by Neil Fraser
WELLBEING UPDATE
Neil Fraser — June 17, 2022
Tēnā koutou / Dear Parents
(Please see links below to our newsletter)
Earlier this term I shared our journey developing student well-being/hauora, which includes supporting students with trauma. We have also asked our community to give us feedback on our school values by completing our (60 seconds, 6 questions) online survey. We would love have more community voice in our I CARE online survey
We are also pleased to be able to follow this up with new initiatives - Te Punanga, Resilience Survey and Play Therapy Support - made possible by generous contributions by the Board. The Board has allocated a further $20,000 towards Hauora/Well-being which has allowed to put more support in place for all our students.
TE PUNANGA
Te Punanga is a space set up for us to run a range of programmes for our students. Due to the generous allocation of Board funds, we are now able to have the space used for about 80% of the week. Teachers and our learning suppport staff run a range of programmes in areas of their passions and interest. We are able to rotate a wide range of students through the programmes - our aim is for all students to benefit from the Te Punanga programmes.
We invite anyone who is willing to share a hobby or passion with students (eg. knitting, pottery (yes, we have a kiln!), or any other 'arts & crafts) to contact the office. We have some time slots available for anyone interested - please contact the office (07 8677305). Your help will be much appreciate
RESILIENCE PROJECT SURVEY
Resilience and wellbeing are key factors to ensure a happy and fulfilling future for our young people. In order to gain an accurate understanding of our student’s strengths and challenges, we will be conducting a resilience survey developed by Resilient Youth Australia and the University of South Australia. In recent years, they have surveyed more than 390,000 Australian and New Zealand school students.
We will administer the Resilience Survey this year online in class time. Students typically take 30-35 minutes to complete the survey.
The data from the survey will be reported in aggregate descriptive form only, by year level and gender, and no individual student responses can be identified.
The Resilience Survey is completely voluntary and anonymous. The survey will provide valuable information to assist us to create and maintain the best culture of wellbeing and resilience that we can.
PLAY THERAPY
The Board has agreed to make the Uniform Shop (old Dental Clinic) available for the services of Debbie Mills - and has allocated funds to support 200 hours for students to access Debbie’s services. This is exciting news as we now have professional support for our students and whanau on our doorstep. Debbie will be using the current school uniform shop (old dental clinic near Hauraki Takeaways).
For over 30 years Debbie has been offering Specialist Play Therapies, Family Therapy. Debbie facilitates groups using clay, sand, interactive drawing, Lego play, puppetry and storytelling as well as directed and non directed play for Children, Youth and Families affected by trauma, special needs and physical/mental Illness. Debbie is currently studying to be a Child Centred Play Therapist (CCPT). Debbie is trained in COPMIA (Children Of Parents with Mental Illness and Addictions). She has contracts with DHB, MOE, MSD, NGO and private contracts. Debbie is a member of the Hospital Play Therapy Association NZ and the Family Therapy Association NZ.
We will be sharing how a student can access this service early next term.
Please contact me should you have any queries about
Our I CARE survey
Resilience Survey
Play Therapy Support
Ngā mihi nui
Neil
