Learning and wellbeing are inextricably linked - students learn best when their wellbeing is optimised, and they develop a strong sense of wellbeing when they experience success in learning. St Joseph’s College is committed to creating positive respectful school cultures and embedding student wellbeing in all aspects of school life through connecting the learning environment, curriculum and pedagogy, policies, procedures and partnerships enabling all to live life to the full. (John 10:10). All students enrolled at St Joseph’s College have the right to feel safe and be safe. The wellbeing of children in our care will always be our first priority and we do not and will not tolerate child abuse. We aim to create a child-safe and child-friendly environment where children are free to enjoy life to the full without any concern for their safety.

Our Wellbeing program is essentially designed to celebrate and foster young people’s learning in ways that are consistent with the Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) Touchstones: the pillars of our learning and identity Inclusive Community, Justice and Solidarity, Gospel Spirituality and Liberating Education. These Touchstones further inform acceptance of diversity, and a sense of responsibility towards others’ experiences of injustices and hardship in the world around us. Our Wellbeing program also underpins the principles set out by the Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools that focus on the capacity to ‘enable, connect, engage and learn’ in programs and practices that seek to work not only with the young person, but also with the young person’s family and carers. Our Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is derived from the Victorian Respectful Relationship’s program where we have engaged as both a Lead and a Partner school since 2017.

Teaching wellbeing in schools enables safe and respectful school communities; connects children, young people, families and staff through collaborative and caring relationships; engages students through experiences that motivate, empower, and inspire; and reframes the learning of wellbeing as an integral component of broader academic learning. Wellbeing lessons take place in our three sub-schools of Waterford (Years 7 & 8), Westcourt (Year 9) and Mt Sion (Years 10-12). The following depiction hopefully provides our community with an overview of our programs that are taught in class by the homeroom/wellbeing teachers. Wellbeing is a moving landscape and our program often needs to be adaptive and flexible to cater for current societal wellbeing issues.

Year 7 students are encouraged to recognise, nurture and develop their own strengths, and recognise the potential that exists in the space between themselves and their new community members at the College. They are introduced to the EREA Touchstones and they engage with The Resilience Project.

Wellbeing lessons specifically derive from the Victorian Curriculum Respectful Relationships program; students obtain an eSmart digital licence and look outwards towards sustainability issues and awareness of the challenges of our First Nation’s people in their ‘guardians of the planet’ study. They are introduced to ‘Careers,’ essentially understanding what subject choices and career pathways might look like as they progress through secondary schooling.

Year 7 

The Year 8 students will engage in a second unit of The Resilience Project, developing stronger team strategies to recognise emotional reactions in both themselves and others. The Life Changer program, our focus in Term 2, aims to develop a sense of self-fulfilment and self-empowerment through a mentorship program where the Year 8 students are guided by trained senior students in the development of self-fulfilment and self-empowerment.

In second semester, the students are taken through the ‘Cyber Safety’ unit, with lessons designed to teach them the importance of awareness and diligence in their online activity. A Careers unit is delivered later in the year, to encourage the boys to consider the pathways that they may want to pursue and the subject choices appropriate to those pathways. We endeavour to open the ‘curious’ learner up to an understanding of their place in and their footprint on our soil. Transition to Westcourt will be the focus in Term 4.

Year 8

The Year 9 students begin to focus specifically on ‘masculinity’ – who they look to as role models, what they believe the man of the 21st Century should look like and the challenges before them in claiming their very own individual sense of self as ‘male.’ They are encouraged to celebrate themselves as people, as boys, and to accept the diversity within their own group. They engage in a program that looks at how – as boys grow – they tend to feel the pressures of consistently exposing tough exteriors when faced with challenges. They are encouraged to be open and honest about how they react to those challenges in their world, and support each other.

Second semester looks towards the relationship’s boys form with others - appropriate sexual relationships, legalities and care for the people they might engage with in a sexual way. Awareness around drug and alcohol use is a focus of this semester, again focusing particularly on legalities and dangers. Central to the units in this semester is respect: for self, for others, for all.

Year 9

The vertical structure of Homerooms at Mt Sion encourages cohesion between the senior year levels of our College. Year 10, 11 and 12 students are allocated to Homerooms according to House rather than designated academic progressions, allowing opportunities for bonds to be strengthened across the year levels. The Wellbeing program essentially fits neatly into this structure, promoting consistent values and learnings across the campus as the boys progress from Year 10 to Year 12. There are occasions when individual programs require a separation of the group to focus particularly on exam, GAT or careers and VCAA preparation, as well as renewals specific to each year level. These are managed within the Homeroom classroom.

We build upon what has already been established in the lower year levels – a strong sense of self, the ability to accommodate the sense of self others share with you, and the male identity that best promotes individual wellbeing. We question the stereotypes that have locked away a more holistic sense of ‘strength.’

The Building Respectful Relationships program (BRR) is the basis of our Gender, Power and Media units that question stereotypical representations of men and women, and by extension, attitudes that underpin these societal representations.

Students need to learn to critically reflect on their own emotional responses to challenging situations, and to be empathetic to the responses of others. The need to engage in conflict resolution in a range of contexts is considered, and the effects of actions that repress human rights and limit the expression of diverse views is questioned. The focus continues to be on positive and respectful relationships that honour the rights and responsibilities of individuals.

As well as nurturing critical understandings of self, and of others in their immediate circles, students continue to consider the challenges of marginalised others and act in accordance with the Ricean teachings that honour the rights of all people.

Years 10, 11 & 12