
Students at St Catherine of Siena participate in:
- Rights, Responsibilities and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) social-emotional lessons
- Explicit teaching of school expectations and positive behaviours for learning (PBL)
- Zones of Regulation lessons
- Extra curricula opportunities and facilitated play activities at break times, including Choir, Art Club and Lego Club
- Regular physical activity
- Outdoor Learning Program or Kitchen Garden lessons
- Buddy Program
Buddy Program
Our Buddy Program is an important part of both our transition into primary school and leadership opportunities offered to Senior students.
At the beginning of the year, our Senior students are buddied up with a Prep student. This is particularly valuable at the start of the year when new students are finding their way around the school and trying to make new friends. This program promotes social and support networks for children beginning Prep and fosters a sense of community and belonging in the school.
Throughout the year, our buddies have opportunities to build their relationship through structured learning and play experiences.
Student Voice
Student Voice initiatives acknowledge that students have unique perspectives on education, teaching, and schooling, and should have the opportunity to actively shape their own learning.
At St Catherine of Siena, we aim to encourage student voice by asking our students to participate in our school, community and education system, to contribute to decision making processes and collectively influence outcomes by putting forward their views, concerns and ideas. Our Student Voice Team, made up of representatives from across the school, meet with the principal and staff representatives regularly to provide feedback, initiate action and ideas and contribute to school decision making.
Student Leadership
All of our Year 6 students play an important role in leading our school community and have opportunities across the year to develop their leadership skills including running our weekly assemblies, leading each whole school gathering, supporting school events and leading social justice initiatives. Some of our Year 6 students are appointed into more formal leadership positions each year and represent our school as captains, sports leaders, arts leaders or in other school priority areas.
Students at other year levels have opportunities to develop and exercise their leaderships skills through initiatives including ‘Mini Vinnies’ (our social justice team) and our school ‘Protect the Planet’ club, focused on taking positive environmental action.
Positive Behaviours for Learning
At St Catherine of Siena, we are committed to providing a positive learning environment for all students. Positive Behaviours for Learning (PBL) is a behaviourally-based systems approach that helps us to develop positive learning environments across the school by defining, teaching and supporting appropriate and expected student behaviours.
The three school expectations at St Catherine of Siena that drive PBL are:
We are Respectful, We are Learners, We are our Best Selves.
Our whole school assemblies endorse positive behaviour with awards presented to individual students who have displayed these expectations.
Wellbeing Support
At St Catherine of Siena we recognise that students may need additional emotional support from time to time. We offer a variety of extra wellbeing supports that include:
SEASONS FOR GROWTH
Season for Growth is a small group program that supports young people to build the knowledge and skills necessary to strengthen social and emotional wellbeing following significant loss or change, such as in the case of family separation or change, or loss of a family member or friend.
Participants explore the impact of change and loss and learn about ways to adapt and respond to experiences of grief. They are supported through building their communication, decision making and problem-solving skills within the context of a safe and supportive peer group learning environment.
WE THINKERS & EVERYDAY SPEECH SOCIAL SKILLS
We Thinkers (Years P-4) and Everyday Speech (Year 5-6) participants work together in small groups to build the pragmatic skills necessary for positive social and classroom interactions. These programs help students to build confidence in making and keeping friends and responding to a variety of social situations with a neuro-friendly approach.
PEACEFUL KIDS
Peaceful Kids is a Mindfulness and Positive Psychology based program to lessen anxiety and stress and increase resilience in children. The program gives students the skills, practice and support to utilise coping strategies that lessen the symptoms of anxiety and stress.
INTEROCEPTION GROUPS
Interoception is our internal sense that helps us recognise our body signals and supports us to meet our body's needs (hunger, thirst etc.), as well recognise and respond to our emotions and regulate our body's needs appropriately. Under the guidance of our school occupational therapist, our interception small group intervention provides students with opportunities to build their strategies to recognise body signals and feelings and to develop regulation skills.
LEGO-BASED THERAPY
Lego-based therapy provides opportunities for small groups of students to engage in positive social interaction and develop collaborative problem-solving skills. During a Lego-Based Therapy session, three or four children of similar ages work together to build a Lego model, with each child taking on a specific role to do this: The Engineer, The Supplier, The Builder, The Foreman. Each child has an opportunity to practice and develop a wide range of skills, including language skills (in both giving and receiving instructions), turn-taking, negotiating, sharing and collaborative social problem-solving. It also encourages children to reflect on their own actions and skills as well as give constructive feedback to their peers.