Throughout each term, students participate in a fortnightly pastoral care lesson. Throughout the year lessons link to our Play Is The Way concept and the Zones of Regulation program. 

Play Is The Way is a program explicitly taught in Pastoral Care lessons to help students to learn to be independent, self-regulated and self-motivated learners who are in pursuit of their personal best, and who are able to get along with each other. 

Each term we focus on a key concept from the Play Is The Way program. Our focus for Term 2 is ‘Be brave - participate to progress’ and “Pursue your personal best - no matter who you work with.” Teachers discuss this key concept within their classrooms and implement a range of activities to support students to grow in these areas. 

The Zones of Regulation program is another Pastoral Care program explicitly taught at Living Faith. The Zones of Regulation program is a systematic, cognitive behavioural approach used to teach self-regulation by categorising all the different ways we feel and states of alertness we experience into four coloured zones. These four zones are: 

• Red Zone - used to describe extremely heightened states of alertness and intense emotions. A person may be elated or experiencing anger, rage, devastation, or terror when in the Red Zone. 
• Yellow Zone - used to describe a heightened state of alertness and elevated emotions, however, one has more control when they are in the Yellow Zone. A person may be experiencing stress, frustration, anxiety, excitement, silliness, the wiggles, or nervousness when in the Yellow Zone. 
• Green Zone - used to describe a calm state of alertness. A person may be described as happy, focused, content, or ready to learn when in the Green Zone. This is the zone where optimal learning occurs. 
• Blue Zone - used to describe low states of alertness and down feelings such as when one feels sad, tired, sick, or bored. 

There is no such thing as a good zone or a bad zone, rather it is expected that there are times when it is appropriate for us to experience each of these different zones. Throughout the day at school, your child is involved in a number of check-ins to determine what zone they are in. Over time, they will learn how to use various strategies to move between the different zones. Should you want to implement the Zones of Regulation at home with your child/ren, you may like to use the graphic below to check-in with them.

- Chelsea Formosa, Director of Junior Primary