09 February 2023
I would like to welcome everyone to the 2023 school year. The commencement of the year has been a stark contrast to that of last year and it has been so very pleasing to see our students, staff, parents and the whole community have the chance to connect and share this time. The transition for many to a new school or new class, I am sure, has brought many challenges, but it has been rewarding to see so many positive interactions and learning experiences occurring each day.
Our wellbeing framework centres around positive psychology theory and a focus on character strengths, understanding emotions, attention and awareness, relationships, coping strategies and positive habits and goals. Our aim is to embed Wellbeing across all areas of school life and make it visible. Lea Waters’ Visible Wellbeing framework provides these pathways for our community.
Within the Junior School, we utilise a number of programs to embed explicit wellbeing strategies. The URStrong program is important to developing the language of relationships in our school. This program has provided free memberships to help support families and I would encourage our families to sign up. Understanding the language of relationships used by our teachers to support the students can help build that connection between school and home.
In 2023 St Peter’s College will again be providing the digital platform SchoolTV as a resource for parents and teachers. SchoolTV has an extensive range of wellbeing resources. Parents can access this tool from a tile in Keystone or by following this link.
In my first article for the year, I would like to highlight some relevant topics for our community. I have already mentioned the challenge of school transitions. We have a number of students who have begun their schooling at St Peter’s College this year and have been transitioning into a new school, students who have moved from ELC to the Junior School, and students who have moved into a different year level and into a different class. With so many transitions happening across our school, we need to ensure that we are all in this together to support each and every member of our community. This resource can provide some strategies and support for you to talk through with your child and please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s class teacher, year level coordinator or myself to give further support at this time.
Finally, during our assemblies and chapel services we recite our school prayer. Each time I am drawn to the line which states that we want our boys to have a balance of strength and love. Our boys are learning each day from role models across our community and beyond. The challenge at this time is to provide the boys with positive role models that display this balance of strength and love. SchoolTV have a section on Raising Boys that I highly recommend to provide you with some support and direction during these developmental years.
Ben Storer
Deptuy Head of Junior School – Wellbeing and Administration