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Peakhurst Campus

Peakhurst Campus

Georges River College

Telephone02 9153 9966

Emailpeakhurst-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Student Wellbeing

GRC Peakhurst Campus Wellbeing Team

The Wellbeing Team at GRC Peakhurst Campus is committed to creating quality learning opportunities and supporting the cognitive, emotional, social, physical and spiritual wellbeing of all students.

Student Wellbeing at GRC Peakhurst consists of a comprehensive and systematic Wellbeing Framework that is supported by an online integrated student wellbeing management system. Wellbeing programs and student-led initiatives are showcased to highlight a focus on supporting the wellbeing of all students. Our commitment to student wellbeing enables our students to connect, succeed and thrive at each stage of their development and learning. This is underpinned by a focus on productive relationships to promote an inclusive, collaborative and harmonious school community.

GRC Peakhurst Anti-Bullying Policy

What is bullying?

Deliberate, repeated and targeted psychological, emotional and/or physical harassment of one person by another or a group, occurring at school or in transit between school and home. Bullying includes the harassment of staff and/or students of GRC Peakhurst Campus based on gender, race, disability or sexual orientation.

GRC Peakhurst Campus has zero tolerance towards all forms of bullying and/or cyber bullying.

Bullying behaviour can be:

Verbal - name calling, continued teasing, spreading rumours, abuse, putdowns, sarcasm, insults, threatening physical abuse

Physical - hitting punching, kicking scratching, tripping, spitting, hair pulling, biting

Social - ignoring, excluding, ostracising, alienating, making inappropriate gestures, inappropriate us of mobile phones, malicious sms/email/social media messages

Psychological - spreading rumours, dirty looks, hiding or damaging possessions, standover tactics and forcing a student to do something they do not want to do

Racist - making racial slurs, mocking cultural traditions, making offensive gestures

Sexual - unwanted physical contact, offensive jokes, abusive comments related to supposed sexual behaviour

Cyber bullying - refers to bullying through information and communication technology

 

Cyber bullying

Cyber bulling is an intentional, repeated behaviour by an individual or group to cause distress or undue pressure to others using technology.

Cyber bullying includes all communications that seek to threaten, humiliate, intimidate, control or put another person or persons down.

Cyber bullying is part of the school's anti-bullying policy and must be reported immediately.

Please find some important documents and links regarding anti-bullying:

 

- NSW Department of Education Anti-bullying website:

https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/attendance-behaviour-and-engagement/anti-bullying/parents-and-carers

Support for students

School partnership community initiatives with Headspace, Riverwood Community Centre, Project Youth, Georges River Life Care and 3 Bridges will be engaged. This will provide students with opportunities to be mentored and participate in various wellbeing programs. This will assist them with strategies to use in their day to day lives to cope with challenges they may face. These programs focus strongly on building resilience, self -esteem, awareness of body image and making correct choices. Information on when these programs are scheduled will be provided at that time.  

School Counsellors and Youth Workers

We have two counsellors at school:

  • Christine Tsekas (Mon, Tue, Wed)
  • Michelle Batten (Thu, Fri) 

Georges River College Peakhurst Campus are fortunate to have Youth Workers available on the following days:

  • Lillian, from 3Bridges ( Mon, Tue) 
  • Elyse (Youth Worker office D0.43 Fri)

All of our wellbeing staff aim to provide wellbeing support and case management to a range of students. Students are able to self-refer to the counsellors and youth workers.

Student Support Officer

The Student Support Officer (SSO) is a new role recently implemented across all high schools in NSW to promote the wellbeing of all students.

Our SSO Dasith is available Monday to Friday in D0.44, working alongside students to promote resilience, wellbeing, and positive choices through individualised supports, targeted programs and whole school initiatives. Students are able to self-refer to the SSO.

Student Representative Council (SRC)

The Student Representative Council (SRC) forms an integral component of our local Wellbeing Framework. Our Student Representative Council Constitution has recently been reviewed to ensure transparency in the actions, organisation and operations of all SRC activities. Student representatives are elected by all students and staff through a democratic ballot and participate in an induction process. Our SRC members proudly represent our student cohort and strive to improve our school community through regular and ongoing student-led initiatives. The Student Representative Council prides itself on promoting a range of student wellbeing and social justice initiatives. Students are encouraged to participate in a range of initiatives and fundraising activities. Ongoing student participation leads to a sense of belonging, respect, compassion and a positive contribution to community charities. Student efforts in supporting and participating in fundraising activities are recognised, appreciated and rewarded by all members of the wider community.

