Southern Cross Early Childhood School has successfully received recognition as a KidsMatter School in 2018. KidsMatter was a framework designed for schools to help support the mental health needs of their community. KidsMatter was replaced by the
Be You framework in 2019 which is now used across our school to improve the mental health and wellbeing of our children, staff and families.
Be You provides a structure for educators to learn how best to support children and families with their mental health and wellbeing. The professional learning consists of 13 content modules grouped under the following domains:
Mentally Healthy Communities: Outlines the key concepts related to mental health, wellbeing, connectedness, relationships and diversity.
Family Partnerships: Reviews strategies to improve strategies when working with families to foster the mental health of children and young people.
Learning Resilience: Provides an understanding of how to intentionally teach social and emotional learning skills, and foster resilience in education settings.
Early Support: Provides information and guidance on recognising behaviours which might indicate early signs of mental illness. Educators develop an understanding on how to talk to children about mental health issues and how to provide support.
Responding Together: Investigates the role of the school in promoting a mentally healthy community to be prepared for critical incidents and be responsive in times of crisis.
Reference: https://beyou.edu.au/learn
Staff at Southern Cross use the Be You Framework alongside the Australian Curriculum’s Personal and Social Capability Framework to support learning in our Social and Emotional Learning lessons: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/personal-and-social-capability/
At Southern Cross Early Childhood School, we partner with the P&C to provide families with the opportunity to engage in Community Events throughout the year. These may be events run in partnership with the school and the P&C or the P&C may provide events for families to connect with our community through Play Dates either at our school site or at a different location on a weekend. The school will advertise these events in the school newsletter, on our school Facebook page, via and email or on Seesaw.