Pastoral Care is central to the ethos and identity of Maria Regina. By providing a strong sense of wellbeing, belonging and security that affirms students in their dignity and worth we assist students to achieve their potential as a human person, physically, socially, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.
Being respectful is a fundamental principle of living, working, learning and playing together. If we want to be respected, we have to respect other people too. We must show respect to people, animals, material things and the environment and we must be careful about the way we say and do things. We have shared values that provide teachers, children and parents with the language to discuss behaviour in a consistent way.
As a Catholic faith community we believe that forgiveness and reconciliation are integral to developing quality relationships. We provide students with opportunities to make choices within boundaries and those boundaries widen as the children develop their repertoire of responsible behaviours. We do this individually, within classrooms, and at whole school levels.
Our pastoral care is supported by:
Positive Behaviour for Learning
Maria Regina has adopted a whole school approach to bring about positive behaviour; Positive Behaviour for Learning [PBL]. This approach has a strong emphasis on teaching appropriate behaviours and providing systems of support to bring about these positive behaviours. Refer to the ‘Positive behaviour for Learning’ tab for further information.
Education in the classroom
We explicitly teach students social and emotional skills through our PDHPE units of work. We educate the students on how to meet their basic needs in responsible ways. Throughout the school day, we teach children that mistakes are a natural part of learning and we provide opportunities for them to practise more responsible and cooperative replacement behaviours. We also design specific units of work to target the needs of students across the school in different grades.
Well-Being Week
Each term the school participates in Well-Being Week during Week 7 of the term. Statistically the 7th week of the term is when schools have the most student and staff absences. By implementing Well-Being Week we hope to assist all our community to sustain their health and energy to make it through the term. During Well-Being Week our students do not complete homework, teachers do not schedule meetings and there are many fun activities held at school to enhance the social, emotional and physical well-being of all our students and staff.
Buddy system for new families
As well as our student buddy program, Maria Regina, also has a buddy program for new families that join our school. This program is for all new families either joining the school in Kindergarten or throughout the year in other grades. We partner new families up with existing families so they have a new friend to ask any questions or to meet up for play dates prior to starting at the school. Our new parents really enjoy this program as it helps ease any concerns they may have about their child starting school.