Pastoral Care

The wellbeing of all students is central to the mission of St Columba Anglican School. Research shows that happy and well-connected students are more successful and find schooling more purposeful. St Columba provides students with opportunities that proactively promote relationships, community connection and personal development. The focus at St Columba is the development of the whole child. This involves nurturing their physical, social, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual growth.

The underlying premise of our programs from K–12 is based on prevention rather than cure, with five key areas forming the core of our practice. The five key areas transferred into a usable K–12 language are:

• Connect

• Be Active

• Take Notice

• Keep Learning

• Give

For further details on the aspects associated with each of these behaviours, please see the Five Ways to Wellbeing.

These key aspects of wellbeing underpin and flavour the culture of the school. They are supported through the Pastoral Care system, where enhancing relationships amongst staff and students is integral. Staff also assist in anti-bullying initiatives, informal counselling and referral to formal counselling and ancillary health agencies, mentoring, grief and loss programs and various positive behavioural development programs. On-site Counselling is available through referral by the Wellbeing team of Year Patrons in Secondary and the Pastoral Care team in Primary.

Tuesdays and Thursdays 11.30am to 12.00pm is Wellbeing time across the School, Kindergarten to Year 12. During this time, various activities will happen, covering aspects of the Social and Emotional Learning curriculum and interactive activities to enable students to learn how to manage their well-being whilst connecting, relating, and positively interacting with others.

Peer Support

Students have the opportunity to tutor, teach, mentor and share with other students from Kindergarten to Year 12.

Anti-Bullying Initiative

St Columba Anglican School is committed to providing an environment that is safe, supportive, and nurtures individual students to achieve their potential.

The School has the responsibility to foster an educational environment where every attempt is made to eliminate barriers to learning and where all students feel safe and valued. The School acknowledges that bullying does occur. Bullying behaviour is recognised as being anti-social and unacceptable and, as such, not only affects the victims of bullies and the perpetrators and those who witness bullying. Left unchecked, bullying behaviours can have a profound long-term effect on the culture of a school.

St Columba aims to work with students, parents, and teachers to prevent bullying, raise awareness, and encourage reporting. The Policy applies to all members of the school community, including students, teaching and non-teaching staff, parents/caregivers, and visitors to the School. It is the responsibility of all members of the community to support and promote our Anti-Bullying Policy.

The School aims to create a safe, supportive and caring environment free from intimidation, where difference is respected. The School will not tolerate any behaviour that contradicts this philosophy. Each student is of equal importance at St Columba. Students who bully, in any of its forms, or harass others and do not respond to behaviour management strategies, including counselling, could ultimately be asked to leave the School.

More information on the Anti-Bullying policy is here.

If you need further help, see below for FREE resources for young people: