KidsMatter - Australian Primary Schools Health Initiative

KidsMatter Primary eNewsletter: Issue 16 (June 2010)

Editorial

New National Coordinators

New State and Territory Coordinators

Submit School Stories

School Snapshots

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander KidsMatter Early Childhood

KidsMatter Primary around Australia (Tasmania & Northern Territory)

Focus on Mental Health: Strengthening Family Relationships

 

Editorial

 

Welcome to Issue 16 of the KidsMatter Primary E-newsletter.

This is my first editorial as the new KidsMatter Primary National Program Manager for Principals Australia and I’m very excited to be involved in such a valuable initiative.

The current educational landscape at a national and state/territory level is one in which KidsMatter Primary has a significant role to play. The recent debate about mental health funding by the Australian Government is stimulating community interest in ways to improve mental health.

The Smarter Schools National Partnerships may provide opportunity for schools and regions to utilize funds and resources to support further implementation. The low Socio-economic School communities Partnership, which aims to improve student wellbeing, retention and educational outcomes, is operating mostly in primary schools.

The KidsMatter Primary partnership will continue to collaborate with key stakeholders in education to see how we can make the most of this opportunity.

Recent correspondence sent to national and state Ministers of Health and Education highlighting the positive findings from the two-year evaluation has already proven fruitful in Queensland, with meetings held with both systems on future collaboration.

The future partnership between state and territory jurisdictions and KidsMatter partners is crucial in ensuring more schools have an opportunity to implement KidsMatter in a manner that is sustainable and manageable.

An exciting inclusion in this newsletter is the detail about how new schools already implementing KidsMatter can share their stories online. If you are a new school, and you have a great story to share, then please send it in.

This edition also includes snapshots from two new schools in the Northern Territory and highlights reports from the field from our Coordinators in the Northern Territory and Tasmania.

Happy reading

Heather Parkes (National Program Manager)

KidsMatter Primary News

 

Welcome aboard!

Heather Parkes (Principals Australia) and Lyn O’Grady (The Australian Psychological Society), our new National Coordinators.

Meet Heather

Prior to joining Principals Australia I worked for a Ministerial Council for the South Australian Minister for Education leading the planning for the implementation of the three COAG Smarter Schools National Partnerships – Improving Teacher Quality, Literacy and Numeracy and Low Socio-economic School Communities. I have also worked in South Australian Health (on health reform), in the SA Premier’s Department, on strategic policy and social inclusion. I have also spent 20 years working for the Commonwealth government mainly on labour market programs. This has included establishing and running a major Commonwealth business enterprise (Employment National), leading a number of major programs and reforms including disability reform for job seekers, the Jobs Education and Training Program for getting single parents back to school or into work, and establishing case management of the long term unemployed. I started my career in the Australian Bureau of Statistics so I have had very a varied work life.

I am really excited to be at PA and really look forward to meeting and working with as many people as possible. My role encompasses both national coordination responsibility for KidsMatter Primary and national business management.

Meet Lyn

I have been employed with the Victorian Department of Education & Early Childhood Development in various roles during the last 10 years:  Psychologist, Network Co-ordinator, Regional Emergency Management Co-ordinator as well as a recent short stint as a Senior Policy Officer with Central Office’s Student Wellbeing Division. I have also previously been employed within the community sector, primarily in parent education and support as well as drug education/prevention programs.  I completed a Doctorate in Community Psychology in 2008.  My placement for the Doctorate involved the development of an Emotional Intelligence project in schools under the supervision of Dr Helen McGrath.  Recently, I have also enjoyed participation in the Festival for Healthy Living program, a mental health promotion program in Victorian schools incorporating the arts.

Introducing…..

Our new State Coordinators: Paul Shelton (Victoria) and Stephen Macdonald (Western Australia).

Meet Paul

My work experience has taken me around the world from Europe to Egypt and found me working in a range of settings caterings for students with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, a primary ‘Nurture Unit’ and schools for students with conduct disorders. After a six month bicycle journey back to Australia I settled in Perth where I worked at Princess Margaret hospital in both primary and secondary hospital school programs and started a Masters in special education. This expanded my theoretical knowledge of mental health, complementing my practical experience and making me realize the crucial importance of effective mental health support and education. I continued this passion over the next five years in Melbourne at the Austin Hospital School, working closely with Austin CAMHS whilst also completing my Masters at The University of Melbourne. For me KidsMatter is an opportunity to utilize my experience, skills and enthusiasm to promote positive mental health in schools, and reduce the need for students to ever need the specialist or hospital settings that I have worked in. I am excited about the strength of the KidsMatter process and look forward to getting involved with schools to assist them on their important and exciting KidsMatter journeys.

