• Create activities that give students some control over what they are learning. The department’s Student voice, participation and leadership pages have resources to support this.
• Provide opportunities for students to work on passion projects to promote engagement.
  
• Give students short term and long term projects.
• Provide marking criteria so students can self-assess.
• Encourage students to use positive coping mechanisms when they find learning challenging. Ask them to reflect on previous examples when they’ve been successful, or reframe the challenge.

High expectations give students the chance to achieve the best possible outcomes in their academic achievement and their wellbeing.

Individualise expectations for every student. This could include providing additional supports and different learning experiences to achieve learning outcomes and to ensure that every student experiences success.

Focus on effort, not excellence.

• Encourage students to describe their approach to activities.
• Ask students to share their suggestions or strategies for solving a learning challenge.
• Provide positive feedback acknowledging their effort by saying what they are doing well or what they did well, and why it is worthy.

Encourage parents and carers to also provide positive verbal feedback to their child about the work they are doing or have completed. It is important that all positive feedback is realistic and focuses on the task with clear, simple words.

• When I asked you, you immediately got out your computer and started to work on your history assignment. Moving quickly meant you got started straight away which is an important part of being a good learner.
• Congratulations on telling me/ writing down about your times tables Mohammad. Knowing your times tables is important and will help when we do other maths questions.
• Well done Taylia, you really thought about that art concept and the paragraph you wrote explained what it meant well.
• Jack, you used the correct punctuation, which made the paragraph easier to read. Your sentences built well on each other, ending with a suspenseful conclusion.
• Your teacher will be happy when you submit this work on Google Classroom as it shows that you are improving your knowledge of geography.
• You did a great workout with the fitness routine today. This will improve your fitness levels and keep you healthy.
• I appreciate you helping your sister with her science work while I was busy Jianrui. This shows me that you are caring, helpful, and understand (the topic).
• Your design/ art really showed me that you understand what it meant to plan and draw that idea.

• Brain breaks support cognitive wellbeing.
• Movement breaks support physical wellbeing.
• Mindfulness activities support emotional wellbeing.
• Discuss self-care strategies, and ask students to assess their own self-care.
• Headspace has resources around self-care.

• Encourage students and families to maintain a healthy and safe environment by following the NSW Health COVID-19 guidelines.
• Encourage families to participate in home learning and understand that play has an important role in learning and wellbeing. They can play board games, share books, build with Lego and talk about their schoolwork.
• Promote resources to support parents such as Kids Helpline.
• Share information about home learning with parents through the school newsletter or via mail.
• Create opportunities for parent-teacher conferences online or over the phone.