Middle School Wellbeing Day - Twizel Area School

Kicking off the term, we were fortunate enough to work collaboratively with the YMCA (Timaru) and the in-school Wellbeing Professional Learning Group to present a full-day teamwork and wellbeing day for our Middle School Students (Y7-10).

The YMCA provided a variety of activities throughout the day to promote the skills necessary to develop a strong middle school team. This included activities related to team building, bullying reduction, problem resolution and caring for others.

The in-school Wellbeing Professional Learning Group tailored their activities to help our Middle School Students to get to know each other and their teachers better, and to gather data in response to the school’s Wellbeing Plan and 2022 Wellbeing@School Survey.

All the activities throughout the day were linked to our school values of Whānaukataka | Kinship, Awhinataka | Nurture, Kaitiakitaka | Guardianship and Ārahi | Leadership.

With the help of teachers and parents, our Middle School Students could form a description of a TAS student, teacher and whānau that cares for and supports learning.

Here is what they collaboratively came up with (our students are at the centre of this chart for a reason!):

A TAS teacher that demonstrates care for my learning:	A TAS student that demonstrates care for themselves and their learning:	How my whānau demonstrates care for my learning:
Helps me develop my goals and find my pathway in life Listens Identifies and supports my strengths Assesses my learning so that: I can be supported into new levels of learning I can be helped when I am struggling Restores relationships and helps me to restore relationships when things go wrong Promotes a positive mindset towards learning Develops mutual respect with their students Acts as, and is treated as a professional in their field Develops and shares boundaries	Develops good learning behaviours such as: Working with others Giving things a go Listening Producing work they can be proud of Is a good friend because they: Share Care for others Demonstrate truthfulness / honesty Looks after themselves by: Having clean and tidy uniform Is clean, looks after their personal hygiene Eats healthily and stays hydrated Lets people be themselves Includes others Is an upstander Acknowledges others Doesn’t hurt or harm others mentally or physically Respects others’ decisions	Helps me with the big decisions Is patient Encourages me to complete homework Encourages me with my schoolwork and asks questions about my work Keeps me safe Sometimes needs to say no Spends time with me Looks after me when I am unwell Prioritises my learning Helps me to solve problems Is ready to listen