Wellbeing
Buddy Program
The Chiltern Primary School Buddy Program supports our friendly and caring student body, where strong cross-aged peer relationships are built and maintained. All students are involved in this program and each week activities are organised that involve working together and sharing ideas. Activities have included; tree planting, games, card making, cooking, STEM, craft activities and technology.
All Foundation students are allocated a Year 6 Buddy to support them with their transition to Primary school and meet regularly with their Buddy through our ongoing weekly Buddy Program sessions. This ensures a strong friendship is built and younger students continue to feel supported by their elder peers while at school.
The role of the Senior Buddy is to build a positive relationship with the younger student, to be a positive role model for the student to look up to, and to share a joy of learning and being a student at CPS.
SWPBS
At Chiltern Primary School we strive to provide an inclusive, supportive and safe learning environment by encouraging all students to care for themselves, others, their learning and their school.
Introducing, modelling and reinforcing positive social behaviour are important components of a student’s educational experience, and at Chiltern PS, we promote and maintain a reliable and controlled approach to behaviour management by utilising a School Wide Positive Behaviours Support (PBS) framework.
A PBS framework promotes a proactive approach to teaching behavioural expectations and rewarding students for following them, rather than waiting for errors to occur before responding. This ensures a consistent approach to discipline with clearly defined rules, routines and physical arrangements, which are developed and taught by school staff. Like academic skills that have been learned initially, social skills must be regularly practised and acknowledged frequently to ensure mastery and sustained use.
Our approach aligns academic and behavioural systems to create an emphasis on explicitly teaching, monitoring and rewarding appropriate behaviour. We use tokens as a reward and students can spend them in the Rewards Shop, which is open during two lunch breaks each week.
Respectful Relationships is a wide-ranging initiative to help young Victorians deal with a range of challenges they may face and covers topics including being respectful, resilient and engaged at school and confident in themselves.
Respectful Relationships promote equality and help boys and girls learn how to build healthy relationships. The initiative prepares them to face challenges by developing problem-solving skills and building empathy, resilience and confidence.
In 2016, Respectful Relationships became a core component of the Victorian Curriculum and are being taught in all Government schools across our region.
There are 8 core areas for the teaching of Social and Emotional Learning and Respectful Relationships.
These include:
• Emotional literacy
• Personal strengths
• Positive coping
• Problem-solving
• Stress management
• Help-seeking
• Gender and identity
• Positive gender relations
Respectful Relationships is underpinned by evidence that shows schools can play a key role in preventing family violence by helping students develop an understanding of healthy relationships and respect.
All students are placed in one of three Houses; Anderson, Bartley and Conness for the duration of their time at Chiltern Primary School. Every year the members of each house elect one House Captain and one Vice Captain from the senior students. The elected House Captains and Vice Captains are responsible for organising sporting events and activities, participating at school assembly, and representing the school at school and community events.
One of the key elements of learning responsibility is to have the opportunity to think about and discuss items which will directly affect our daily situation. Two representatives from each class are chosen by their peers to form the Junior School Council. This group meets regularly to discuss issues of concern among the students and to plan activities, community fundraisers and give our student cohort voice and agency. These positions are highly sought after and students take their positions very seriously. Issues discussed may be resolved at meetings or can be referred to the staff or School Council. Some of the activities undertaken by the Junior School Council include; Footy Colour’s Day, Crazy Hair Day, Wear Pink for Breast Cancer, organising the Mother’s and Father’s Day stalls and Whacky Wednesday Treats.
At Chiltern Primary School the implementation of Wilson McCaskill’s ‘Play is the Way’ program underpins everything we do. ‘Play is the Way’ is a practical methodology for teaching social and emotional learning using guided play, classroom activities and a specific and empowering language which is embedded across all levels of our school.
We strongly believe that the program supports our students by developing the fundamental skills for life effectiveness. Teaching the skills we all need to handle ourselves, our relationships, and our work effectively and ethically. These skills include recognising and managing our emotions, developing caring concern for others, establishing positive relationships, making responsible decisions, and handling challenging situations constructively. They are the skills that allow children to calm themselves when angry, make friends, resolve conflicts respectfully, and make strong and safe choices.
The ‘Play is the Way’ philosophy consists of behaviour education and student self-regulation that fosters independent, self-motivated, empathetic, lifelong learners.
This philosophy revolves around the Self-Mastery Checklist and the following 5 key concepts:
• Treat others as you would like them to treat you
• Be brave - Participate to progress
• Pursue your personal best no matter who you work with
• Have reasons for the things you say and do
• It takes great strength to be sensible
Our Morning Fitness program is aligned with a Perceptual Motor Program (PMP). It is not a physical education programme alone, or music, or fitness, or dance. It is a programme that uses facets of all of the above to develop children's perceptions. The perceptions and judgments that are formed over time help determine how children react to their environment, to others, and to new ideas. Play is the Way is a program we use to promote teamwork, inclusion, fairness and a sense of being a good sport.
Our Morning Fitness program is different because it aims to develop the child not just their physical skills. It is not purely a motor programme. The programme has its roots in the development of language, the gaining of problem-solving skills, and general readiness areas.
Our Morning Fitness program which incorporates (PMP) is a step-by-step programme, designed and individualised for the development of PERCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE and JUDGEMENT. In short, refining perceptual judgments prepare the brain for learning.