Student Wellbeing/Diversity at St. Mary’s

Safe, Positive and Enabling Learning Environments

St.Mary’s school promotes inclusivity and reflects a culture of hope, faith and belonging for students, staff, families and the broader community. Justice, equity and respect are actively demonstrated and evident in our school policies and practices.

Leaders, staff, students and families work collaboratively to create and strengthen student friendly environments for learning.

Our Wellbeing initiatives aim to nurture the whole person – their spiritual, cognitive, physical, emotional and social selves. We provide explicit opportunities to improve students’ social and emotional competencies which allow them to be better placed to develop a deep understanding of their sacred dignity and unique potential.

We employ practices that encourage active participation and authentic ‘student voice’ to enhance their academic and wellbeing outcomes, as well as their capacity to contribute to the community and make meaningful decisions about a range of issues that affect them and their world.

Our social and emotional learning lessons are based on the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships learning materials. These materials help to promote social and emotional (SEL) skills and positive gender norms in children. Students who participate in these whole school SEL programs generally demonstrate more positive social behaviour and have improved academic outcomes

Our wellbeing initiatives include:

• Access to a counsellor onsite two days a week
• Explicit social and emotional learning and teaching programs
• A student hub dedicated to student wellbeing
• School leaders and student representative council members
• Buddy programs
• Extension programs
• Social skills groups 
• Access to various initiatives such as Art therapy, meditation and mindfulness 
• Intervention and enrichment programs 

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