Wellbeing for learning in Catholic school communities (eXcel) is a guide that explores in detail the nature and importance of wellbeing and how it is enacted in Catholic schools.
At St Anthony’s we use eXcel to support the development of school-wide practices and cultures that enable children and young people to:
- deeply connect ‘who they are’ and ‘how they can be’ in the world to the Catholic faith
- reach their potential
- build positive and connected relationships
- develop skills and attitudes that promote wellbeing and resilience
- deepen their appreciation of learning, their perseverance and their stamina
- lead optimistic, graced and hope-filled lives of impact.
St Anthony’s Primary School practices a restorative approach in regards to behaviour management. When relationships break down as they will it’s about having responsive processes in place in which everyone can share their stories, hear the impact of their actions, repair the relational harm and figure out the best way forward, together. The Restorative Practice Framework allows all members of the school to learn to bravely engage in our school community, and learn from honest and sometimes difficult conversations. This allows students to be involved in building meaningful relationships, allowing them to trust the processes in place to repair those relationships when conflict or harm occurs.
In a restorative approach, the inherent worth of each individual is recognised, and we seek to strengthen the essential ties that bind us to one another in the classroom, school, the community and to our Catholic faith.
The Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) is a practical approach to teaching and learning that enables teachers to increase engagement with students with complex, unmet learning needs and successfully improve all students’ self-regulation, growth and academic achievement. A number of different strategies from the Berry Street Education Model are utilised by our school. An example of this is Morning Circle. This is a strategy that teachers use to enable our students to be present, centred and ready to learn when they first walk in the classroom. This helps them feel calm and focused which in turns helps them with their emotional regulation and control and sets them up to experience success with their learning.