Festival for Healthy Living
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Sunshine North
Sunshine College
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Sunshine College is a 4 campus 7-12 College with an Australian Technical College soon to be built as the fifth campus. Sunshine has the well-deserved accolade of providing the highest ratio of students with successful pathways on leaving school, with fewer students than any neighbouring schools seeking employment or further education places when they leave year 12. We have strong three-way partnerships between staff, students and parents in linking students to appropriate courses and career pathways. North campus caters to students from years 7-10. As a small campus of only 250 students, we have a strong emphasis on pastoral care, with each child linked to a homeroom teacher with whom they share their learning every day. The year level coordinators and the pastoral care team leaders provide many opportunities for students to connect to their peers and staff in a positive and productive partnership. As a result, our student data shows higher than state average connectedness to school, staff and peers when students are surveyed annually. Sunshine College works closely with its feeder primary schools to ensure that transition to secondary school is as smooth as possible. We are a member of the SMYLE (Sunshine Middle Years Learning Experience) cluster. |
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Why was your school keen to become involved in the Festival? In the beginning, what did school staff think about participating in the Festival?
The Festival for Healthy Living fitted in with one of the Sunshine Middle Years Learning Enterprise (SMYLE) cluster initiatives which aimed to increase links between primary and secondary schools.
How did you set up or identify your school teams?
The focus was on the middle years and so the emphasis was on Grades 5/6 connecting with Year 7- The Primary to Secondary connection.
How did you select students for participation? Given that the Festival is a whole-school program, how did you manage to involve the rest of the school?
Music students from Years 7 and 8 participated in all of the prepatory workshops, rehearsals and the final production.
How did you integrate the Festival with the usual work of the classroom/school?
Writing/workshopping a play complemented English work. There were a range of activities that supported Pastoral Care objectives.
What theme(s) were explored in the final Festival performance? How did this come to be?
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Bullying - inclusion/exclusion
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Working together - team building - accepting differences
How was the whole school community (students, teachers, parents) involved in the Festival?
The wider school community were involved by being the audience at the final production.
What were some of the things that helped get the school's effort off the ground?
The Festival was viewed by selected school Principals in the SMYLE cluster as a good initiative.
In what way did the Festival build the capacity of your school to promote the mental health and wellbeing of students, staff?
The Festival for Healthy Living helped with the promotion of wellbeing through engagement in shared activities. It also integrated with Pastoral activities in the school.
Were there any particular highlights of the Festival?
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The initial excitement at the range of new activities.
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The sense of achievement with skill development.
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The final production
How did you go about organising Professional Development? What plans are there for follow-up PD after the Festival?
Staff directly involved (homeroom teachers, Music teacher, Health teacher) participated in professional development implemented by the Royal Children's Hospital Mental Health Service.
To what extent did the Festival support your school goals relating to strategic planning - accountability and improvement and other government initiatives?
The Festival for Healthy Living supported Pastoral Care initiatives in the school.
How will the work of the Festival continue in your school beyond this year?
Depending on the availability of funding, Festival for Healthy Living staff plan to remain connected with the Sunshine school in 2007.
Contact:
Kevin Dann
Acting Principal, Sunshine College
t: 8311 8500
i: http://www.sunshine.vic.edu.au