School’s baaaaack! And the Positive Education of students across the Upper Hunter is continuing!
You’ll see children thriving and flourishing in these beautiful photos below that were sent in from St Josephs Merriwa, one of the schools participating in ‘BounceBack!’ – a programme being funded by Where there’s a Will in conjunction with the Australian Catholic University.
Wellbeing concepts are being introduced into every element of the curriculum and weekly classes are dedicated to giving students the tools they need to cope with life’s challenges. Last term they used their Fathers Day celebrations to get fathers working with the children to complete STEM ( science, technology, engineering and maths) activities – which created opportunities for relationships to be built and conversations to happen.
They also produced a magnificent play that focused on themes and ideas from the BounceBack! programme. Titled ‘School Days – Be Brave, Stand Up, Bounce Back’, it gave students the opportunity to role play, to develop strategies to manage difficult situations and to implement the skills learnt in their BounceBack! lessons.
Rose Pennington, from the Australian Catholic University, who is assisting schools in the delivery of BounceBack! and studying the impact on students over the next three years will be back in Merriwa to check on their progress in coming weeks.
Teachers from St Josephs also completed Youth Mental Health First Aid training recently and turned out in force at WTAW’s presentation to the Merriwa community recently.
This same sort of commitment to student wellbeing is happening at schools right across the Upper Hunter and we look forward to sharing more updates on their activities in coming weeks!