Wellbeing Team

Our College offers a highly skilled and approachable Wellbeing Team who manage and oversee referrals to other services and agencies, as well as coordinate and run events and programs that support our students’ mental health and wellbeing. The Wellbeing Team includes an Assistant Principal, a Student Wellbeing Leader, a Chaplain, an Adolescent Health Nurse, a psychologist, a Mental Health Practitioner, a Wellbeing administrator and various support workers from the Department of Education Student Support Services.

We are a part of the ‘Doctor’s in Schools’ initiative and have a GP and trained nurse on site once a week, in addition to our school First Aid nurseThe Wellbeing Team work closely with the Student Engagement Leaders across the school in order to provide a coordinated approach to student support.

      Luke Ventieri

Assistant Principal - Wellbeing

 

Moheine Deo

Wellbeing Leader

 

I believe in empowering students to achieve their best possible outcome.

 

This best outcome is achieved by taking a holistic approach to students' wellbeing where the student, their parent/guardian, and the college work together. I have been working in student wellbeing for over ten years and am passionate about working with adolescents. 

 

I like to spend my spare time making plans to travel and listening to true crime podcasts.

 

    Tamara Magrath                                                                                        

Adolescent Health Nurse                                                                                

  I am a registered Nurse with a graduate certificate in mental health.

  I started my career working in acute mental health which I really enjoyed, but I quickly realised that    if we supported people with their mental health earlier in life it would lessen the impact of illness. For    this reason, I decided to work with young people and I have been in the role as a Secondary School      Nurse for the past 20 years.

As a Secondary School Nurse, I have had the pleasure of working at Melba College for 5 years and in that time I have supported students in a number of ways, including:

• I provide health education and information to students either individually or within classes
• I run health promotion activities where I raise school community awareness about different health and wellbeing topics
• I provide assessment and referral support to students who are experiencing a range of health and wellbeing concerns
• I work with the wellbeing team to identify areas of concern and plan ways to address them.

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless"

Mother Teresa

 Chris Waddell

 College Chaplain

G’day I have been at Melba College for over 10 years as a Chaplain.

My role is unique within the school. It is solely to help with the wellbeing of our students, staff and families. I do this through running programs, chatting with students, running pancake breakfasts and generally just hanging out with students when they are in need. I love my job because I get to journey with students and help students improve their wellbeing, I also get to celebrate with students when they achieve milestones in their life.

When not at school I love playing and watching sport (especially the Western Bulldogs), listening to music and playing with my two wonderful children.

Gaylene Layton

I am an Educational and Developmental Psychologist. I have been working with children and adolescents for over 30 years. Since 2010 I have been working in Education, and in 2020 I joined the team at Melba College. Working within the context of a mutually respectful relationship, using evidence based interventions, is really important to me and I feel privileged to be able to work in this way with young people.

“Psychologists are just people who weren’t smart enough to be psychics”.

Gina Linetti, Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Referrals to the wellbeing team can be made through the Year Level Leaders or by contacting the team directly via the college reception.