Pastoral Care
The pastoral care of all members of our school community as a priority is both implied and explicit.
Our approach to Pastoral Care shapes how we interact within our community and grow positive relationships. The explicit teaching of social and emotional skills occurs within the R.U.L.E.R and URSTRONG frameworks. We also care for our community with a spirit of service by providing financial assistance for families in need and contributing to the Mini Vinnies Appeal and Archbishop’s Samaritan Fund.
We are a W.E.S.T. School!
Welcoming, Encouraging, Saying Sorry with sincerity and Thanking School.
Pastoral Care involves making Jesus real in how we treat and care for each other. We practise these skills during Circle Time, with Buddy Classes and in House Teams. Celebrations for making good decisions are also an important part of our approach towards fostering a positive school climate.
Our school is part of the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support Program. This focuses on identifying key positive values we aspire to and developing plans to support these values by being explicit in all of our interactions with each other.
We have a strong focus on positive behaviour strategies. We aim to recognise and reward good decisions through good decision cards and raffle tickets linked to a house competition, which is drawn each week as part of our Assembly.
We also have an Afternoon Tea with the Principal once a month recognising 2 students from each class who have been exemplars of a particular focus. For example, for the month of February the focus is ‘welcoming and wearing your uniform with pride’.
We use the RULER Approach to Social and Emotional Learning, which is a school-wide approach designed to promote the development of five key emotion skills, including Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating emotions.
We are also a URSTRONG School. URSTRONG is a whole-school strategy that empowers kids with friendship skills to create a culture of kindness. Students, staff and families are explicitly taught skills to enable them to manage conflict and deal with mean-on-purpose behaviour in healthy ways and to ultimately grow healthy relationships.