Student Wellbeing

Saint Ignatius College Geelong is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all students at the College.

On 26 November 2015, the Victorian Parliament passed the Child Wellbeing and Safety Amendment (Child Safe Standards) Bill 2015 to introduce child safe standards into law. The standards will commence from 1 January 2016 for most organisations working with children, with the aim of promoting cultural change in the way organisations manage the risk of child abuse and neglect.

The child safe standards are part of the Victorian Government’s response to the Betrayal of Trust Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Non-Government Organisations. The Betrayal of Trust Report found that while the majority of children are safe in organisations and in the community, more work could be done to strengthen existing approaches to child safety.

The child safe standards aim to drive cultural change in organisations that provide services for children so that protecting children from abuse is embedded in everyday thinking and practice.

Saint Ignatius College Geelong will implement the Child Safe Standards to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all students at the College and promote an organisational culture that manages the risk of child abuse and neglect.

Student well-being issues are paramount throughout the College and are complimentary to the Religious Education program.

Students, staff and parents or guardians are provided with opportunities to experience a sense of belonging to a faith-filled Christian community and to commit themselves to being of service to others. The pastoral program provides every student in the College with a carer who has a special concern for the student as an individual and encourages personal growth; primarily the Homeroom Teacher. The College also offers a Student Wellbeing service for any student who wishes to avail themselves of this facility.

Pastoral Care policy for schools from the Catholic Education Office, Melbourne.

Student behaviour education and pastoral care – a whole-of-school responsibility.

A Catholic school’s provision of positive behaviour education and behaviour management skilling of students ought be pastorally driven, comprehensive, and whole-of-school in nature.

An appropriate model is the Health Promoting Schools framework. The focus and intended outcome is personal resilience, the mode is prevention and primary intervention, and the application is to the school community as a whole, and to each member of the school community individually.

It is within such a positive and broad framework that a school's student behaviour management processes for individual cases ought be formulated.

Pastoral care for the whole school community.

Because student wrongful behaviour can have an adverse effect on the wellbeing of students, staff members and others, the proper exercise of pastoral care requires the principal to ensure a just and reasonable balancing of the rights, needs, obligations and wellbeing of all concerned.

In addition, the principal will sometimes need to authorise action beyond the school’s formal student behaviour management procedures, based on knowledge of the particular issues and local realities, and guided by principles that include justice, respect, compassion, personal and communal safety, health, and duty of care.

Student connectedness and engagement. An essential element of human wellbeing is the experience of belonging, of being connected to others in a community, being accepted and valued, and being positively involved and engaged within a community.

For the wellbeing of students, their school must provide them with such an experience. It follows that, when a school is addressing student behaviour that is judged inappropriate or wrongful, behaviour management processes which ensure that the student remains engaged and connected with school activities and the school community are to be preferred to those that disengage the student. It is recommended that processes that disengage not be applied unless other options are clearly not appropriate. Disengagement and disconnection are potentially harmful of student wellbeing.

Restorative practices. The philosophy of Restorative Practices informs a positive and formative approach to student behaviour management, and is recommended for Catholic schools. A commitment to Restorative Practices has as its aim the promotion of resilience in the one harmed and the one causing harm. Restorative measures help students learn from their mistakes, grow in self discipline, take responsibility for their actions, recognise the impact of their actions on others, and reconcile and resolve conflict with others. Further information may be obtained from the diocesan Catholic Education Office.

http://www.ceomelb.catholic.edu.au/publications-policies/contentPubPolicies.aspx?id=4602

To contact wellbeing email:

wellbeing@ignatius.vic.edu.au