Wellbeing in Education – Ministry of Education Information
Well-being has many facets. Improving students’ well-being in schools requires a whole-school approach, involving both teachers and parents.
At Dairy Flat Primary School, we place great emphasis on student well- being (Hauora).
What is well-being?
Well-being is the experience of health and happiness. It includes mental and physical health, physical and emotional safety, and a feeling of belonging, sense of purpose, achievement and success. Well-being is a broad concept and covers a range of psychological and physical abilities. Hauora is a Māori philosophy of health unique to New Zealand. It comprises taha tinana, taha hinengaro, taha whanau, and taha wairua.
- Taha tinana – Physical well-being. The physical body, its growth, development, and ability to move, and ways of caring for it
- Taha hinengaro– Mental and emotional well-being. Coherent thinking processes, acknowledging and expressing thoughts and feelings and responding constructively
- Taha whanau – Social well-being. Family relationships, friendships, and other interpersonal relationships; feelings of belonging, compassion, and caring; and social support
- Taha wairua – Spiritual/Religious well-being. the values and beliefs that determine the way people live, the search for meaning and purpose in life, and personal identity and self-awareness (For some individuals and communities, spiritual well- being is linked to a particular religion; for others, it is not.)
Why is Hauora important at Dairy Flat School?
Well-being is important at school because schools have an essential role to play in supporting students to make healthy lifestyle choices and understand the effects of their choices on their health and well-being. Childhood and adolescence is a critical period in the development of long-term attitudes towards personal well-being and lifestyle choices. The social and emotional skills, knowledge and behaviours that young people learn in the classroom help them build resilience and set the pattern for how they will manage their physical and mental health throughout their lives.
Dairy Flat School endeavors to provide students with reliable information and deepen their understanding of the choices they face. There is a direct link between well-being and academic achievement and vice versa.
Developing a Culture of Hauora
One of the challenges of trying to promote young people’s well-being at Dairy Flat School is the multi-faceted nature of well-being. There are a number of different types of well-being, all of which need to be promoted to some extent to create an overall sense of well-being in a person. So, it is not possible to improve students’ well-being at school through single interventions or activities. Rather it requires the development of a ‘culture’ of well-being throughout the whole school and the active involvement of the whole staff, teaching and non-teaching, which can be difficult to achieve. We work hard at Dairy Flat School to develop a culture of Hauora.
What We Do and Aim For at Dairy Flat School to Develop Hauora
- School values programme
- PB4L and Restorative practice
- School wide programmes – Zones of Regulation, KOS, Innofit, Life Education Caravan.
- Opportunities throughout the year to learn about wellbeing eg Pink Shirt Day, Gumboot day etc
- Counseling – Please contact sthompson@dairyflatschool.nz to find out more about counseling available at Dairy Flat School
- Puberty – NEST Consulting – Positive Puberty Plus
- Kahui Ako Collaborative approach to Wellbeing (Dairy Flat School, Orewa College, Wainui School, Orewa Beach, Orewa North, Silverdale School)
- Dedicated SENCO (Special Education Needs Coordinator) that focus on student well-being – Susan Thompson sthompson@dairyflat.school.nz
- Teachers Professional Learning and Development to recognise and support anxiety in children
- Strong home-school partnership: we communicate early and as needed to parents if we feel there are concerns
- Budgets and resources to support student well-being
- Open days – connecting with the community
- Home-School partnership: meet the teacher, community events
- PTA support for the school
- House point and Dojo system to promote values
- Cool schools and peer mediators programme
- Staff wellbeing surveys and Student wellbeing surveys
- Team leaders – always start their meetings touching base with their teams about their wellbeing. Creating fun ways to lighten the pressure that remote learning can create.
- All teams are connected
- SLT focus on wellbeing of teams, support staff and teacher aides
- PE and Sport at Dairy Flat School
Cool Schools & Peer Mediators
We have peer mediators at Dairy Flat School. This is a role for Year 6 students. Peer mediations a structured process that uses a neutral person, the mediator, to help those in conflict to come up with their own solutions for a win/win outcome. Mediation is a voluntary and confidential process to constructively manage conflict.
The Benefits of Cool Schools and Peer Mediation:
- Students act as third parties between peers in conflict (disputants).
- Creates opportunities for disputants to do their own problem solving.
- Encourages empathetic listening.
- Uses effective questioning techniques to assist disputants to come to their own win/win solutions.
- Gets to the core of the problem quickly.
- Empowers students without teacher intervention.
- develop a whole school-wide approach to dealing with conflict
- provide opportunities for students to demonstrate and apply positive behaviours
- reduce negative behaviours such as aggression, bullying or violence
- build student resilience
- empower students to co-create a friendly, respectful, and safe school climate
Kia Kaha
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