Student Wellbeing

St Paul’s is a Restorative School and actively works towards implementing Restorative Practices, a whole school approach that aims to develop positive behaviour between individuals. The Restorative process provides people with skills and strategies to take responsibility for their choices and actions. It helps them recognise the impact of these actions on others, and encourages them to rebuild broken relationships and move forward.

At St Paul’s we provide explicit teaching in the areas of:

• Social and Emotional Skills
• Restorative Practice (strengthening and repairing relationships)
• Values for Australian Schools
• National Safe Schools Guidelines (Drug Education, Cybersafety)

We encourage and value involvement and engagement by the parent community, and see this as a vital link to the wellbeing of our children. Classes partner up together on a regular basis to get to know each other. We also have a buddy system that supports the younger children when they begin school. All of our Extra Curricular activities raise the wellbeing of our school, some of these things are:

• Seasons program (a program to support children in their grief and loss)
• Friendship Tree
• Interschool Sports
• Student Representative Council
• The Lighthouse Literacy Project with St Joseph’s Secondary College Ferntree Gully

Student Welfare Program

A Pastoral Care Worker is funded by the Australian Government, under The National School Chaplaincy Program (NSCP), and complements the care offered by the Student Wellbeing Department at St Paul’s Primary School. The Pastoral Care Worker aims to assist our school community through the provision of help and care to support the social and emotional wellbeing of students and the school community.

The Service aims to:

• Provide students, their families and staff with support and or appropriate referrals, in difficult situations such as during times of grief or when students are facing personal or emotional challenges
• Support students and staff to create an environment which promotes the physical, emotional, social and intellectual development and wellbeing of all students
• Support students and staff to create an environment of cooperation and mutual respect, while promoting an understanding of diversity

The services of the Pastoral Care Worker is available to every family within the school and offers one-on-one or group sessions with students, parents, staff and other members of the school community as required. The program is offered to the school community with the understanding that participation is always voluntary. No child is required to participate in the activities or sessions offered if they or their parents are unwilling for them to do so.

Specifically, the Pastoral Care Worker:

• assists families facing personal and emotional challenges such as ‘Grief and Loss’ through death, divorce and separation, or loss of a pet
• mediates between children experiencing friendship issues, helping build self-esteem
• provides strategies for dealing with anger management and anxiety issues
• provides resources and support to parents dealing with ‘parenting issues’
• builds relationships with both children and their families, whether simply connecting through a phone call, or just being there to listen
• organises and provides meals and a support network to families, in times of personal crisis
• provides details of outside agencies to parents seeking specialised services
• presents staff with initiatives to promote Social Emotional Learning
• trains staff and parents in the principles of Restorative Practices
• builds networks with Shire groups e.g. SFYS (Student Focused Youth Services)
• consolidates partnerships with community groups, such as Monbulk Care and St Vincent de Paul
• possesses a working knowledge of Values Education in Australian Schools and integrates these into the fabric of the school culture
• possesses a working knowledge of the National Safe Schools Framework including Cybersafety, Drug Education and Mandatory Reporting and imparts this knowledge to staff, students, parents and the local community
• assists with the transition of children entering and leaving school and
• liaises between other schools