“Creating a safe and supportive environment for your child”
Mental Health and Wellbeing
At Owairoa Primary School, we define wellbeing and mental health as nurturing our Hauora through our RISE values in an inclusive and supportive environment that empowers our Owairoa family to feel secure, take learning risks, manage emotions with positive coping mechanisms, and reach their potential.
Mitey Programme
Our school is in our second year of the Mitey programme. Mitey is a New Zealand specific approach developed by the Sir John Kirwan Foundation, and provides an evidence-based approach to teaching mental health education to our students.
The Mitey programme is built around the New Zealand curriculum and embedded into everyday learning, to ensure our students are equipped with the age-appropriate skills and knowledge they need to recognise and respond to mental health issues in both themselves and others before they enter teenage years.
For more information visit the Mitey website: www.mitey.org.nz/
Mitey in Action:
Our students are learning how to recognise and respond to their own mental health and those of others. Cultivating good mental health helps us cope with life’s ups and downs, and to feel comfortable asking for help from others when we need it.
Our classes often blog about what they are learning as part of the Mitey Programme.
This latest blog post ‘A Mitey Initiative‘ shares some exciting learning in Junior School over the recent weeks.
Bullying – Zero Tolerance
At Owairoa Primary School we wish to promote a safe place for learning. We have a Zero Tolerance of bullying.
Bullying is a deliberate, harmful behaviour that is often repeated, or continues over a period of time. It often involves a power imbalance and it is difficult for those being bullied to defend themselves. Bullying takes place in the digital world too, through cyberbullying and texting.
All members of our school, including students themselves, have a responsibility to recognise bullying and to take action when they are aware of it happening.
Bullying behaviour can be overt (directly and easily observed) or covert (indirect and hidden or less easily observed). A great deal of bullying in schools is covert, with bullying behaviour rarely occurring in front of adults.
If students are being bullied, they need to feel supported and know what to do.
Examples of bullying behaviours could include:
- physical, e.g. hitting, kicking, taking belongings
- verbal, e.g. name calling; insults; racist, sexist, sexuality and gender-based bullying
- social/relational, e.g. spreading nasty stories, excluding from groups, making threats, stand over tactics
- cyberbullying, e.g. posting negative comments on social media, publishing or sending inappropriate messages or images
- digital, e.g. sending mean or intimidating texts
To effectively prevent and respond to bullying behaviour at Owairoa Primary School we:
- work hard to provide a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment at our school
- promote digital citizenship to our students
- identify and acknowledge bullying / intimidating behaviour and will not tolerate it
- deal with incidents of bullying through the school’s Behaviour Management plan
- encourage you to report any incident to a staff member or on our Bullying Hotline bullying@owairoa.school.nz or by phoning the school office on (09) 538 0060
Head Lice [Nits]
Head lice is a common problem in all New Zealand schools. Owairoa Primary School has several policies in place for this reason. Policies include keeping all long hair tied up, no sharing of sunhats and swimming caps to be worn in the school pool.
If your child develops head lice please inform the school office immediately. We can offer advice and will send a letter home to your childs classroom to advise all parents to check their children’s hair. The letter we send home has a slip at the bottom which is returned to the classroom teacher advising them that a parent has been notified and has checked their childs hair. Once your child has been treated they may return to school.
Medication Procedures
All of our office staff hold current First Aid Certificates. If any student requires medication at school a ‘Notification of Medical Condition & Permission to administer form’ must be filled out by a Parent or Caregiver. These forms are available from the Office. The Office staff can not administer any medication without this form.
The medication is stored in the fridge or a locked cabinet in the Sickbay, and administered by the Office staff at the time indicated by the Parent or Caregiver. Log books are kept in the Sickbay and are filled in every time a student enters the Sickbay area for treatment or medication.
School Chaplain
Mony Neale has been our Owairoa School Chaplain since 2014. Although she provides Christian support where appropriate, she also provides practical non-religious support for those of other or no religion.
Her role is supporting students, their families and school staff by being a caring listener. Children can arrange to be seen by putting their names in the letter box by her office [beside Room 10], or parents can contact her via the school office to request their children be seen.
Her usual day is Friday from 10am to 3pm.
She is a qualified Chaplain having completed the initial and ongoing State School Chaplaincy training requirements, and she is also a fully trained Pharmacist. She is married to Tim and has three children. She is supervised by the Churches Education Commission, and directly reports to Mrs Bull and Mrs Gresham at Owairoa Primary School.
Mrs Neale’s role is seen by the Board of Trustees and Mr McIntyre as a beneficial addition to the support services at Owairoa which help students to do their best educationally, socially and psychologically.
Seasons Programme
Each year the school has the Seasons programmes running on a needs basis. The trained Seasons staff come in on a weekly basis and run the programme. Signed Parental agreement is essential for the children to attend this very worthwhile programme. Please contact the Deputy Principal to have your child included.
Seasons is a peer support programme for children between the ages of 5-12 who have gone through grief or loss such as the separation/divorce of parents or death of a significant person in their life. Each group will have children of a similar age that have experienced similar loss/losses.
The group goes for ten weeks with an hourly session each week. During these weeks the children will have a chance to talk about different feelings and will be able to tell their story of loss. These groups are confidential with other children’s stories but if a child would like to talk to people about themselves then they are encouraged to do so.
There is also a group for children who have close contact with anyone who is terminally ill.
A separate group can also be run for children who are New Immigrants – this gives these children support as many of them have left behind not only close friends but also relatives, and pets, and their sense of loss and how to move on with new challenges is the focal point of this programme.