At Belmont Intermediate School we have a dedicated Health and Wellbeing Team who are responsible for integrating our wellbeing programme into everyday teaching. Based on knowledge gained from professional training (21st Century Changemakers programme and National Wellbeing conferences) as well as published research, specialist advice and data collected from BIS students, the team developed a bespoke wellbeing programme. The programme framework has been based on the Te Whare Tapa Whā concept of hauora by Mason Durie (1994) which provides students with a holistic view of wellbeing and the Tessera model for social and emotional measurement.
The ethos behind our wellbeing programme is that if students are better armed with the tools they need in order to be robust, resilient human beings, they will be more able to weather the stresses and strains of adolescence and adulthood.
Our homeroom teachers deliver wellbeing content which has been developed by the Health and Wellbeing Team each week, providing at least two sessions of approximately 30-45 minutes or a 1-hour block session, this is scheduled into all classroom timetables. In addition, once a week, students work with their whānau groups (one year 7 class and one year 8 class) to focus on the four dimensions of the Te Whare Tapa Whā framework.
We have a counsellor, Brett Sawyer, who is available three days a week. Students can self-refer or be referred by teachers or parents. This service is bound by the counsellors’ code of ethics and is completely confidential.
