Student Wellbeing

Mackellar Primary School is committed to providing a safe, secure and stimulating learning community where all students feel motivated and engaged in their learning and display a strong sense of connectedness to teachers, peers and school. We also provide exemplary programs in a vibrant, dynamic and technologically rich environment where students are empowered to become 21st Century learners and responsible citizens of the global community. Mackellar Primary School acknowledges that student wellbeing and student learning outcomes are inextricably linked.
Engagement
Student engagement has three interrelated components that underpin our policies and practices at Mackellar Primary School: Behavioural engagement refers to students’ participation in education, including the academic, social and extracurricular activities of our school. Emotional engagement encompasses students’ sense of belonging and connectedness to school and their emotional reactions in the classroom and in the school. Cognitive engagement relates to a students’ investment in learning and their intrinsic motivation and self-regulation.
Mackellar Primary School practices are consistent with ‘Effective Schools are Engaging Schools’. Student Engagement Policy Guidelines focus on areas such as the encouragement of educational achievement and excellence, prevention of absences and discouraging inappropriate behaviour. Mackellar Primary School also:
- Fosters a healthy school culture in which high levels of achievement take place within a positive, social environment
- Provide students with a safe learning environment where the risk of harm is minimized and students feel physically and emotionally secure
- Provide support for individual circumstances when a student begins to disengage from their learning, when regular attendance is not consistent or positive behaviours are not demonstrated
- Maximise student learning opportunities and performance through ensuring students are engaged in their learning
- Provide genuine opportunities for student/parent participation and student/parent voice
- Build a school environment based on positive behaviours and values
- Provide both prevention (using cognitive, behavioural and emotional strategies) and intervention for all students at risk
- Provide a whole school approach to Behaviour Management
Values
Mackellar Primary School’s beliefs about behaviour and learning are supported by our school Values which are aligned with School-wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS). Students are explicitly taught to strive to achieve their personal best, whilst demonstrating the values of:
- Respect
- Resilience
- Learning
- Teamwork
Implementing SWPBS is ongoing and constantly adapted to meet the needs of schools.
Be You
Mackellar Primary School is excited to be a registered Be You school. Be You is a National Education initiative committed to building early learning and school capacity to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for children from the early years to 18 years.
The Be You framework prevention and early intervention initiative recognises the important role that parents and carers play in the lives of their children. To make a positive difference to the mental health and wellbeing of our students, Mackellar Primary School encourages effective working relationships between school staff, parents and carers, mental health services and the broader community.
Mackellar Primary School is committed to:
- Promoting a positive school community where there is a strong sense of belonging and inclusion
- Providing social and emotional learning for students
- Supporting parents, carers and families to support their children’s learning and mental health and wellbeing, and
- Providing early intervention for students experiencing mental health difficulties.
There are five key components to the Be You Framework:
- Mentally Healthy Communities
- Family Partnerships
- Learning Resilience
- Responding Together
- Early Support
Better Buddies
Mackellar Primary School is recognised by the Alannah and Madeline Foundation as a Better Buddies showcase school due to our successful integration of the Better Buddies Program. The program delivers positive anti-bullying and anti-violence messages and assists Mackellar Primary School in maintaining a caring culture where older students look after younger students. Our Wellbeing Team plan a Better Buddies yearly overview as a preventative program and whole school approach to promoting pro-social skills, positive student relationships and community connectedness.
Supported by our implementation of the KidsMatter Primary Framework for mental health and wellbeing, Better Buddies reflects our school values, as well as our commitment to being one of Victoria’s lead schools for Respectful Relationships Education. Better Buddies is also aligned with wellbeing programs at Mackellar Primary School, to ensure safe and responsible use of information and communications technology is a cultural norm at Mackellar Primary School.
‘Better Buddies enables younger children to feel safe and cared for while older children feel valued and respected.’ Alannah & Madeline Foundation
Cyber Safety
Mackellar Primary School is committed to the eSmart Schools Program. An initiative by the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, eSmart is a whole-school approach designed to educate, track, monitor and prevent cybersafety and cyberbullying.
The eSmart Schools program assists us by providing:
- an effective road map to guide schools in developing a sustainable whole-school approach to cybersafety, cyberbullying and bullying
- direct web access to the best cybersafety resources from Australia and throughout the world
- a flexible system that our school can adapt for our own specific needs
- a comprehensive gap analysis tool acknowledging existing school cybersafety practices
- the framework to create a positive school culture and protect children from cyber-risks
- a record to track and record eSmart activities and progress
- resources, policies and guidelines are adapted for all states, territories and education systems – saving time and reducing duplication, and ongoing training and support.
Guides for Parents
These are the social media platforms that children are interested in. Please click on the icon to find out more information about each platform.
The following links provides further information about eSmart:
- https://www.esmart.org.au/esmart-schools/what-is-esmart-schools/
- Here are some links to useful information, activities and advice about cybersafety:
- https://esafety.gov.au
- https://www.cybersafekids.com.au
iParent – New eSafety guidance for parents
As a parent or carer, it can be difficult keeping up with young people and technology, or even knowing when to start the conversation about online safety in your household.
