Monmia Primary School is a Proud ‘Be You’ School.

The school provides a safe and nurturing environment where teachers, students and families work in an effective partnership where important relationships are fostered.  Monmia Primary School strives to provide an educational environment which ensures that all students are valued and cared for and feel a sense of connectedness with the school. Teachers ensure that the curriculum is differentiated for students in order for them to engage effectively in their learning and experience success.

The school has a diverse enrolment represented with over 30 nationalities from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. The school deliberately acknowledges the diverse school population to enhance student engagement and wellbeing.

The school’s pro-social values underpin how students, staff, parents and guardians will interact with one another. These values have high visibility throughout the school and are referred to at each whole school assembly.

The core school values are:

• Respect
• Responsibility
• Safety

Monmia Primary School has been deliberate in elevating the importance of Student Wellbeing alongside Student Learning. Students with optimal levels of wellbeing and resilience are more likely to have higher academic achievement and complete their schooling, have better mental and physical health, are more resistant to stress and to engage in a more socially responsible lifestyle. 

The school has been successfully implementing a Social and Emotional Learning Program with a focus on mental health aligned with the ‘Be You’ initiative that was officially launched at Monmia Primary School in 2018 by Chair of Beyond Blue, The Honorable Julia Gillard AC.  

The school’s involvement with the mental health initiatives have had a positive impact on building community connectedness, community spirit within the school and increasing an awareness of mental health.

Through the ‘Be You’ initiative, Monmia Primary School deliberately and strategically explores mental health and wellbeing using the 5 domains of:

1. Mentally Healthy Communities
2. Family Partnerships
3. Early Support
4. Responding Together
5. Learning Resilience

The five core competencies for school based social and emotional learning (SEL) are taught through The BounceBack Resilience and Wellbeing Program. This program is research based and implemented throughout the school.  A whole school scope and sequence has been developed including the 5 competencies of:

1. Self-awareness and self-knowledge
2. Self-management
3. Social awareness
4. Relationship skills
5. Responsible decision making

The school deliberately promotes ‘Bullying NO WAY!’ The BounceBack scope and sequence focuses on this unit each term. Each year the school participates in the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence and signs a pledge of no tolerance for Bullying at Monmia PS. 

All classroom teachers allocate one hour each week to explicitly teach a variety of values, social and emotional learning skills and understandings and actively practise and adapt these skills to new situations. The school introduces the BounceBack focus at each whole school assembly and includes a weekly article for the community in the newsletter.

The school implements the Bucket Filling Philosophy that aims to create a positive school and home environment by increasing kindness, respect and courtesy. It focuses on individual’s strengths and achievements to build resilience.

The school implements the Restorative Practices as a preventative strategy that seeks to build community relationships with all community members. Classroom teachers implement a range of restorative circles to bring groups together on a regular basis. A restorative framework is used to repair relationships that have been damaged in a supportive environment.

The school’s Student Engagement and Inclusion Policy describes the school community’s shared expectations in the areas of student engagement, attendance and behaviour. The policy supports the rights and expectations of every member of the school community to engage in and promote a safe and inclusive educational environment.  The policy also supports the school’s capacity to respond to individual student circumstances and outlines a series of processes, actions and consequences developed in consultation with the school community.