Bimbadeen Heights Primary School places great emphasis on the happiness of children in our care.   We believe our school provides a secure environment where children care for each other. 

 Student Wellbeing Coordinator

B.H.P.S is fortunate to have a teacher with special qualifications who devotes much of her time to student wellbeing.  Those children requiring extra support can attend sessions designed to help them with issues such as:

·         Grief and loss (e.g. family break-up, death of a loved one)

·         Social skills

·         Individualised support as needed. 

Attendance at these sessions can be initiated by parents or by teachers.  As always, we emphasise the value of the ‘home/school partnership’.

In the Yard

During recess and at lunchtime there are always teachers in the yard to give assistance to children.  Teachers record playground incidents in official books, enabling staff to see patterns should they appear.  Such patterns are then recorded on a computerised database and any children featured can be identified.  Class teachers, the Wellbeing Coordinator, and if necessary, the staff as a whole can then work together to deal with problems before they become entrenched.  Behaviours such as bullying (the repeated targeting of a student in a way that causes that student distress) are rigorously addressed.

Peer Mediators are senior students who have been trained to deal with minor difficulties experienced by junior students in the yard, using discussions.  Students are referred to these Peer Mediators by teachers.

Prep Play Areas

Preps have their own playground for climbing, swinging and playing fantasy games. They also have their own large sandpit.  Initially Prep children are very closely supervised and kept in these areas, but they very quickly gain enough confidence to begin exploring further afield in the yard.

Curriculum Programs

B.H.P.S. has a number of structured programs which are designed to foster the wellbeing of our students. These include:

·       You Can Do It.  Each term we feature one of the values – Confidence, Organisation, Persistence, Getting Along. 

·       S.T.A.R.S. (Student Teams Are Really Special). Teams of students of mixed ages meet regularly for fun activities.  This means that each child gets to know a wider range of people in the school.

·       Life Education. An accredited teacher spends several weeks at the school, usually during second term.  Each class attends a session in the Life Ed. Van, learning about a healthy lifestyle and making good choices.  Class teachers use this visit as a focus for follow-up activities.

Prep Buddies

Year Six students look forward to regular classroom interaction with their young partners, such as eating lunch together, making things which might otherwise be too difficult for smaller people, reading to each other etc. Buddies are assigned after teachers become familiar with new Preps, to enable those children with special needs to be considered.  Year Six children are encouraged to speak regularly with their Prep Buddies in the yard, but not to play with them for any length of time.  It is important that the older children support the Preps in relating to other Preps, rather than replacing those peer relationships.

Peer Support

Peer Support is a program that trains older students (Year 6) to work with small groups of younger students (Year 2) on social skills activities. The program provides mentoring and leadership opportunities for older students and assists in building a sense of connectedness between age groups.

Peer Assistant Leaders

Peer Assistant Leaders are student volunteers from Year 6  who sit at a nominated area/place in the yard every lunch play.  Their task is to assist younger students to resolve minor playground difficulties, after referral from a teacher on yard duty.  Peer Assistant Leaders are selected and trained by our Welfare Co-ordinator.

Peer Assistant Leaders are rostered on in pairs, for one lunchtime per fortnight.

A Peer Assistant Leader listens to all parties in a dispute and offers possible solutions or compromises, which may resolve a minor difficulty.  They are not expected to be involved with major difficulties and simply refer these disputes to the yard duty teachers.

Brains and Brawn

Brains and Brawn is a program for boys in Year 5. Through cooperative game situations, students learn about the importance of teamwork and how to support each other.

MPower Girls

MPower is a program for girls in Year 5. The MPower Girls program explores issues of bullying, self esteem and relationships between girls, assisting them to develop skills to cope and respond to issues such as:  teasing, gossip and exclusion.

Boyz Group

Boyz Group is a program for boys in Year 6. It focusses on self esteem and self concept, puberty,communication, anger awareness and personal strategy planning, peer group pressure, role-models, body image and how to help a mate / ourselves.

Girlz Group

Girlz Group is a program for girls in Year 6. It focusses on self esteem and self concept, puberty, communication, friendships and combating bullying, what it means to be a woman, role-models, body image and how to help a friend / ourselves.