HEALTH AND WELLBEING
The School Nurse is in the Student Centre every Tuesday and Thursday. You can text Kim on 021 574 728 to make an appointment, or just turn up at the Student Centre.
Let’s start with students rights….
All students have the right to:
Learn without being hassled by others
To feel safe and to be safe
To respect each other
The Jigsaw of Caring
What is Pastoral Care?
Pastoral care is the caring side of being at school. It means we, especially your Whanau teacher and Dean or your year 7 & 8 Teacher will get to know you. Get to know what you like and don’t like, know when things are good and not so good for you, and know what’s happening for you in class, in school and maybe even out of school. If we know this at school, we can understand you better and create a situation so you can learn to the best of your ability.
There are many ways of caring for you at Bream Bay College. Everyone is important at our school and we value each person as an individual. A way for us to make sure we have a warm and caring environment is to break our school up into smaller units. We call these smaller units houses. The houses are called Sutherland, Argyll, Ross and Inverness; they are named after the areas in Scotland the Waipu settlers came from.
In charge of each house is a House Leader who is not a Whanau teacher. The house is broken down further into six Whanau groups with an average of 20 students in each. The Whanau group is made up of a vertical slice of the school. There will be students from years seven to thirteen with their own Whanau teacher and a student leader. The idea is that a student is in the same Whanau group for the entire time at college. This means that in each house there are six Whanau teachers and one House Leader and House Dean as well as House Captains (Student Leaders) looking out for you trying to meet your needs, or get on your case.
What does a Dean do at school?
There is a Dean attached to each House. These people do not have a Whanau and will get to know you and your family if necessary very well. The Dean will work with you at any time you or your parents need help or advice at school. They will also be the one person at school who will know all about your discipline issues at school (if you have any!). The Dean will work with you to improve your behaviour, if the need be, to make sure you get a better education at Bream Bay College.
So you see there are two lots of people responsible for pastoral care; your Whanau Teacher and your Dean.
How do these people meet my needs or get on may case?
There are really two parts to pastoral care. They are called “discipline” and “guidance and counselling”. The head of Pastoral Care at Bream Bay College is Sandra Hayward.
Guidance and Counselling is more about talking about the problem behaviour so there is a change to something that is better. All the Whanau teachers, Deans, House Leaders, Deputy Principals and even the Principal will do this. Sometimes these people will refer you to more qualified and specialist help. This is a time when you can see or will be told to see the Guidance Counsellor & Careers Adviser who will have more time available for you. She is also available for parents and whanau if they have a problem related to a student at school.
We have the expertise to help you right here at Bream Bay College.For further information on any of the above services please contact Fiona Heiwari on [email protected] or Phone ext 738.
Harassment (bullying or abuse) of any sort that you don’t like, and is offensive or hurtful is totally unacceptable at Bream Bay College. It is important that you talk to someone and seek help straight away. The Deans will deal with harassment, but you can see your Whanau teacher, the Guidance Counsellor or any of the Harassment Team Members who are named in your student diary.
This sounds very serious – but where’s the fun?
School is not really here to entertain you; our first job is to educate you. However we do agree school should be fun. A fun school is a happy school. Our fun is generated in a number of ways. There is “serious” fun like these house competitions; athletics and swimming days, house tug of war, basketball, volleyball and touch tournaments. There is a music night, stage challenge, and the school bands. There is intellectual fun like learning a musical instrument, singing or debating and cultural fun like Kapahaka. Then there are fun mufti days and school socials and school ball. Not to forget school camps and trips. Students make the fun we provide the means by which this happens.
