‘Let’s be Still’: A school psychologist delivered stillness meditation program for wellbeing

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Rachel Yerbury
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Mindfulness Meditation ◽  
New South ◽  
School Psychologist ◽  
School Based ◽  
School Counsellors ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Student Resilience ◽  
School Day ◽  
And Coping

Abstract School counsellors implement preventative programs to build student resilience and coping skills to counteract the rising mental health needs of children in Australia. School-based meditation programs are effective for individuals and groups, with documented benefits. Most literature examines mindfulness meditation, and the current, exploratory study aimed to add to the research breadth by considering stillness meditation. The stillness program ‘Let’s be Still’ is a 10-week, class-based program that was conducted between 2015–2020 by the school psychologist in a regional, independent New South Wales school. Data were collected from questionnaire responses of 169 Year 2 (7–9 years) and five teachers to document what the children had learnt and how it helped them. Thematic analysis of the responses revealed an emphasis on stillness promoting positive emotions and behaviours. Both students and teachers articulated that learning and practising stillness provided the students with tools to be calm, relaxed and settled, to deal with conflict and to have a break from the busyness of the school day. While the study design does not allow generalisability of the program’s effectiveness, this study may offer input for school counsellors considering the implementation of a school-based meditation program.

Process evaluation of the New South Wales Walk Safely to School Day

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dafna Merom ◽  
Chris Rissel ◽  
Ajsa Mahmic ◽  
Adrian Bauman
Keyword(s):  
Process Evaluation ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
South Wales ◽  
School Day

Retrieving the forgotten influence of Herbart on subject English

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-54
Author(s):  
Don Carter
Keyword(s):  
Curriculum Design ◽  
New South ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Content Type ◽  
English Curriculum ◽  
School Based ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Specific Analysis ◽  
New Education ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the strong influence of Herbartian ideas on the first secondary school-based English course (1911) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Whilst previous research has established the influence of the “New Education” on the (NSW Director of Education, Peter Board, the architect of the) 1911 courses, no specific analysis of Johann Friedrich Herbart’s educational ideas has been undertaken in relation to this seminal secondary English course. Design/methodology/approach Through using three of Herbart’s key educational ideas as an interpretive framework to analyse the 1911 NSW Courses of Study for High Schools English course, the paper demonstrates the influence of those ideas on this inaugural secondary English course. Findings The analysis reveals that the NSW 1911 secondary English course was influenced by Herbartian educational ideas underpinning the course. Research limitations/implications This paper focuses on the “pre-active”1911 rhetorical English curriculum in NSW, rather than the “enacted” implemented curriculum. Practical implications The paper identifies Herbartian influences on the 1911 NSW English syllabus, revealing important philosophical ideas. Social implications Future English curriculum design will benefit from the identification of the philosophical ideas embedded in the NSW 1911 English curriculum. Originality/value This analysis provides insights into the Herbartian influences on the first secondary English course in NSW.

Transforming Traumatised Children within NSW Department of Education Schools: One School Counsellor's Model for Practise – REWIRE

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Costa
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Psychological Services ◽  
Developmental Trauma ◽  
Public Education System ◽  
School Based ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Competing Demands ◽  
Trauma Informed ◽  
The Impact

Adequately supporting the needs of maltreated and traumatised children within New South Wales (NSW) public education system schools is often frustrated by poor perception of the impact of developmental trauma on children's school-based functioning and the need for additional, specialist support; the push for, and provision of, behaviour diagnoses for these children to fund basic assistance and supervision; competing demands on an overextended School Counselling resource impacting capacity for school-based trauma informed psychological services, and seemingly stretched capacity of government/non-government agencies to reliably provide effective support. This is accompanied by a lack of understanding of behavioural signals of distress children display and underreporting to agencies; persistent, simplistic behaviourist views of children's behaviours within schools and low-level collaboration between schools and external agencies. Facilitating a trauma sensitive environment within NSW schools can ameliorate these frustrations and attend to these inadequacies in a pragmatic, achievable way. This practice paper presents a School Counsellor-led model (REWIRE) for achieving this.

Music Assessment Antipodean Style

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-189
Author(s):  
Frank Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Education ◽  
Final Stage ◽  
New South ◽  
Current Approach ◽  
Public Examination ◽  
Music Assessment ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
School Based ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Pupil Achievement

In the last few years, New South Wales has witnessed a change in the method of assessing pupil achievement in the final stage of secondary education. What was once done through a public examination is now carried out through a combination of the former method together with school-based assessment. This article considers the procedures which have been developed for the two music programmes which are offered in Years 11 and 12, and concludes with an examination of the advantages and disadvantages of the current approach.

Death and Ritual on the Gallows: Public Executions in the Australian Penal Colonies

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-100
Author(s):  
Michael Sturma
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New South ◽  
Terminally Ill ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Penal Colonies ◽  
Public Executions ◽  
And Coping

Of all public rituals in the nineteenth century, hanging was intended to be the most dramatic and didactic. The Australian penal colonies of New South Wales and Tasmania, as receptacles for transported British convicts during the first half of the nineteenth century, provide a rich context for examining public executions. This article explores the interplay between state, church, and judicial system in managing the death ceremony and reinforcing authority. The reactions of victims and witnesses to public executions is also explored, drawing on modern studies of death and the terminally ill. Of central concern is the role of ritual in interpreting and coping with death in the extraordinary circumstances of public hanging.

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