Staff Wellbeing (Lauren Dragon)

FREE 8 week Health and Fitness Program

The South West Sports Centre is running a FREE health and fitness program called Move for Life, which is a falls prevention program aimed at supporting participants of all ages and abilities to gain strength and fitness.

Move for Life runs for eight weeks under the guidance of our qualified personal trainers, and can help participants new to physical activity, or who have been identified by a medical professional due to age, illness or rehabilitation to need a slower paced base-level program or introduction to exercise.

Supported by Injury Matters and the Stay on Your Feet program, Move for Life will take participants through supervised easy-to-follow exercises to improve range of movement, posture, and balance with modification options to suit individual needs.

All participants will undergo pre-exercise screening and fitness testing, including the 4-Stage Balance Test and the 30-second chair stand falls risk assessment, and may require a medical clearance before commencing the program.

We can tailor individual exercises for participants, based on their health needs and fitness levels as indicated by the pre-exercise screening process.

The Move for Life program will commence 21 March 2023 and will run Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30am to 12:30pm.  Each session will include 30 minutes of exercise followed by a 30-minute educational talk regarding a range of topics, including nutrition, medication and falls prevention.

If you feel this may be beneficial to you or anyone you know, please get in touch today by emailing your expression of interest to manderson@bunbury.wa.gov.au or call (08) 9795 2249.   Alternatively, I have attached the information flyer for your reference as required.

Strategies to support yourself and students leading into NAPLAN

Excerpts of article from Be You - https://beyou.edu.au/

Creating a safe and supportive environment for children and young people is important for their mental health and wellbeing, and how they feel going into the NAPLAN tests. 

While stress can be a normal response to the demands of work, prolonged or excessive stress is not good for anyone. Sources of stress in the lead up to NAPLAN may include:  

• Increased time pressures and workload
• Conflict with management and colleagues
• Adapting and implementing change influenced by NAPLAN
• Supporting students who may experience increased anxiety during this period, which may appear in the form of lack of motivation and effort, disrespect, or challenging authority.

What are the strategies educators can put in place to support their learning communities? 

Of course, wellbeing strategies should be top of mind all year round, however, the NAPLAN period does provide an opportunity to acknowledge, review, build on, or introduce wellbeing strategies. Strategies include: 

• Build into your daily routine strategies to support your wellbeing, such as taking breaks, going for a walk, eating healthy snack, taking deep breaths or listening to your favourite song 
• Ensure you are help-seeking when needed and reaching out to colleagues for support
• Review and implement structures and processes to minimise work-related stressors
• Access staff wellbeing resources such as the Be You Educator Wellbeing resources (https://beyou.edu.au/fact-sheets/wellbeing ) or the resources through Heads Up (https://www.headsup.org.au/your-mental-health ) to gain information/resources on how to support your wellbeing
• Improve your connectedness with young people and colleagues
• Ensure staff receive appropriate recognition for their work