Wellbeing Approach & Support

Karoo Primary School is a learning community. We support students in all aspects of their learning journey, which importantly involves their social and emotional development. This involves learning about how to understand one’s own feelings and the feelings of others, learning to value others, how to interact socially, as well as understanding different people’s perspectives and responses to different situations and how we can support others and ourselves.

At Karoo PS, we intentionally teach these skills through our Wellbeing Lessons, Respectful Relationships, the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) curriculum, Circle Times, Zones of Regulation, Wellbeing Groups, and our restorative practices approach to solving conflict.

Restorative Practices

A restorative approach helps to re-establish safety, rebuild relationships, and repair the harm caused. Restorative Practices also support students to take greater responsibility by helping them develop important life skills such as getting on with others and managing conflict. Restorative practices can also help to prevent behaviours of concern from happening in the first place, as it supports reflection and a greater understanding of the impact that actions can have on others.

Real Schools Partnership

From 2002, Karoo PS has partnered with an organisation called ‘Real Schools.’ This partnership has enabled our school to elevate our whole school approach to student wellbeing and conflict resolution, and support students to be active participants in building their emotional literacy and engaging in interpersonal interactions.

To build our schools ability to support your children we utilise restorative practices and we work with our Real School Facilitator, Sheila Bollard, to do this. Sheila works with our staff and students in a variety of ways, from individual, to group to whole staff professional learning days, always with the focus on building understanding about our brain’s development and response to different situations, and how the restorative continuum can support our response.

Please see the video below to hear from our Facilitator Sheila Bollard and the work that we are doing together to support your children.

KPS Approach to Student Wellbeing

At Karoo PS we aim to support students to understand and embody our school values of Kindness, Personal Excellence and Tenacity everyday. To do this we provide students with guidance and support as well as strategies they can use when things are going well, and when incidents occur. At Karoo PS, we utilise Restorative Practices, as a whole school approach, to support students to learn about their wellbeing and the wellbeing of others. Students are explicitly taught about social and emotional needs and self regulation strategies, through wellbeing sessions (RRRR Curriculum), Circle Time, Zones of Regulation and other opportunities.

Student Voice

When an incident occurs and it is brought to the attention of a staff member, it is important to hear from the student/s themselves. Not only does this provide first hand perspective but it also empowers students to see that they are being heard and their concerns are being validated. A student can then provide a written account of the incident in the form of a P3P3F3 and work with teachers for further follow up.

Understanding

It is important when an incident occurs to gain a greater understanding of the context, the perspectives of others and the influencing factors that contributed to the incident. This process allows time for investigation, fact finding and clarifying. During this stage we may discuss the incident with students and work in partnership communicating with all parties involved.

Restorative Conversations

Restorative conversations are used to address any issue and are designed to support all students involved. These conversations not only give voice to students, they also rebuild and repair relationships and develop skills in conflict resolution. Most importantly the student has the opportunity to understand and be accountable to the impact that they have had on others.

Future Actions

Following these processes, there are direct actions put in place to repair relationships harmed and to provide future support that will modify inappropriate behaviours to support personal growth. The actions may be differentiated to meet student need and are communicated with relevant parties.

Student Engagement Plan

Kindness – with courage and connection we belong
Personal Excellence – with confidence we grow to be our best
Tenacity – with grit we have strength and purpose

We follow the restorative continuum to elevate student behaviour, empathy and relationships

We support each other to elevate student behaviour restoratively

We consistently use the restorative process with outcomes being differentiated to meet student needs.
We recognise that student behaviour is a form of communication and seek to understand the cause, not to react to the symptom in order to promote future growth.
We empower students to use their voice, apply their skills and knowledge, to build and restore positive relationships.
Together, in partnership with students, families and community, we work restoratively through the lens of clear communication, high expectations and ongoing support.
In our school, we foster safe and supportive learning environments, where we use effective ways to respectfully hold ourselves and one another accountable for the impact of our behaviour.

We support each other to elevate student behaviour restoratively

For those who have done the wrong thing

What happened?
What were you thinking about at the time?
What have you thought about since?
Who has been affected by what you have done? In what way?
What do you think you need to do to make things right again?

For those who have been harmed

What did you think when you realized what had happened?
What impact has this incident had on you and others?
What has been the hardest thing for you?
What do you think needs to happen to make things right?

Circle Time

Circle Time is a strategy used to encourage unity, respect, turn-talking and working together towards a shared vision. It is used to help develop positive relationships between students and aims to give them tools to engage with and listen to each other. The emphasis of Circle Time is on engagement and participation from students and aims to promote time where students are actively speaking, listening, thinking or doing, through goal setting, problem solving, understanding different perspectives, sharing emotions and celebrating successes.

Zones of Regulation

The Zones of Regulation create a systematic approach to teach emotional regulation by categorising all the different ways we feel and states of alertness we experience into four concrete colored zones – Blue, Green, Yellow and Red. This structures enables us to understand emotions and feelings in a more concrete manner, which supports a student’s ability to communicate their feelings and needs and understand the feelings and needs of others more clearly.

Wellbeing Supports

At Karoo PS we aim to support students to understand and embody our school values of Kindness, Personal Excellence and Tenacity every day. Our aim is to work with students and families to build a supportive and cohesive learning environment for all. To support our students further, we also offer a range of additional wellbeing supports, such as Wellbeing Groups, Art Expression sessions, Intergenerational programs and our Wellbeing Dog, Archie.
Image: KPS Wellbeing Supports (See attached)