 

 Find out more about Stephen in the next issue.

 Once upon a KidsMatter school…

KidsMatter Primary is excited to announce a new feature on our website. KidsMatter Primary schools can submit stories online to share ways in which they have addressed mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention. We are seeking creative and inspiring ideas for each of the 4 components. Share your stories here, or click here to see stories from KidsMatter Primary pilot schools.

School Snapshots

 

 

Two Northern Territory schools, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College and Araluen Christian College share their tales of implementing KidsMatter Primary.

Janis Paterson the Head of Campus at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College shares their story of how they began planning and implementing Component 1: A positive school community.

The Bath Street Campus of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College began their KidsMatter journey in 2010. The campus is part of a Catholic College and caters for Transition to Year 4. We are located in the centre of Alice Springs and occupy a dwelling built in 1968. There are currently 347 students and 14 classes. We are now part of a cluster of schools in and around Alice Springs, all of whom are in the first year of KidsMatter Primary implementation. Our school decided to support two Implementation Support Persons on staff, who also fulfill the role of Professional Learning Presenters, and benefit from supporting each other in the delivery of the modules to the other staff members.

We delivered the first module of professional learning, “A Positive School Community”, in two sessions – one to the teaching staff during a staff professional development day, and the other to our support staff during school time. This proved to be most rewarding; as all members of the staff felt that their opinions and views were being listened to and valued. We “renamed” our Action Team to become the Campus Wellbeing Team, and established a well-being room on campus. This meant that all playground indiscretions would be dealt with in the well being room, and we would use the restorative practice protocols to restore relationships rather than use any kind of punitive actions.

All of our staff survey information was recorded electronically, and presented to the staff. To collect data from the parent body, we decided to use the Class Parent Representatives from the Parents and Friends Group. A wine and cheese evening was held for these representatives and the executive of the Parents and Friends Group, outlining the objectives of KidsMatter and what data we wished to collect. With the support and help of these parents we were able to circulate a parent survey and families were given the option of returning their views either on-line or in hard copy. The parent response was wonderful, and gave us valuable information to inform our component plan. In the coming weeks we intend to have a parent forum to share the results, and keep our families informed about the implementation of KidsMatter at our campus.

Janis Paterson (Head of Campus)

Araluen Christian College embraces KidsMatter Primary

Araluen Christian College is another great example of a KidsMatter Primary school in the planning stages of KidsMatter implementation. By using the 7-step implementation process the school has identified key areas to develop relating to Component 1 to further promote a positive school community. Below is their tale of how they approached this important stage of the KidsMatter implementation process.

Araluen has launched into KidsMatter with much enthusiasm from staff and support from parents. Sandra Harrington (Year 5 Teacher) and Hilary Saunders (Principal) led staff through Component 1 during the Professional Development days in January. Sandra and Hilary were pleased with the response and the number of great ideas staff came up with to make the College an even more positive and inclusive place for students, parents and staff.

Some initiatives have already been undertaken, with a Buddies system and a Student Representative Council in place. Staff and parents have all completed surveys with very positive results overall, though we have identified areas that need further development. The surveys have been collated, and it was interesting to see the overlaps between staff and parents. The College is now ready to fully plan Component 1 using the information collected to date.

                                            

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander KidsMatter Early Childhood

 

A new KidsMatter project has joined the team! Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander KidsMatter Early Childhood is a partnership between The Secretariat of National Aboriginal & Islander Child Care (SNAICC), The Australian Psychological Society (APS) and beyondblue: the national depression initiative.

The overarching aim of the project is to build the capacity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled early childhood services to support the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from birth to school age.

 During Phase 1, from March 2010 until April 2011, the project will develop resources and training materials to promote the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. These materials will support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early childhood services to provide the following: a healthy environment, support children, families and communities in the area of children’s social and emotional wellbeing and support workers’ self-care. It will also enable support workers to build partnerships with other child and family services and the community to collaboratively respond to mental health difficulties in children.

