SELF Wellbeing Workshop

Recently, Saint Ignatius College staff participated in the first of six SELF professional learning workshops. The focus centered on encouraging open communication about student wellbeing in the College. From these discussions, a plethora of activities are now available for students to access.

Teaching students the skills required to cope with challenges, on how to regulate their emotions and to learn the best way to support each other, provides a more supportive and conducive environment to learn in. With limited face-to-face learning over the past two years, it was timely and pertinent for the staff to be involved and to collaborate in this important workshop. In their Learning Focus Teams, staff participated enthusiastically and were well supported by the leading staff in the College.

The five presenters; Michael Timms, Bernadette Donnelly, Alex Simpson, Olivia Whitehead and Joe McLean, provided relevant information and activities based on:

• The 5 Wellbeing Dimensions
• Discussions on what could do done better and differently
• Brain Break activities
• How to best support students and staff
• Self-care activities students and staff could use to support their own wellbeing
• Development of the Wellbeing Lib Guide

Helping students to form a sense of belonging, to engage in their learning and to collaborate effectively with staff, parents, carers and peers will enable students to develop the social and emotional skills to grow into happy, respectful, well-balanced and successful members of our College and of the wider community.

One strategic outcome of SELF is to provide a central online location within the College for students, teachers, parent and carers to access each SELF Pillar. The link below provides information on the SELF Framework and support material. This site will continually be updated to provide the necessary information to help support our students, parent, carers and staff.

https://libguides.ignatius.vic.edu.au/SELF

Joe McLean
Director of Teacher Development