Student Wellbeing Committee

All students at GRC Peakhurst Campus are actively encouraged to participate in the GRC Peakhurst Student Wellbeing Committee. This student committee is actively involved in the promotion of Social Justice Initiatives.  A volunteer group of students regularly speak at our formal assemblies and write articles that are published in our school newsletters. This group is also responsible for activities to promote anti- violence and anti-bullying. These students make posters, sell ribbons, produce videos and run whole school assemblies to support a range of causes. The Student Wellbeing Committee promotes and supports events and causes such as Harmony Day, The Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea, the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence, RUOK? Day and Love Your Body Week, as well as assisting the Student Representative Council (SRC) in their activities. Another of the roles of the Student Wellbeing Committee is to support students in Peak Learning lessons which take place most mornings during Peak leaning (PL) time.

Peer Support Program

The Peer Support Program is considered highly valuable and rewarding for all students. Year 7 students split into small groups of between twelve to fifteen students with two-three Peer Support leaders from Years 9 and 10. The objective of this program is to foster friendships and allow the discussion of many issues that Year 7 students may be experiencing. It also creates a bond between the new students at the school with our senior students. It is fantastic to see our leaders gain strong leadership skills throughout the program. It is a wonderful program and aims to effectively implement our school values of Respect, Responsibility and Excellence.

Peak Learning

Positive Behaviour for Learning, known as PBL, is an integral part of Georges River College Peakhurst Campus, placing a focus on our core values of Respect, Responsibility and Excellence. At GRC peakhurst Campus, PBL is known as Peakhurst Expectations And Knowledge or PEAK. A key part of PEAK is the explicit teaching of our core values, social/emotional skills, and study skills. To allow for this, PEAK Learning has now taken the place of roll call. Each Tuesday, Thursday and Friday morning, students begin their day by participating in workshops designed to explore the main skills and themes of PEAK. As an example, for the first few weeks of this term, PEAK Learning (PL) has focused on our core value of Respect. Workshops have explored students identifying actions that reflect respect versus actions that do not reflect respect, various scenarios where concepts of respect may change, the ‘Golden Rule’ of treating others as we want to be treated, and appropriate use of mobile phones. 

Staff emails will be monitored Monday to Friday between 8.30am to 3.00pm during school weeks. 

If you have emailed outside of these times and require assistance please see the following:

In the event of an emergency, call 000.

Lifeline: 13 11 14                                                                     

Kids Helpline: 1800 551 800 -  kidshelpline.com.au

Suicide Call Back Service: 1300 659 467

Headspace: 1800 650 890 - eheadspace.org.au

Beyondblue: 1300 224 636

Parent Helpline: 1300 1300 52 

NSW Mental Health Line:  1800 011 511​

Useful Websites

AUSTRALIAN Psychological Society   

Tips on managing anxiety during COVID-19.

HEADSPACE 

Click here for information aimed at supporting teenagers and young people experiencing stress related symptoms. 

PARENTSHOP 

How to talk to children about COVID19.

BEYOND BLUE 

REACHOUT 

Check out ReachOut.com for coping strategies during Covid-19 and self-care strategies for coping with social isolation as well as a resource to help deal with “bad world news”.

MICHAEL CARR-GREGG

NSW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Advice to parents and carers on remote learning from home

GENERAL INFORMATION

 Dept of Health - latest developments; limiting the spread of the virus or managing symptoms. 

Dept of Health - language translations for parents on hygiene and how to stop spreading virus. 

Additional Wellbeing support and related links can be found on our school’s webpage

Parenting Ideas

Georges River College Peakhurst Campus has a subscription to ‘Parenting Ideas’, which includes fantastic articles and webinars on a range of important issues and topics related to parenting. In every school newsletter, we will endeavour to include some articles for you to read and some of those articles have links attached to a webinar. As we are a subscribing school, for our parents, most of those webinars will incur no cost, so be sure to check them out!

Wellbeing Articles and Resources

Student Wellbeing Hub

Hurstville Headspace 

COVID-19 Information for Teens

Strategies to support parents, carers and students.

The Importance of Self-Care Planning

Working With Worry

Wellness Group

Let's Talk Anxiety

NSW Health Vaping Toolkit

The NSW Health Vaping Toolkit, developed in collaboration with the NSW Cancer Council, includes a collection of resources to share with young people aged 14-17 years, their parents and carers, and teachers.