PROFILE
Painting at HEAL St James College
Making mandalas for Harmony Week at Yeronga SHS
HEAL and trauma-informed
expressive arts therapy By Shannon Meyerkort, Industry Reporter
child is experiencing trauma symptoms in the classroom, they are often not able to focus on learning. If children are not supported to recover from this trauma, they can struggle at school for the length of their education and unfortunately take those struggles with them through to adulthood.”
Wilsonton State School, in Toowoomba has become the first primary school to complete an expressive arts therapy pilot program to help children from a local refugee community heal from trauma. Located in the Refugee Welcome Zone of south Queensland, Toowoomba has received large numbers of refugees over the past decade, including the Êzidî community from Northern Iraq who have fled persecution and genocide by ISIS. The HEAL arts therapy program aims to provide young students with a way to express themselves as part of the healing and recovery process. The program is overseen in schools by QPASTT (Queensland Program of Assistance for Survivors of Torture and Trauma). Co-CEO, Sally Stewart, explains the program’s relevance: “Art, music and play are the tools that children and young people
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Ann Rebgetz is the Principal of St James College, a secondary co-educational Catholic College where around 65 percent of the 570 students are culturally and linguistically diverse, and approximately 45 percent come from a refugee background.
“Feeling Lost” - Student Art from St James College
use to express themselves and learn about the world. Expressive arts therapies are sensoryfocused and can be non-verbal, making it easier for children and young people to convey their experiences, thoughts, and feelings particularly if they are also learning English”, The program has also supported teachers and school staff to understand the context of developmental and refugeerelated trauma and its impact
on children’s ability to learn and thrive at school.
The effects of trauma on behaviour at school “Refugee trauma, and the experience of having to flee war and persecution, can seriously affect the healthy development of children and adolescents,” Ms Stewart said. “[It] can disrupt the foundations of attachment, behaviour and learning. If a
EDUCATION
“Prior to their arrival in Australia, many students have experienced multiple traumatic events,” explains Principal Rebgetz. “Students who arrived by boat and have been Asylum Seekers are very disadvantaged – they have to deal with the trauma of detention, as well as leaving countries. In addition, futures are so uncertain and that has a very negative impact – it is hard to talk careers when one is not allowed to work or attend university. Other students have experienced long-term deprivation and poverty whilst living in refugee camps or fleeing their homes.” Term 2, 2023 | school-news.com.au