K-6 Pastoral Care: What a week!

There have been many wonderful Pastoral Care events over the last week; Year 5 had an important whole-year at Far South Wilderness Camp; we looked at the idea of inclusion on the National Day Against Bullying and we recognised the importance of ‘Everyone Belongs’ on Harmony Day.

On Friday 17 March students worked on an Anti-Bullying Pledge that highlighted the importance of considering the feelings of others. Students created and worked on class pledges and looked at what kinds of behaviours were ‘nice and inclusive.’

Another highlight was students in Years 4 and 6 taking part in a mannequin challenge that showed us how a ‘Happy Playground’ looked.

The "Mannequin Challenge" is a viral internet trend where people remain frozen (like mannequins) while recorded by digital video moving around them. The song 'Black Beatles' by Sremmurd plays during the sequence. Wikipedia says the trend was started by students in Florida, in October 2016, and many popular sports teams and on-line communities have participated. The technique recalls action-sequences in popular science fiction and fantasy films.

Students workshopped what types of behaviours are seen in a happy playground and were asked to create an image that included them.

We then filmed these images; for some students this meant being frozen and silent for over three minutes!

On Tuesday 21 March we also took part in Harmony Day tasks in our classroom. Our focus was ‘Everyone Belongs’ with the idea that differences are important and to be different is to be unique. We focused on difference as a positive and spoke about the importance of culture and inclusion as part of this. You will see some of the wonderful artwork that came from this day being displayed around the school soon.

Ms Olivia Stephen - Co-coordinator of Pastoral Care K-6