Community and Pastoral Care

Our Pastoral Care Committee consisting of a representative member of our admin staff, Julie Shortland, a teacher representative Tim Hudson, our Chaplain Rev. Daryl Diener, as well as our School counsellors met biweekly to discuss all matters of community wellbeing relevant to Mosman Prep. We had a display at our annual Learning Celebration, and showcased our many programs and helpful resources. We were able to meet with many members of the Mosman Prep community and answer their questions regarding mental health and wellbeing for our students.

This year we also welcomed Merel Dekkers to our team of school counsellors, as she and I together took on the role from the previous school counsellor. Mrs Dekkers is a clinical psychologist and a trained facilitator of the Cool Kids program, designed by Macquarie University. This course is thoroughly researched, highly effective and reduces symptoms of anxiety in children. Mrs Dekkers implemented the Cool Kids programs to small targeted groups throughout the year as well as whole year groups. We had many parents give positive feedback on how their child's anxiety diminished and how effective their time with Mrs Dekkers had been.

The pastoral care team continued to hold Empowering Parents webinars, an initiative commencing last year. We invited excellent speakers to come and deliver dynamic topics and current research to our community. We had Justin Coulson, Founder of Happy Families, who spoke on the three keys to having a happy family; Love, Limits and Laughter. We then had Lynn Worsley, the founder of The Resilience Centre, come and address the topic of Resilience. She spoke on how parents can raise kids that cope, which was a very timely message as we were emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. We also had an ex-teacher return to Prep to give a talk on empowering parents to be the pilot of their families digital plane. Dr Kirsty Goodwin came and spoke to us on how to use technology and screens as the useful tool they are, but having limits and effective boundaries to keep our children safe and their wellbeing protected online.

Rev. Diener and I also did some small targeted groups for our students such as Chill Zone, a group specifically to care for young boys whose families are separated or divorced. We also ran a small group outlining our values in friendships and how to have integrity in our relationships with others. We also continued our individual wellbeing student surveys, to assess how each and every boy at Prep is enjoying