Wellbeing Initiatives

The 5-point scale is a whole school strategy used to support students with regulation, develop consistent language between educators and students, promote social-emotional understanding and assist with smoother transitions between classrooms each year.

The 5-point scale is a concrete, systematic and non-judgmental way of teaching social and emotional skills to help children notice and functionally respond to their own and other’s social behaviour.

With their teacher’s guidance, students create their own individual scales and review them at allocated times. The review process of the 5-point scale is an important aspect, ensuring that it remains relevant to the student and continuing to work for them. Staff training is provided to ensure consistency across the school as well as family information sessions, strengthening the connection between school and home.

At the beginning of each year, each class is buddied up with another class in the school. Buddies support children to develop connections across the school. Buddy classes meet approximately 3 times per term to engage in fun and exciting activities.

The MindUP Curriculum is implemented each year across all year levels R-6. It is a comprehensive, classroom tested, evidence-based curriculum that fosters social and emotional awareness, enhances psychological wellbeing, and promotes academic success. The students engage in learning experiences that improve student self-control and self-regulation skills, strengthen student’s resiliency and decision making, bolster students’ enthusiasm for learning, reduce peer to peer conflict, increase students’ academic success and develop students’ positive social skills such as empathy, compassion, patience, and generosity.

Positive reinforcement strategies are used to support and encourage children to demonstrate positive behavioural choices such as those highlighted in our School Expectations.

In Reception to Year 2 we focus on a strategy known as ‘Bucket Fillers’. It is a concept that encourages positive behaviour as children see how very easy and rewarding it is to express kindness, love, and appreciation, on a daily basis. Children discover that when they fill someone’s bucket, they are also filling their own. Bucket filling is the moment-by-moment choice to be kind and caring.

At St Thomas More School we implement a whole school teaching and learning approach named Restorative Practice that is based on values including empathy, respect, honesty, and accountability. At the heart of Restorative Practice is a focus on repairing and strengthening relationships and restoring harmony in classrooms and across the whole school community.

Peaceful Kids is a Mindfulness, Positive, and Psychology-based program to lessen anxiety and worries and increase resilience in children. The developmentally appropriate program aims to:

• Lessens symptoms of anxiety and worry
• Empowers children to self-calm
• Builds emotional resilience and intelligence
• Teaches life-long skills to manage and prevent build-up of stress
• Reminds children they are not alone with their suffering of anxiety.