The project will map and document a number of areas namely: identify current initiatives, undertake a literature review and sector training needs research paper, and hold a national stakeholder consultation workshop. Working with four participating pilot sites, the project will develop, test and refine resource and training materials through a series of training and consultations events. The project will also produce a detailed plan for the next phase of the Project.

The project will be guided by a Project Advisory Group to ensure culturally appropriate protocols are followed and any barriers encountered are addressed. The action research approach taken by the project allows the constant refinement of the resources, training material and long term goals for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander KidsMatter Early Childhood.

KidsMatter Primary around Australia

 

What’s happening in Tasmania?

During the pilot period (2007 & 2008), there were 6 schools involved in trialing KidsMatter Primary in Tasmania. In 2010, there are 35 Catholic, Independent and government schools involved in implementing the initiative. This represents significant growth for KidsMatter Primary in Tasmania. The roll out of KidsMatter across the state has been done on a regional basis with all sectors engaged in the planning and promotion of KidsMatter to interested schools.

North West region

The North West region was the first area to engage new schools last year. There are 8 cross sector schools that have commenced their KidsMatter journey – stretching across a wide geographical area on the North and West coast. The schools are: Mountain Heights (Queenstown), Strahan Primary school, West Ulverstone Primary, Yolla District High, St Patricks school (Latrobe), Our Lady of Lourdes school (Devonport), St Peter Chanel school (Smithton) and Leighland Christian school (Burnie).

So far, the schools have each created a School Action Team and appointed an Implementation Support Person to guide them. There has been professional learning presenter training held in both Component 1: Positive school community and Component 2: Social and Emotional Learning. Whole school staff professional learning is then negotiated at times convenient to the schools.

Many schools have been implementing KidsMatter Primary in creative ways. For example, schools such as Our Lady of Lourdes in Devonport have involved all staff in SEL program selection. As a whole school they have been exploring some KidsMatter themes such as ‘Every face has a place’ by every class creating a display of their student photos which affirms their sense of belonging. They have also been working on the theme ‘walking in someone else’s shoes’ which highlights perspective taking and celebrates diversity (see photos below).

                      

Launceston area

There are 3 new schools in the Launceston area – Mowbray Heights Primary, Launceston Church Grammar and Ravenswood Primary school. These schools are starting to develop a network with the 2 local pilot schools – Rocherlea and Waverly Primary schools.

School Action Team and Implementation Support Person training has been held for these schools as well as the Component 1 and 2 professional learning training. During term 2, representatives from each School Action Team will meet to share highlights and ideas about how they are tackling the challenges of implementation. It has been great to see schools working collaboratively across sector and geographical boundaries.

Southern region

Following on from a school briefing in December, the interest in KidsMatter has resulted in 18 new southern schools (6 Government, 7 Catholic and 5 Independent schools): Levendale Primary, Cygnet Primary, New Town Primary, Snug Primary, Mt Faulkner Primary, Molesworth Primary, Corpus Christi, Dominic College, St Paul’s school, St John’s school, John Paul II school, Holy Rosary school, St Brigid’s school, Emmanuel Christian school, Calvin Christian school, Channel Christian school, Northern suburbs Christian school and Hutchins school.

School Action Team training sessions were held on 26th & 29th March in Hobart with Implementation Support training following this in April. Component 1 & 2 Professional Learning training will commence for these schools in term 2.

                       

Teachers from Southern schools explore the KidsMatter resources at the school action team training. They are discussing how they will use the component plans in their schools.

Lauderdale Primary school recently held a Games Extravaganza afternoon where each class designed a class banner that showcases a good health message. Then all students were involved in playing a range of games outside. Parents were encouraged to come along and cheer on children as a way of promoting their positive school environment.

Helen Barrett (Tasmania Coordinator )

What’s happening in the Northern Territory?

In the Territory, we take pride in our uniqueness and like to celebrate the vast landscape and cultural diversity that exists here. Thus it probably comes as no surprise that we’re doing KidsMatter a bit differently up here to suit our geography, context and needs. Instead of rolling out KidsMatter en masse, we want to ensure that schools have the support and the personnel they need to embed KidsMatter properly. Thus we have decided to trial small centres of excellence with direct support and guidance from the Northern Territory Coordinator. Two small scale, cross-sector (Government, Catholic and Independent schools) clusters have been established, in Alice Springs and Darwin, with a total of 13 schools self-nominating to participate.

