Student Wellbeing

At Kingston Heath Primary School, we pride ourselves in being a friendly, inclusive school where families and visitors feel welcome from the moment they enter our community. This begins with the Foundation Transition from kindergarten and transcends beyond the formal primary school years. We find many students continue to take an active part in our school community well after their Year 6 graduation.

School Wide Positive Behaviour Supports (SWPBS)

Kingston Heath Primary School are part of the SWPBS initiative. SWPBS is an internationally recognised approach with an extensive evidence base that is shown to improve behavioural, wellbeing, and academic outcomes for children and young people. When SWPBS is implemented well, teachers and students have more time to focus on relationships and classroom instruction. Students and staff benefit from:

  • increased respectful and positive behaviour
  • increased time focused on instruction
  • improved social-emotional wellbeing
  • positive and respectful relationships among students and staff
  • create safe, orderly and respectful school-wide environments.

Our goal is to ensure a positive and supportive learning environment for all students. It focuses on teaching and reinforcing positive behaviours while providing targeted assistance to students who may need extra support, leading to a more successful and inclusive learning community. SWPBS is a way to create positive, predictable, equitable and safe learning environments where everyone thrives.

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (R.R.R.R.)

The Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (R.R.R.R.) initiative teaches our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence. It also supports school leaders, educators and our school communities to promote and model respect and equality.

ABOUT R.R.R.R.
R.R.R.R. supports students to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to strengthen their sense of self, and build and manage safe and respectful relationships.
R.R.R.R takes a whole-school approach, recognising that schools are a place of learning, a workplace and a key part of local communities. It embeds a culture of respect and equality across our entire school community, from our classrooms to staff rooms, sporting fields and social events. This approach leads to positive change in students’ academic outcomes, their wellbeing, classroom behaviour, and relationships between teachers and students. We know that changes in attitudes and behaviours can be achieved when positive attitudes, behaviours and gender equality are lived across the school community.

R.R.R.R. IN THE CLASSROOM
In the primary years, R.R.R.R focuses on treating everyone with respect and dignity. It is taught as part of the Health and Physical Education and Personal and Social Capability areas of the Victorian Curriculum.

The supporting Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships teaching and learning materials have been developed by world-leading experts from the University of Melbourne. These age-appropriate resources align to the Victorian Curriculum and include lesson plans and activities that help students learn and practise social skills and apply them in a positive way to learning, life and relationships.

The Resilience, Rights & Respectful Relationships resources cover eight topics for each year level.

-Emotional Literacy
-Personal Strengths
-Positive Coping
-Problem Solving
-Stress Management
-Help-Seeking
-Gender and Identity
-Positive Gender Relations

FOR MORE INFORMATION
The best relationships are respectful ones.
To find out more about Respectful Relationships, please visit: www.education.vic.gov.au/respectfulrelationships

Smiling Minds

At Kingston Heath, we value the health of the whole child, helping each child to find their own value and self worth by providing them with building blocks to explore, reflect, value and express themselves. We do this by leading educators on a journey of how to deliver mindfulness lessons with confidence, care and an open-mind. We model and deliver a mindfulness approach with openness and empathy.

Smiling Mind in the classroom
At KHPS we practice mindfulness in the classroom through the Smiling Mind Education Program, a mindfulness-based program that supports the development of positive mental health and wellbeing.

The program has been designed for primary and secondary aged children and has been successfully implemented in a wide variety of government and non-government schools with positive results.

Practicing mindfulness can assist with:

  • managing stress,
  • developing emotional resilience,
  • enhancing creativity,
  • enhancing decision making and problem solving, and
  • a sense of calm, clarity and contentment.

You can also use the Smiling Mind mindfulness program at home for free. Click here to download the free app.

For more information visit https://www.smilingmind.com.au/mindfulness-in-education

Attendance

There is a direct link between attendance and achievement.
If students miss the basic skills in the early years of schooling they often experience learning difficulties later on. Children need to attend school regularly to make the most of the educational opportunities available to them.
It has been shown that poor patterns of attendance in the early years can lead to poor patterns of attendance throughout the school years.
Poor attendance makes it difficult for students to form positive friendships with their peers.

An 80% attendance rate is the equivalent of missing

  • 1 day per week OR
  • 40 days per year OR
  • Over 2 1/2 years of school from Foundation – Year 12

An 85% attendance rate is the equivalent of missing

  • 30 days per year OR
  • 2 years of school from Foundation – Year 12

An 90% attendance rate is the equivalent of missing

  • 1 day per fortnight OR
  • 20 days per year OR
  • Over 1 year of school from Foundation – Year 12

Student Attendance

It is important for all students to be at school every day.
It is also important that children are at school on time. Arriving late is upsetting and unsettling for both the child who is late and their class. For safety reasons children arriving late to school are asked to attend at the office to be signed in. A Late Pass will be issued before they go to class. It is a legal requirement that teachers mark the time of arrival/departure on their roll sheets each day.

Extended Family Holidays

If there is some known reason which requires your child to miss school for an extended time (eg. operation, overseas trip, etc.), parents are asked to discuss the matter with their Classroom Teacher first and then inform the Principal. You will need to complete a written form notifying the school of the details.
We urge parents to use the school holiday periods for their family holidays if at all possible and to avoid having their children miss classes immediately before and after scheduled holidays.

Absent Children

If your child is away for any reason, please report absences using Compass, alternatively you can notify the school, on the day, by phone and then provide a written explanation to your child’s teacher on their return to school. It is a government requirement to have all absences explained. In the case of unexplained absences, proformas will be sent home each term for you to complete. If a child is to be away longer than a week please keep the school informed. The school is required to report any unexplained absences to Department of Education and Training.

Taking Children Out of School for Appointments

When parents/guardians are picking children up early from school for appointments, personal reasons or sickness, children must be signed out at the office and an early dismissal pass for the class teacher will be given to you. Children cannot be released by teachers without this formal process being completed.
Please note: The school must be clearly informed in writing of custody arrangements and access agreements in regard to picking up children from school. Notes must also be provided when any student is picked up from school by adults other than their parent/s.

Emergency Information

Please make sure you provide the school with two Emergency Contact numbers. It is very important that these are kept up to date with any changes in home, business and emergency contact phone numbers and addresses.