Pastoral and Wellbeing in Gioia House

Welcome to the 2023 school year. It was lovely to meet many new families and see some familiar faces at our Year 5 Parent Information evening. The teachers and I have been really impressed with how smoothly the students have settled into Gioia House. They are getting used to having a variety of core and specialist teachers and are looking for opportunities to create new friendships while valuing some of the already established friendships.

Our Gioia House Pastoral program focuses on calling students to be Action Girls, where we encourage the students to display qualities of an Action Girl – being inclusive, respectful, honest, trustworthy and seeing a need and doing something about it. 

We offer an extensive Pastoral Program as we understand the importance of giving our students the opportunity to focus on their wellbeing. We make it a priority to provide students with the tools and strategies they can use to help them deal with everyday situations. We also encourage the students to develop their home organisational skills, by packing their school bag and resources the night before, getting a good night’s sleep (between 8 – 10 hours is recommended) and making sure devices are put away at least an hour before bedtime and not kept in their bedroom to avoid distraction. 

Some of the Pastoral programs we offer include our Action Girl Pastoral program where we focus on building self-confidence and develop skills to deal with a variety of situations.

We have our Rock and Water program which has been developed using Martial Arts principles where a series of exercises and games are practised to develop confidence and the ability to self-reflect. 

Our Gioia House Be Active session takes place once a fortnight, where students build on their team work skills and connect with all the students within Gioia House. We have enjoyed an afternoon of rotation sessions which included modified volleyball games, basketball and soccer. The girls enjoy getting together during our Be Active sessions.

GH community time buddy program, and Service Learning program are where students have the opportunity to be Action Girls and look for ways we can help others who are less fortunate than ourselves. We also take part in college community events such as carnivals, harmony day and love week.

We hope your daughters have come home telling you about all their wonderful new experiences in Gioia House and we look forward to a wonderful year working together with you and your daughters.

Marisa Maks
Assistant Head of Gioia House