7 minute read
Well-Being
PLC Sydney Towards 2030: Vision Statement and Strategic Directions
M. Learn how to make sense of life, how to think logically and empathically, and how to relate well to others
Many activities in school life do not directly relate to the academic curriculum but to life skills. PLC Sydney seeks to grow the ‘whole person’: spiritually, physically, socially, emotionally, mentally. Current activities supporting this program include: • Chapel talks • Assemblies • Special guest speakers • Gym- individual fitness programs • ‘United’ days – focusing on positive student friendships • Home Room programs • Drug and alcohol education • Girl Power days • Parent sessions • Counselling • Mental health awareness events These programs are led by the Deputy Principal, Junior School Head of Well-being, Head Teacher – Positive Student Care and Engagement, Head of Boarding, and our Chaplains and Counsellors.
Many of these programs are ongoing and are reviewed annually.
We will further target for development:
The Home Room Program
PLC Sydney sets out to deliberately be a College where each student is known and understood, and where each student can make a contribution. The Inner West is growing. Demand is growing. Governments asks us to share the load. PLC Sydney is a school that is prepared to serve our community. As a result, over time PLC Sydney will become a school of approximately 1500 students. Increasing our numbers will allow us to align our structures in a manner that will further improve the quality of the education we provide. In particular the College can align its House and Home Room programs. The College’s House and Home Room programs play a vital role in the WellBeing Program and Pastoral Care that we provide to all students. The House structure (we have six individual Houses: Anderson, Ferguson, Harper, Kinross, Pickard and Wilkie) provides a sense of identity and belonging, fun, and friendly competition at events such as Sports Carnivals, House Choir nights etc. All students from PreKindergarten to Year 12 belong to and take an active part in House activities, which provide many opportunities for leadership training and participation. In the Senior School, students are also placed within Home Rooms. Year 12 students run the Home Room Program. Currently they are divided into ten home rooms. When we increase our school numbers to 1500 this will allow the Home Room and the House Program to be more closely connected. With maximum year groups of 170, this will correspond to our current six Houses and allow us to increase our Home Rooms to twelve, thus working more effectively. Together, the House and Home Room structures allow us to care for each student.
She is known by her Home Room teacher, who follows her throughout her schooling. Each Home Room teacher will only have 14 girls (with 28 girls in each House each year). This structural change enables us to develop the quality of each Home Room. The Head of Year looks after all of the students and staff in one year. The Head of House looks after the students in her House across six years. The size and structure of the Junior School does not increase under this new model.
A strong emphasis in the College continues to be placed on understanding how to embrace others, to limit rivalry, to avoid bullying and to offer forgiveness and renewal.
CURRENT SYSTEM
890
NEW SYSTEM
1050
Wilkie Pickard Anderson Harper Ferguson Kinross
All 6 year levels represented in each Home Room, approx 14 from each year
1 14 6 6 72
Teacher
Students Head of Year Head of House (each year level) Home Room Teachers
PLC Sydney Towards 2030: Vision Statement and Strategic Directions
Well-Being
N. Create with a sense of beauty and fun
Our programs are overlaid to create opportunities to appreciate beauty and to have fun.
Some current examples are: • Junior School children dress up to come to the musical • Mathematics Week includes a strong theme of aesthetics • Our musical groups play pieces of great beauty and energy, and some light and happy pieces • We grow beautiful gardens • We have a large mural in our
Junior School We will continue to foster this spirit and to look for opportunities to offer these.
• Our Junior School playgrounds have creeks and special play spaces.
O. Understand life as a gift and work as a vocation
The value of working hard has already been stated. As a Christian College we actively support the notion of work as contribution; as vocation. Work is a fulfilling life activity whereby one makes a contribution as a citizen.
The other options are firstly, pragmatic – work as a ‘job’ for the earning of money. This is sometimes a necessity, and it is important for older teenagers to learn to work in mundane fields.
It is not our ultimate goal for work – and secondly, aspirational – work as a ‘career’ to gain power. In a career a person’s values are challenged by their desire for impact and power. We seek to assist students to understand some of the challenges these moral conflicts bring. The task of assisting students to see work as a vocation will be led by PLC Sydney Futures and our Chaplains.
P. Develop the capacity to rest and to use leisure in a fulfilling fashion
PLC Sydney students work hard. We need to encourage and enable rest and recreation.
We strongly support sport and exercise and will continue to develop our suite of sports as community opportunities change. For example, by 2022 we aim to have commenced AFL as a sport. We will continue to support a wide range of programs including: • Duke of Edinburgh • International friendlies We will also support cultural endeavours. As well as our current program we will add: • Bird photography • Quiz games As our School Hymn states: ”may thy wisdom guide and prosper our work and games that we may grow in the love of all that is true and honest and of good report”... Students have many opportunities throughout the school year to engage in ‘games’ and leisure activities such as attending a school dance, or taking part in one of our many co-curricular activities: Junior Art, Chess, Movies in the Macindoe and many more. We recognise that we still need to consider how we develop each student’s capacity to rest. This will be included as part of our Well-Being program and a Home Room remit. We wish to ensure students learn how to rest well.
Q. Live a purposeful, grateful, courageous and other-centred life
R. Learn how to love with integrity and compassion
Through our Learning Virtues Framework and Home Room Program, students are encouraged to set meaningful goals, both personal and academic. These goals have a defined pathway and obstacle identification process. These goals are intended to ‘stretch’ the students’ capacity and help them take learning risks. Students are encouraged to see classrooms as learning spaces rather than performance spaces. Students are encouraged to journal in Home Room, reflecting on gratitude and beauty. Further our Service Learning Program to offer the opportunity to be of service others and help in the community.
To love is a choice we make every day. Modelling kindness, compassion and forgiveness to our students is a powerful tool in helping students learn to love. Our Learning Virtues Framework focuses on helping students grow selfless relationships with their peers as they learn. Our Heads of Year, Home Room teachers and Heads of House understand the importance of dialogue and coaching to help students grow in love. Heads of Year and the Well-Being team are learning the skills of coaching. A Coaching Program for Year 10 is planned from 2020.
S. Appreciate the intrinsic value of personhood and recognise equality for all
We teach our students that before all else they are created in the Image of God and therefore have intrinsic value. We use our Respect for Others Policy to resolve conflict. We encourage students to play a role in resolving inequality in the world around them, through hearing from guest speakers, holding forums and becoming informed with social and political issues in their community and around the world.
