At St Mary’s we believe that pastoral care is a key part of school life, and we take this aspect of education very seriously. St Mary’s College Leadership Team, House Leaders and Wellbeing Coaches with committed teams of Pastoral Care Teachers, are pivotal to the health and happiness of the student body.
We acknowledge that learning only takes place in an environment where the learner feels comfortable, so helping students to achieve an optimum degree of comfort in school is a priority.
Another important goal is the idea of connectedness. We encourage the idea of working closely with parents as partners in their daughter’s education, and as we care for our students, we offer support to their parents.
We are continually reviewing our policies and procedures to make sure that we are providing the best possible learning environment and believe that we are giving our students opportunities to grow in confidence.
We also believe that a large helping of fun is important, and we aim to give students the chance to enjoy themselves.
Wellbeing Coaches
Our Wellbeing Coaches Courtney Hartog, Taylor Fletcher and Zoe Hannaford are leading the College in our approach to daily student wellbeing and support. Courtney, Taylor and Zoe play a key role in the pastoral care of St Mary’s College Students.
Courtney is available Monday to Friday and supports Senior students from Year 7 to 12. Courtney is a registered psychologist and has a range of experiences in various industries including child safety, domestic violence and employment services. Supporting young people is a passion of Courtney’s and she looks forward to providing psychological intervention, assessment and support to those at SMC.
Contact Courtney on [email protected].
Taylor Fletcher is available on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and focuses on Junior School students in Kinder to Year 6. Since finishing her bachelor’s degree, Taylor has gained much experience as a Social Worker, working for Child Safety Services and non-government agencies. Taylor has specialised in long-term case management of young people in out-of-home care, and supporting children, families and foster carers.
Contact Taylor on [email protected].
Zoe works with all Junior and Senior School students, from Kinder to Year 12 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Zoe is a registered counsellor with extensive experience working with young people, both in schools and at Lifeline, where she has worked for the past four years.
Contact Zoe on [email protected].
Courtney, Taylor and Zoe are committed to helping your child/ren if they are experiencing challenges with any aspect of life.
The team has a holistic and collective approach to wellbeing, keeping the young person at the center while collaborating with parents and carers, teachers, and our community.
Their roles primary focus is supporting our young people. Their diverse work includes contributing to curriculum development, supporting staff and teachers, working face-to-face, and attending meetings and sessions as part of the students’ pastoral care team.
SchoolTV is a wellbeing platform for school communities that addresses the modern-day realities of raising safe, happy and resilient young people using credible information whilst offering realistic and practical strategies.
St Mary’s College now has its very own SchoolTV portal, for sharing articles, videos and journals that support wellbeing with our community.
Best practice content is represented in the latest articles and journals from 48 trusted source organisations in Australia and New Zealand, including Beyond Blue, Headspace and ReachOut.
All SchoolTV topics are divided into series. The number of topics relating to a series will differ and over time new topics will be added. You are invited to take the time to explore each series and topic and make sure you visit the resources section. Here you will find useful factsheets, apps, books, websites and other additional videos – all on one single topic!
Topics include cybersafety, mental health, school survival, healthy body, positive parenting and special topics of timely relevance based on trending topics.
Your Mind Matters
The library of useful resources from the Your Mind Matters collection is still available for you here via the link below, at any time you may wish to refer to a resource in our archive collection of articles.