Student Wellbeing
Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School not only strives for academic excellence, we are also deeply committed to the positive health and wellbeing of all our girls.
Through our comprehensive pastoral care program, we instil confidence and self-worth to ensure your daughter is an inspired, empowered young woman who respects herself and others.
Our dedication to pastoral care means your daughter will always have somewhere to go where she feels safe and someone to talk to whom she can trust.
We will know your daughter not only by name, but also by her needs, hopes and dreams.
A strong support network of Heads of House, Heads of School, House Group teachers, mentors and pastoral and career counsellors guide our girls and teach them life skills to succeed within our classrooms, the School community and as a global citizen.
Our Wellbeing Team, with their specialist training and access to extensive resources, supports your daughter’s individual needs to help her gain the most from her school experience.
For our students with medical, psychological, learning or other special needs, our professional counsellors and learning support staff work with classroom teachers to provide opportunities and resources that foster her potential despite her challenges.
Your daughter’s personal and academic development is important to us. Enrol online today.
For more information about our Wellbeing program please get in touch with our Dean of Students:
Ms Rebecca Sullivan
Dean of Students
Email: [email protected]
Life Skills Program
Above all, we want our girls to be happy.
Life Skills is our personal development program that develops skills to help our girls manage their own mental health and wellbeing. Classes are scheduled into each year level’s academic timetable (weekly in Years 7 and 8, fortnightly in Years 9 to 12).
We teach the power of positive and optimistic thinking, which is important when coping with difficult life events.
We aim to instil high self-esteem and worth in your daughter and help her become a responsible, confident, principled young woman.
Through various pursuits in our Middle School Life Skills Program, your daughter will learn about herself and others. She will undertake activities and attend camps to develop personal growth, a positive mindset and care for others.
Our Senior School Life Skills Program fosters independence, leadership and decision-making skills with a particular focus on career options, study skills and preparation for higher learning.
The IGGS Life Skills program is based on the seven steps of the Positive Psychology framework, designed to encourage positivity and optimism in our students and build resilience.
1. Relationships – Having close friends that are trustworthy and reliable.
2. Caring – Putting others first, to increase feelings of self-worth.
3. Exercise – Increasing mental wellbeing through regular exercise assists in maintaining a positive mindset.
4. Flow – Working towards important goals and being highly focused on the end result gives daily purpose, builds a sense of responsibility and increases self-esteem.
5. Strengths and virtues – Showing girls what their key strengths and virtues are helps them to develop confidence. Teenagers who know themselves and have self-belief are less likely to experience depression.
6. Positive thinking and gratitude – Bouncing back after a negative test result or loss in a sporting event through positive thinking builds resilience and a strength of character necessary in life after school.
Centre for Young Women’s Health and Wellbeing
Our dedicated Health and Wellbeing Centre provides a space where our girls can take some time out and relax in a safe and caring environment with support always at hand, if needed.
The Centre offers a number of wellbeing programs including meditation and yoga sessions plus personal development, young women’s health, motivational and career workshops.
We also create and coordinate opportunities for our girls to take part in humanitarian projects, fundraisers and community events throughout the school year. To date, our community service projects have supported Red Cross, Footprints in the Park, the Salvation Army, Ipswich Hospice and World Vision.
Student Counsellors
IGGS counsellors play a vital role in supporting our girls and helping them reach their individual potential.
Their primary focus is to provide confidential, non-judgmental support, and for our girls to feel they can talk to, and trust, someone about any aspect of their lives including emotional, school, family, adolescent and relationship issues.
Services are free and accessible to all our girls and their families, every school day of the year.
Navigating the 7 Cs
The School’s 7 Cs program has been created to develop and affirm a strong sense of self and confidence within each IGGS girl. Each ‘C’ is used as a signpost at different Year levels, underpinning the formation of character at that time but also connecting to the idea of the seven seas – the broad range of experiences that each girl will have in her quest to become a participating global citizen.
The signposts at each Year level are:
- Character (Year 7)
- Community (Year 8)
- Challenge (Year 9)
- Change (Year 10)
- Choice (Year 11)
- Citizenship (Year 12)
- Connection (Year 13)
Each of these rites of passage contribute to the confidence building that is so essential in a young woman’s development, advancing the previous year’s social and emotional learning. Each signpost, represented by a theme, is implemented through the IGGS Life Skills program, which is embedded into the girls’ weekly curriculum.
