Wellbeing and support

Our school is committed to a whole-school approach that promotes health and wellbeing through our curriculum, practices, and safety strategies. We aim to support the physical, social, mental, and emotional development of our students, ensuring they have the opportunity to connect, succeed, and thrive. We strive to create safe classroom and online learning environments with clear expectations, routines, and supervision. Additionally, we encourage collaboration among students, parents, carers, health professionals, and community resources to enhance student wellbeing and foster a supportive network that benefits all learners.

Our wellbeing initiatives are designed to create a supportive environment for all students. We have a dedicated wellbeing teacher who regularly checks in with students, providing additional support to those who may need it. This role also involves effective communication with parents and collaboration with outside agencies to foster respectful relationships, promote positive student behaviour, build resilience, and enhance students' sense of belonging.

To further support our students, we offer dedicated spaces for those who may need support to make friends during playtime. Our lunch clubs, facilitated by our School Learning Support Officers (SLSOs), provide a welcoming setting for students to engage in activities such as board games, watercolour painting, crochet, art and craft, LEGO, and UNO. These initiatives not only help students develop social relationships but also contribute to a positive school culture that benefits both students and the wider community.

How we support student wellbeing

Supporting each student’s mental, emotional and social wellbeing is part of everyday school life.

We do this through:

Contact us to learn more about wellbeing at our school.

Our support team

At our school, we have a dedicated Learning and Support Team (LST) that collaborates closely with students, families, and teachers to meet individual learning needs effectively. Our primary goal is to ensure that all students, particularly those with disabilities and additional learning needs, receive the support they require to access the curriculum and achieve their educational goals. We have established a referral system that allows both teachers and parents to refer students for assessment and support, ensuring that any learning challenges are addressed promptly.

The LST meets weekly to discuss referrals, assess the level of need, and prioritise the necessary support for each student. By working collaboratively with teachers, parents, and other professionals, we identify, plan, and implement appropriate support strategies tailored to each student's unique needs. This comprehensive approach ensures that we provide the necessary interventions to help every student reach their full potential.

Our team consists of:

• Learning and support teachers
• Wellbeing teacher.
• School learning support officers (SLOS’s)
• English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D) teachers
• Aboriginal education officers (AEO)
• Community and home school liaison officers
• School counsellors.

Meet our wellbeing and specialist support staff.

Support that fits your child’s needs

Some students need extra support to feel confident and do their best at school. We work closely with families to make a plan that suits each child’s needs.

These support plans can include:

• teachers and support staff working together with families (and students, if needed)
• regular check-ins to review and update the plan
• accessible classrooms, assistive technology, or changes to learning activities for students with additional needs.

We know when a student needs help when:

• teachers notice changes in learning or behaviour
• reviewing assessment results and learning progress
• parents and carers raise concerns or ask for support.

If you think your child may need extra help, speak with their teacher or contact our school office.

"We feel incredibly grateful to be a part of the Currans Hill Public School Community. Our daughter attends a Support Class, and the experience has been nothing short of amazing. It's heartwarming to see a school where inclusiveness isn't just a value on paper, but something you feel the moment you walk in. We sincerely thank the team for the positive impact they've had on our daughter's growth, confidence and happiness." - Parent of Currans Hill Public School

Anti-Bullying Plan

1.2 Staff communication and professional learning

Staff will be supported with professional learning that provides evidence-based ways to encourage and teach positive social and emotional wellbeing and discourage, prevent, identify, and respond effectively to student bullying behaviour.

1.3. New and casual staff

New and casual staff will be informed about our school’s approaches and strategies to prevent and respond to student bullying behaviour in the following ways.

1. Partnerships with families and community

Effective schools have high levels of parental and community involvement. This involvement is strongly related to improved student learning, attendance and behaviour. Our school proactively builds collaborative relationships with families and communities to create a shared understanding of how to support student learning, safety and wellbeing.

1. Website

Our school website has information to support families help their children to regulate their emotions and behaviour and develop socially. Information is provided to assist if children have been involved in bullying behaviour (as the person engaging in bullying behaviour, as the person being bullied or as the person witnessing the bullying behaviour).

The following are published on our school’s website. Check the boxes that apply.

School Anti-bullying Plan NSW Anti-bullying website Behaviour Code for Students

1. Communication with parents

Our school will provide information to parents to help promote a positive school culture where bullying is not acceptable and to increase parent’s understanding of how our school addresses all forms of bullying behaviour.

1. Support for wellbeing and positive behaviours

Our school’s practices support student wellbeing and positive behaviour approaches that align with our school community’s needs.

Social and emotional skills related to personal safety, resilience, help-seeking and protective behaviours are explicitly taught across the curriculum in Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE).

Examples of other ways our school will embed student wellbeing and positive behaviour approaches and strategies in practices include the following.

Currans Hill Public school operates within a positive behaviour for learning framework,

The core behaviour expectations at Curans Hill Public School were collaboratively developed by students, parents and teachers. Students are expected to be Safe, Respectful Learners.

• Consistent language is used throughout the school, to provide ongoing visible and explicit instructions to students of Currans Hill Public School expectations.

• Explicit lessons focusing on the teaching of behaviour expectations, social skills and student wellbeing are delivered during Stage Assemblies and class instruction.

• Explicit and individualised reminders of behaviour expectations are conducted on an ongoing basis to redirect as needed. Expected behaviour is visually represented around the school. Expected behaviour is clearly communicated to the school community.

• Teachers verbally acknowledge appropriate behaviour in the classroom and playground.

• Appropriate behaviour is acknowledged through class behaviour management systems

• Class merit awards, weekly assembly awards and Student of the Week ribbons can be used to acknowledge and celebrate appropriate behaviour.

• Students are given opportunities to share successes with other staff member

• Short-term specific focus that is encouraging appropriate behaviours eg Blitz  / Quick Flicks

• Teachers manage minor behaviour incidents using a variety of behaviour management techniques such as proximity, non-verbal cues.

• Instructional responses to behaviour including re-directing, re-teaching, providing choice and student conferences are used to manage minor behaviour incidents. See Behaviour Management Flow Chart shown in Appendix B.

• Minor behaviour incidents occurring in the playground are recorded and shared with the student’s class teacher as a record of patterns of inappropriate behaviour and filed on School Bytes.

• Minor behaviour incidents occurring in the classroom are recorded to show patterns of inappropriate behaviour, on School Bytes.

• For students with repeated or reoccurring incidents, classroom teachers will discuss the student’s behaviour with their stage supervisor. Supervisor will refer the student to the executive meeting (if necessary) and behaviour will be recorded on School Bytes.

• Major behaviour incidents will be immediately referred to the stage supervisor and the executive. Behaviour will be recorded on School Bytes.

• School Bytes behaviour entries are monitored by members of the executive each term.