Wellbeing
Wellbeing & Mental Health
Colac Primary school
Colac Primary School has a supportive Wellbeing program run by Michelle Fraser (Mental Health Leader) and Marni Briffa (Wellbeing Officer). Michelle & Marni bring a breadth of skills to this area of Wellbeing providing both one on one support with the program and through working with teachers, families and allied health professionals to create a holistic approach to wellbeing.
Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS)
Colac Primary School began participating in the Mental Health in Primary Schools (MHiPS) program in 2022 as part of a pilot program. MHiPS, is a partnership between the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), Melbourne Graduate School of Education (MGSE) at the University of Melbourne, and the Victorian Department of Education and Training.
Student Wellbeing Officer
Our Student Wellbeing Officer works with students, families and staff to foster and encourage positive engagement and wellbeing. Support is tailored to the needs of the individual student and family and may include working with students on social skills, Zones of Regulation, self worth or grief and loss. Our Student Wellbeing Officer may also help link families to appropriate external services and facilitate small group programs and wellbeing activities within the school setting.
MHiPS Overview - Mental Health in Primary School (MHiPS)
Respectful Relationships
As part of the schools wellbeing curriculum, CPS dedicates weekly lessons to teaching the Respectful Relationships curriculum. Respectful Relationships is an initiative to support schools and early childhood education settings to promote and model respect and equality. It also supports educators to teach children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence.
Zones of Regulation
At Colac Primary School explicit teaching of the Zones of Regulation emotional learning framework takes place across all year levels. Zones of Regulation language is used on a day to day basis in our classrooms to help our students to recognise emotions and find tools to help them self-regulate. As a first step staff model regulation strategies that provide children with knowledge on how our bodies respond to stress and encourage regulation through a connection with their bodies stress response. For example some children are encouraged to go for a walk, jump on the small trampoline in the wellbeing space, or participate in weighted/ pressure activities (using lycra tunnels or weighted cushions/ lap blankets).
At Colac Primary we use a Restorative approach to dealing with conflict. A restorative conversation allows people involved to express how they were feeling or what they were thinking at the time and also reflect on their own actions and how the other person or people involved may have been hurt, affected or upset. The conversation ends with an agreement about what needs to be done to make things right or better in the future. A review date for the agreement is often set so a staff member can check in with students regarding how they have gone and make any changes to the agreement or organise further support for students.