We’re here to help—check out our new eSafety guidance for parents of preschoolers that covers things like what to consider before giving your child their first smartphone, as well as offering practical tips on managing their first device.
- eSafety for Parents
- Cyberbullying
- Online Safety for Pre-School Children
- Your Child’s First Mobile Phone
Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships Education
Mackellar Primary School is proud to be a lead school in the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships initiative. The purpose of the Respectful Relationships Education is to support schools in promoting and modelling respect, positive attitudes and behaviours, and to teach our young people how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence.
Everyone in our community deserves to be respected, valued and treated equally. We know that respectful attitudes and behaviours can be achieved when positive attitudes, behaviours and equality are embedded in our education settings. Respectful Relationships is about fostering a culture of respect and equality across our entire community, from our classrooms to staffrooms, sporting fields and social events. This whole school approach leads to positive impacts on student’s academic outcomes, their mental health, classroom behaviour, and relationships between teachers and students.
The Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) learning materials cover eight topics of Social and Emotional Learning across all levels of primary and secondary education:
- Emotional Literacy
- Personal Strengths
- Positive Coping
- Problem-solving
- Stress Management
- Help Seeking
- Gender and Identity
- Positive Gender Relationships
Education Program
The Respectful relationships education program takes a developmental approach to content and delivery. Over the years of schooling from Foundation through to Year 12, students will be exposed to learning opportunities that help them build respectful relationships in their lives.
Foundation to Year 2
Students develop the capacity to understand and self-regulate their emotions in ways that account for their feelings and the feelings of others. They also develop skills to initiate social interactions.
The program content explores the people who are important to these young students and develops their capacity to initiate and maintain respectful relationships in different contexts, including at school, at home and in the classroom. Students explore their own sense of self and the factors that contribute to and influence their identities. They learn about emotions and how to enhance their interactions with others as they grow older.
Years 3 to 6
The program’s focus broadens to include the knowledge, understanding and skills required to support students’ wellbeing and that of their family and friends. Personal and social skills take on an increasing importance as they look to family, peers and the community for role models. They develop communication skills, social skills and behaviours required for respectful relationships. They also begin to explore personal and social factors that support and contribute to their identities and emotional responses in varying situations. Students explore knowledge, understanding and skills that help them build and maintain respectful relationships. They also develop skills to manage their emotions and examine how the nature of their relationships may change over time.
Smiling Mind
You may have heard your child talk about Mindfulness and the Smiling Mind App which is being used in many classrooms at Mackellar as part of our social and emotional learning program.
of mindfulness and meditation skills. These skills help to manage stress, increase awareness of emotions, improve attention and focus, and can prevent difficulties from getting worse.
The Smiling Mind website (smilingmind.com) and smartphone App provide information about mindfulness and action-based tools to guide children (starting from seven years) and adults through Mindfulness Meditation practices.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a state of being fully awake to life – being undistracted in the present moment and observing life as it unfolds without analysis and judgment. It is about focusing attention on the present, rather than thinking about the past or worrying about the future. Mindfulness Meditation is a clinically proven tool to support wellbeing and mental health. It involves setting aside time in a quiet space to focus on the present moment and what’s happening internally and externally. Practising Mindfulness Meditation helps to develop the state of mindfulness that allows us to reduce stress and experience life more fully.
How can Mindfulness Meditation benefit student wellbeing and learning?
International literature and clinical trials reveal that mindfulness can help reduce and prevent depression in adolescents, specifically within school settings. What’s more, mindfulness has the two-fold affect of supporting academic pursuits and is demonstrated to aid learning, memory processing and emotion regulation.
In addition, Mindfulness Meditation has been shown to:
- reduce stress
- increase resilience
- increase positive emotions
- boost self-esteem
- improve attention and focus.
Teeth on Wheels
Mackellar Primary School has a partnership with Teeth On Wheels. The mobile dental service provides bulk-billed, on-site dental care to many of our students every six months.
The Teeth On Wheels Oral Health Education Program is to ensure not only the patients we see but all children in the facility are gaining the education regarding oral health care and preventative tools.
For further information, please explore the Teeth On Wheels website https://teethonwheels.com.au
Community Helplines
Community Programs and Activities
(Delahey Community Centre)
www.delahey.org.au
Kids Help Line
1800 55 1800
DHHS Child Protection Crisis Line/after hours call service
131278
DHHS Child Protection Brimbank Melton
1300 664 977
Lifeline
13 11 14
National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service
1800 RESPECT
1800 737 732
Safe Steps – 24/7 Family Violence Crisis Line
1800 015 188
Parentline
13 22 89
www.parentline.vic.gov.au
Care Ring – 24 hour counselling service
13 61 69
Relationships Australia
8311 9222
Gamblers Help
1800 858 858
Depression website
www.beyondblue.org.au
1300 22 4636
Mensline
1300 789 978
Nurse-On-Call
1300 606 024
Victorian Poisons Information Centre
131 126
School Dental Service
1300 360 054