What does wellbeing look like at school?

Wellbeing is a word that has been in frequent use recently across many domains of our society.  It is something that we all strive for, but our journeys are very different.  One of our strategic goals for this year focuses on building our capacity to promote wellbeing at school for our students and staff.   A big part of this has been gathering student and staff feedback about the culture at GEIS, what works well for them and what we can improve.

The student survey was first conducted in 2018 and was repeated again earlier this term.  Not surprisingly the results have been very similar with students responding positively in areas such as 'safe school', 'respect for culture', 'caring teaching' and 'home-school partnerships'.  Once again, an area identified for further development was 'prosocial student culture' and the on-going need to ensure that students know and use social problem solving strategies.  These life skills are very important particularly as our adolescent students are moving from an adult monitored world to a world where they are have more autonomy and choice.  At GEIS we understand and value the importance of the growing independence of our students and are committed to developing wellbeing programmes that support and scaffold them along this journey.  

Next term we will be seeking whanau feedback in regard to how GEIS can continue to best meet the wellbeing needs of our students.  

In the meantime, I think all our wellbeing would be improved by some more settled weather and sunshine particularly during lunch breaks. Unfortunately, it seems I have no control over this!

Ngā mihi

Maree Stavert