Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) have adopted URSTRONG’s Friendology friendship skills curriculum & whole-school friendship strategy in their strategic system-wide approach to enhance wellbeing.
Oct 26, 2023: URSTRONG and CEWA have embarked on an exciting pilot project that involves 50 CEWA schools and the training of over 200 CEWA educators via URSTRONG’s Friendology Educator Training. Dr Deb Perich (Wellbeing Consultant for CEWA) and Michael Kerford (CEO of URSTRONG) have worked closely together to create this opportunity for the CEWA schools, aligning our training with CEWA’s state-wide strategic vision.
We have now completed two rounds of training and are thrilled to already be hearing about the positive impact in schools. Aranmore Catholic Primary School in Leederville recently hosted a “Friendship Day” to launch their new Friendship Zone on the playground. Mary Monterosso, Teacher Assistant, shared:
“Our Friendship Day was a huge success! We asked everyone to wear green to represent the ‘Healthy Green Zone’, and both students and staff got into the spirit of the day! It was a wonderful day of celebration. We launched our new Friendship Zone, a place in the playground for our students to access. We also introduced our new Friend-o-Leader program and announced our Year 6 ‘Friendologists’, who will be available during break times to help assist students work through their friendship issues using the URStrong tools they have learnt through Friendology 101. We finished off with an afternoon of fun activities!! Children worked together with their buddies to complete their very own Friend-o-Meters, Friendship Ninjas (which will be displayed around our school) and the fantastic DIY Headbands, created especially for us by the wonderful Jane! Thank you so much for your help and support with making our Friendship Day such a success and we look forward to embedding the URStrong Friendology 101 program at Aranmore CPS over the coming years.”
CEWA and URSTRONG share a strong, mutual interest in empowering youth and school communities while positively influencing all aspects of their lives via the development of healthy friendships.
CEWA and URSTRONG believe that relationships are the ‘heart of wellbeing’ and that a focus on authentic human connections should be central to the creation of thriving school communities.