Since the end of 2009 for Alice Springs, and the beginning of 2010 for Darwin, these schools have been working hard; attending briefings, preparing their staff and community, participating in Action Team Briefings and Implementation Support Person training to lay the foundations for KidsMatter Implementation.

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we were keen to get to the implementation phase and sometimes it felt like we were going to be doing the preparatory work forever! However, both clusters have finally received Component 1 Professional Learning training so it’s all systems go now.

Darwin Cluster

 

Working hard at the Darwin Action Team Briefing

Darwin schools are at the beginning of what I have been calling the ‘consultation phase’; having only begun their training in March. Even so work has begun, distributing and collating surveys and discussing who and how to survey. I think we all agree that the survey collation tool is fantastic. There have been many rich Action Team discussions about data collection: how to incorporate data that schools already have, how to ensure everyone is being consulted and how best to engage them. For example, Wagaman School has decided to focus on KidsMatter at their ‘Friday Morning Friends’ parenting group. This session will give parents an overview of what KidsMatter is and ways they can get involved.

Several of the schools have already trained their staff in one or more sessions of Component 1 and I have co-facilitated training at Alawa and Wulagi schools. Given most of the trainers I have worked with have been teaching staff who have had very little time to prepare, I have been so impressed with their dedication and presentations, whipping their staff into a frenzy of KidsMatter enthusiasm – they are awesome!

Alice Springs

At the beginning of term 2, the decision was made that I would attend Action Team meetings about twice per term to support implementation of KidsMatter in each school. This has proven effective, and I have been totally inspired by the progress schools have been making.

I can’t possibly summarise all the things that are happening but here’s a short list of examples of some of the great work being done: 

• Consult, consult, and consult! Lots of meetings with key school community stakeholders to establish clear and accurate perception data and build community ownership.
• Surveys: many schools have developed parent surveys as well as using staff surveys
• Component 1 training, including training support staff separately to ensure everyone has a voice and input into KidsMatter strategies and Action Plans
• Reviewing  Action Team membership to ensure they are representative of the community.
• Auditing current practice in a meaningful way
• Community notice boards established to circulate information

         

Photos from Yuendumu School, the display board underneath the school sign is a new addition and features the latest newsletter which is now translated into both English and Warlpiri to ensure it is more accessible to both yapa and kardiya community members.

Michele Oliphant (Northern Territory Coordinator)

Focus on Mental Health Resources

 

Strengthening Family Relationships: Resources for parents, carers and school staff.

Managing family relationships so that everyone’s most important needs get met can be hard work. All families have times when tempers get frayed, feelings get hurt and misunderstandings occur. Maintaining positive connections when these things happen requires good communication and creative management. Effective communication means that everyone has a say and is listened to. This can be a challenge in busy families. Pressure to get things done can mean there seems to be little ‘quality time’ for talking and listening to each other. Whether or not time is a problem, negative styles of communication often undermine relationships.

An important first step is to set the tone for positive communication. Parents and carers can set a positive tone for communication through their own example. The way you listen, and the attention and importance you give to what family members say, is as central as what you say to them and how you say it. This may not always be easy, especially when you are tired or busy and have to deal with conflict. However, listening and acknowledging others’ feelings and needs helps to reduce conflict and improves communication.

School staff can also support parents and carers by developing student understanding of positive communication and supportive family relationships. Implementing a program about supportive family relationships and positive communication is one way to assist student understanding and support parents and carers.

Parents and carers can use the following tips to further strengthen family relationships: 

• Talking together provides an opportunity to clarify roles and expectations.
• Be sure to talk about what is working well in family relationships and not just the difficulties.
• Build trust in family discussions by respecting and listening to everyone’s views without judging or putting them down.
• Encourage children as well as adults to hear and understand each other’s views and needs.

Other ways to build caring family relationships include:

• Show affection (e.g., hugs and kisses)
• Offer help and support
• Do fun things and laugh together
• Make time to talk
• Really listen to each other.

Click here to learn more about building family relationships and the range of practical suggestions and resources available to assist school staff, parents and carers with supporting families, or click on the relevant links below.

Parents and Carers – click here to learn how you can help support family relationships.

School staff and mental health professionals – click here to view a range of parenting support and education programs.

Information in this article is sourced from the KidsMatter Primary resource pack: Family Relationships