At St Monica’s, we believe wellbeing and building community is critical in all aspects of everyday life and embed this in our teaching and learning each day. We returned to school as a whole school community at the beginning of Term 3. Staff and students joined forces to explore ways in which the school community could promote and enhance the wellbeing of our staff and students following a challenging Term 2 due to COVID-19 restrictions and several weeks of remote learning. 

Each student in Year 6 is a member of a specific student leadership group. The Year 6 student leadership group whose key focus is on sport across the school put forward the idea of having a mini colour run at St Monica’s. The twelve Sport Leaders believed it would not just be a fun and exciting activity for our school community, but also a great way for students to be active and outdoors; a positive to promote good mental health. 

“We chose the colour run because we thought the colour run was a happy and fun activity that would help with everyone’s mental health.  We wanted to bring laughter and joy to our school during a tough year due to COVID-19. We believed the bright colours would brighten up everyone’s day,” Year 6 student, Remy D, said. 

With much enthusiasm the Sport Leaders began preparing for what would be a fun way to end our traditional SABBATH Week with a Wellbeing Day.  Advised to come dressed in old casual clothes the children were treated to a mid morning session of games, coordinated by the Year 6 Sport Leaders. Following lunch the children connected with their buddy classes for several laps of the oval when everyone was dusted with bright coloured powder. The tradition of buddy classes is a core part of how St Monica’s builds and enhances the relationships amongst our students. 

It was wonderful to see the majority of our students and staff out on the school oval running around, laughing and enjoying each other's company and the perfect weather. The teachers particularly enjoyed being able to splash students with the colour powder. We look forward to many more events like this in the future! 

We keep our students and teachers connected with one another.