RE & Wellbeing

Prayer in all its forms is ultimately an expression of our relationship with God. As with any relationship, it can be expressed in a variety of ways, including ritualised and spontaneous forms, or even in silence. The style or manner of prayer which is most easily used will vary from individual to individual. God does, in fact, communicate with us through and in, our personality.

Each form of prayer involves a particular set of skills and it is important that students are exposed, not only to the complete range of prayer forms, but are assisted in the development of the skills which pertain to each form.

At St Francis of Assisi School, we value prayer, in all its forms, as an intimate communication with our God and strive to embed prayer within all aspects of school life.

Wellbeing Program at St Francis

St Francis of Assisi is working in partnership with Mindfull Aus, a fantastic organisation and charity committed to building social and emotional literacy in young people.

The Healthier Hearts and Lighter Minds Program is currently being rolled out across the entire school in Terms 1, 2 and 3 of 2022.

The program consists of engaging lessons led by Mindfull Aus CEO and Founder, Matt Runnalls and his team of facilitators. The program introduces the children to the six core emotions of joy, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust. Students are then taught to identify, control and express their emotions using a range of strategies and techniques. The students learn about the different parts of the brain and how these parts are activated when we experience various emotions. This learning is delivered innovatively through games, science experiments and teamwork.

Students then continue with a weekly lesson that reinforces the concepts explored in the program. This invaluable learning is extremely cross-curricular, honouring many learning areas and capabilities within the Victorian Curriculum, including, Personal and Social Capability, Ethical Capability, Critical and Creative Thinking and Health and Physical Education.

 If you would like to learn more about Mindfull Aus’ Healthier Hearts and Lighter Minds Program, please visit https://www.mindfullaus.org/primary-schools.

 Here is some fantastic feedback from our Year 6 students:

I really enjoyed the activity where we had to select the emotion/s that best represented various scenarios. This taught me that we each feel and think differently, even when experiencing the same circumstances or scenarios. I also learnt that we can feel more than one core emotion at any one time

– Samuel Y

 The program taught me that there aren’t negative emotions. If we struggle to identify, control and express our emotions and we sit with an emotion for too long, they can fester, and we can respond negatively. For example, anger is not a negative emotion, it is when we sit in anger for too long, that it can become aggression which is a negative response.

– Caitlin S

 We learnt about the emotion of surprise (pink) which is a bridge between all of the five core emotions. This emotion only lasts for a split second before experiencing another emotion. I loved learning about the three main parts of the brain. We learnt about the superhero which serves to protect us and keep us safe. This is also known as the amygdala. We learnt about the hippocampus which stores our memories (like a librarian stores books) and the prefrontal cortex which acts as a judge and decides our response.

-Mason R

Parish

Additional Student Support Services

Here at St Francis of Assisi, we are committed to meeting the different needs of students. We have a variety of Allied Health Services available onsite including:

• Speech Pathology
• Counselling