Creating an emotional climate for learning that activates students’ ability to excel. Belonging is the experience of being accepted, respected and connected. A sense of belonging is beneficial for learning (Walton & Cohen 2011; Immordino-Yang, Darling-Hammond & Krone 2019). Classroom learning is not the only benefit MACS schools provide. Schools also serve as social institutions where students learn how to interact with adults and with their peers. MACS schools intentionally collaborate with families and the community to ensure every student has a strong sense of belonging in the school, – MACS Vision for Engagement 2025.
At St Lawrence Primary School we have mentoring programs to enhance student engagement and connectedness.
Student Leadership – All Grade 6 students are all involved in leadership teams. The areas of leadership include:
- Faith & Mission
- Arts
- Sports
- eLearning
- Library
- Environment
- Student Wellbeing Team
“Being a part of the leaderships teams help us to belong because it helps us to use our interests and strengths as a part of our team,” Ethan C- 2025
“Student Leadership Teams help us to feel included in the school community and school activities. We support each other and help to build each other up to make a difference”- Georgia, 2025
“Being a part of a leadership team helps us to be involved, and helps us to have responsibility and to be a leader of our school community. We have our voices heard at meetings and can contribute to what we thinking we should do here at St Lawrence,”- Marcelo, 2025
FAITH & MISSION TEAM
“In the Faith & Mission team we work together to think about and plan ideas to assist the Religious Education leader when planning Masses or class liturgies. Before each school Mass,we often gather around in a group to discuss our readings for our whole school Masses. Every second week on a Wednesday we have our leadership meetings, this is when we discuss how and where we are going to show catholic values in our school community. Also as the Faith & Mission team we run campaigns like Project Compassion and the Winter Appeal. We help others to understand how they can live the Catholic values too,” -Ruby & Ella 2025
ARTS TEAM
“In the Art team, we support others on their art journey by inspiring them with our murals and with our artists of the week program. We handpick a student from each year level based on their artwork where they have shown pride and dedication in their learning. We also help create props for the school productions every second year, using our excellent teamwork, creativity and our positive mindsets. Overall the Art team is a joyful, co-ordinated team where our goal is to inspire others with our diligence, perseverance and most importantly, art!”
-Art Team 2025
SPORTS TEAM
“In the Sports team we help students in our school not just to learn skills in sport, but also teach them how to be fair, show sportsmanship and respect to others and themselves. We believe being in the Sports team isn’t just about running and kicking goals, it’s about how we can support and build our team’s success and strength.
We meet up and make videos or posters about how we can be fair and respectful to our peers while doing sport. We also make step-by-step videos about basic skills and how to improve by practising different techniques.
As a team we are learning to grow by using our voices to express ourselves, working as a team and shining our light on things that are important to us.”
-Sports Team, 2025
eLEARNING TEAM
“In the e-Learning team we learn about technology. We help to share our knowledge and educate the junior students on how to use apps such as Seesaw. This year the e-Learning team are also helping the teachers to create a graduation video of all the Grade 6 students for our graduation at the end of the year. We also help in Our Whole School Masses by supporting the music and the slideshow.”
-Isabella and Sienna B , 2025
LIBRARY TEAM
“The Library team is an important part of our school because he helps everyone in our school to gain knowledge through books. We support the librarians and promote events such as Book Week and the Book Fair. We also get to share our favourite books by reading with the younger students. Being a part of this team helps us all to be good leaders as it teaches us responsibility,”
– Carla, 2025
ENVIRONMENT TEAM
“The Environment Team is a team that makes our school environment sustainable. Our mission is to protect our school environment. We do gardening, cooking with organic materials and go on excursions to get inspiration to make our school greener. We really want to educate the little ones by teaching them what goes in the correct bins. With the help from our staff mentor, and our school builders, Colin and Katrina we work to implement sustainable practices at St. Lawrence.
Vision:
Creating a cleaner school environment for our students and educating the younger students on why protecting the environment is important.
Mission:
Planting more plants/food, and spreading awareness by posters and speeches during assembly. We are always constantly trying to improve our school environment!”
-Environment Team, 2025
STUDENT WELLBEING TEAM
In the Student Wellbeing team, we assist the Wellbeing leaders to develop a positive and safe school environment. We address any needs our community has, including the ability to improve our school’s PBL and wellbeing. We try to be good role models and to support others by being Safe, Responsible and Respectful. We all meet on Wednesday’s to address any issues or challenges that may arise and currently the Student Wellbeing team is working on understanding and explaining the expectations of the Buddy Bench. We have made posters, videos and we are even reading a book to the younger students!
– Leahni and Olivia 2025