School Counsellor News

Dear St Saviour’s Community

I hope the year has begun well for you even amongst all the changes.

While the building renovations are finishing and I do not have a room to meet children individually, I am visiting classrooms.

During my visits we are talking about the School Counsellor role and doing a Wellbeing activity.

The initial activity focuses on being mindful about our bodies, noticing the sensations, being aware of our heartbeat and breathing.  This is the first step for children to understand and name their emotions which then supports them in managing these emotions.

As Dr Daniel Siegel says, “Name it to tame it”. Dan Siegel: Name it to Tame it - Bing video

REMINDER Please check your junk mail if you are expecting emails from me. It appears that this is where they are heading once they leave my computer.

Evidence – Did you know?

1. Fathering involvement in educational activities with their children is associated with improved educational outcomes for all students.
2. Children at all ages with fathers interested and involved in their learning have a clear academic advantage.
3. Children do not stop needing their fathers because they get older, or because lives get busy.
4. You don’t have to be strong academically yourself to have an impact on your child’s education. Evidence shows you just have to be supportive and positive about learning.

Top tips

1. Read with your child from an early age and encourage a positive attitude to learning from reading – both books and online.
2. Promote a positive mindset in your children to help them see the benefits and enjoyment that can be found in learning and improvement.
3. Don’t put too much pressure on them. Encourage them to be as good as they can be and help them plan how to improve.
4. Be willing to help with homework, even if that just means asking them questions.
5. Let them be independent learners and be there to support, if they want to do the home learning themselves.
6. Encourage them to see mistakes as an important part of the learning process, and help them to see how to use their mistakes to learn.
7. If homework is causing stress or arguments, put it aside and take a break. Try again later and if there are still problems, contact the teacher to discuss solutions.

Your support of learning impacts your child’s results at school - The Fathering Project

Survey - Supporting Mental Health and Wellbeing

Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner is inviting children and their families to complete a survey about how living through the past two years of COVID-19 has affected children's mental health and wellbeing.

Insights and experiences will help to inform the support services that children and their families need as we continue to deal with the impacts of the pandemic. The surveys are listed below:

Survey for children aged 9-17 years

Survey for parents or carers

Both surveys will take 10 minutes, are completely confidential, and children will need parental consent to complete them. The surveys will close March 20, 2022.

Christina Peak

School Counsellor