Hauora / Wellbeing
Hauora / Wellbeing
The World Health Organisation describes mental wellbeing as a state of wellbeing in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.
In Aotearoa New Zealand we recognise Maori models of Hauora - Wellbeing, which encompassed in the the Taha tinana - physical, Taha whānau - family health, Taha hinengaro - mental and emotional, social, and Taha wairua - spiritual dimensions of health.”
We believe there is a strong connection to children’s wellbeing, and their academic/curriculum achievement. Children with a strong sense of personal wellbeing are likely to be more successful in their learning, progress and in their lives.
Our We CARE philosophy is a great example of this. In the last couple of years Wellbeing has become more of a focus for our staff professional learning.
Te Whare Tapa Whā was developed by leading Māori health advocate Sir Mason Durie in 1984. The model describes health and wellbeing as a wharenui/meeting house with four walls.
These walls represent taha wairua/spiritual wellbeing, taha hinengaro/mental and emotional wellbeing, taha tinana/physical wellbeing and taha whānau/family and social wellbeing. Our connection with the whenua/land forms the foundation.
When all these things are in balance, we thrive. When one or more of these is out of balance our wellbeing is impacted.
OPS 6 Ways to Wellbeing
We have adopted a modified version of the NZ Mental Health Foundations - "5 Ways To Wellbeing" to make 'Creativity' more explicit. Research suggests that this is one crucial addition for the Wellbeing of Children.
Our 6 Ways To Wellbeing guide our planning to support the wellbeing of out students.
Term 3 2024 Wellbeing Focus
Last term we shared that our Year 3-6 ākonga have recently completed an online wellbeing survey (wellbeing@school), which measures the ‘school-wide climate and practices’.
After reviewing the results we decided to focus in Term 3 on one of the 11 areas of the survey which looks at the school climate of culture.
All of our Learning Communities will have the same focus each week, however the way the learning occurs may be different depending on the age of the ākonga. Some weeks the learning will build the on previous weeks’ focuses.
All of these focus areas link strongly to our OPS We CARE - Collaboration, Acting safely and responsibly, Respecting people, places and things, and Empathy.
Reinforcing Learning At Home
We know that learning has a more significant impact when whānau talk about and reinforce messages from school at home. We encourage you to talk to your child/ren about this learning each week. A really important part of this is helping your child/ren understand the week’s focus and to have safe, useful strategies they can use if something was to happen to them which makes them uncomfortable, hurt or upset.
Where possible we encourage our ālkonga to try to use strategies like saying “stop it I don’t like it” or moving away, then getting an adult to support if these strategies don’t work. We know sometimes ākonga are more comfortable getting an adult to support them straight away - which is fine too. There are always adults in class and in the playground to support.
We always encourage sharing worries with an adult, whether that is at home or school. We ask whānau let us know as soon as possible if something has happened at school which we are not aware of so we can follow up.
We added a 'whakatauki' from Week 3 which related to the focus.
Whakataukī (proverbs) play a large role within Maori culture. They are used as a reference point in speeches and also as guidelines spoken to others day by day. It is a poetic form of the Maori language often merging historical events, or holistic perspectives with underlying messages which are extremely influential in Maori society.
Focuses in Term 3
Week 1 - What’s in a name? - minimising teasing and name calling
Week 2 - Difference - celebrating difference, understanding that some words or names are not ok and are hurtful
Week 3 - Honesty and Trust
Week 4 - Inclusion - ways we can make sure everyone feels included
Week 5 - Pressure - responding to pressure from peers
Week 6 - Learning styles, respecting differences
Week 7 - My hands are for… - reinforcing no fighting or play fighting at OPS
Week 8 - Respecting - people, places and things
Week 9 - Keeping ourselves and others safe online
Week 10 - Preventing Mean, Unkind behaviours and Bullying @ OPS
You can see some of our ākonga's learnign in newsletters
What’s in a name? - minimising teasing and name calling
Difference - celebrating difference, understanding that some words or names are not ok and are hurtful
Honesty and Trust
Inclusion - ways we can make sure everyone feels included
Pressure - responding to pressure from peers
Learning styles, respecting differences
My hands are for… - reinforcing no fighting or play fighting at OPS
Week 9 Newsletter
Respecting - people, places and things
Keeping ourselves and others safe online
M3 Mindfulness For Children
We are very excited to share with our students a new resource. We have also purchased use of a series of videos promoting Wellbeing - “M3 Mindfulness For Children’. ‘M3’ stands for Mindfulness, Movement and Māori stories.
You can watch the introductory videos on the M3 site in the videos section.
The founder of M3 Jase Te Patu shares a bit about his journey in a very powerful and moving Ted Talk linked here. Please be aware that we would recommend that this Ted Talk viewed by parents first, to decide if you wish to show it to your children
Active Bodies Active Minds
Kelly Club, Kelly Sports and Nathan Wallis have created his in-class resource to help schools educate kids on the inner workings of the brain and how important it is to have balance in life! Some of our students got involved by asking their questions about the brain. Your children might find these interesting to watch in the holidays.
Look out for Cole, Tyla, Sonalee and Matthew from Rm 6 asking questions in the videos!
Physicality of the brain questions