Our Strategic Direction
Each week in the College Compass our strategic pillar leaders will provide an update on the Strategic Direction of the College. We also look forward to sharing the full strategic direction document with you in the coming months.
Our four pillars include:
- Academic Intelligence – Knowledge for a better world
- Emotional Intelligence – Empowered to be courageous
- Digital Intelligence – Technologies for an innovative future
- Social Intelligence – Diversity as the path to unity
This week Ms Lamia Rockwell will discuss our Empowered to be courageous strategic pillar.
Emotional Intelligence – Empowered to be courageous
The ongoing focus around Student Wellbeing has continued this term and I am pleased to announce that all of our Academic and School Office staff have completed 14 hours of the Youth Mental Health First Aid course. While some of the content was intense for some of us, the staff members were empowered and most grateful to be equipped with the tools to further support students in the space of Wellbeing. Below is a brief outline of what was covered in the Youth Mental Health First Aid course.
Session 1
- Youth Mental Health First Aid
- Adolescent development
- Common mental illness affecting youth
- The MHFA Action Plan
- Communicating with young people
- Professionals who can help
- Introduction to depression in young people
- Session 2
- Depression in young people
- The MHFA Action Plan for depression
- Crisis first aid for non-suicidal self-injury
- Anxiety in young people
- Types of anxiety disorders
- Session 3
- The MHFA Action Plan for anxiety
- Crisis first aid for traumatic events
- Eating disorders in young people
- Types of eating disorders
- The MHFA Action Plan for eating disorders
- Crisis first aid for medical emergencies
- Session 4
- Psychosis in young people
- The MHFA Action Plan for psychotic disorders
- Crisis first aid for severe psychological states
- Substance misuse in young people
- The MFHA Action Plan for substance misuse
- Crisis first aid for intoxication
- Crisis first aid for aggressive behaviour
- Crisis first aid for medical emergencies
- Concluding activities
Our Compass and Directions programs are designed to help our students improve their emotional intelligence and develop good mind, body and spirit habits for life. Lessons are centred around enabling students to develop a ‘Personal toolkit’ of strategies to help them navigate the challenges, changes and opportunities in life.
The Heads of Year are currently working with our Lead Psychologist, Mr Andrew Scott, to develop teen mental health toolkits to be taught to our Secondary School students in their Directions lessons in Term 3. This is also reflected in the Directions lessons in our Preparatory and Junior Schools using the Kimochi program in the Preparatory School and UR Strong program in the Junior School.
One of the first steps in managing health and wellbeing is to develop a level of self-awareness. Awareness of these aspects of oneself is the first step to change and growth. To ensure we are continuing to increase the number of conversations with our girls, we have 60 Year 10 students currently piloting the use of two Wellbeing apps. Half the group is trialling Smartabase and the remaining half is trialling iYarn.
Smartabase was originally developed as an athlete data management system to improve performance, monitor health and optimise athlete development. Smartabase was designed to give people the ability to collect relevant data, analyse it effectively and use the resulting information to guide actions and decisions for success in the sporting and athletic world. Smartabase continues to succeed in a rapidly expanding arena of opportunities. Institutes and academies of sport, universities and schools, private companies, government and military are successfully using Smartabase for a diverse range of applications.
iYarn was established to connect people through simple, powerful and flexible check-ins. Purposeful check-ins encourage expression and provide others with the opportunity to understand. They are a safe space where people can be vulnerable and their stories can be heard.
Students involved are being asked to answer a series of questions (please see below) and score them on a sliding scale in relation to how they are feeling. This information will be tracked and summarised by their relevant Compass Teacher and together with each student, they will be able to focus further on specific areas to promote the student’s wellbeing.
- Sleep:
- How many hours of sleep have I had?
- How was the quality of my sleep?
- Exercise/Energy:
- Am I finding time to do exercise or physical activity daily?
- How are my energy levels right now?
- Friends:
- Do I have good relationships with my friends at the moment?
- Schoolwork:
- Am I feeling organised in relation to my schoolwork?
- How satisfied am I with my effort towards schoolwork this week?
- Gratitude:
- Am I regularly doing kind things for my community, family, friends, the environment and/or myself?
- Do I practise gratitude in my life by verbally appreciating others?
