Year 12 Wellbeing Day
On Wednesday 12 June the Year 12’s spent most of the day focusing on their wellbeing. In the morning they attended a motivational and inspirational speech from Mr Eric Agyeman. He shared his personal story of hardship and resilience. In period 3 and 4, students opted into a variety of activities including, watching a movie, wildlife incursion, board games, pottery exercise and sports. All of the activities were really well received, especially the students who attended the wildlife incursion and were able to touch lizards and snakes. At lunch the students were treated to a sausage in bread and hot jam donuts, which were great on a cold winters day.
REACH Workshops
Reach workshops provide safe and supportive spaces for students to discuss and share their experiences, successes and challenges. They aim to improve resilience and self-belief, enhance social and emotional skills and improve connections among the peer group.
Year 7 – On Tuesday 18 June, our Year 7 students attended the Connection workshop delivered by the Reach Foundation. The Connection workshop encourages positive self-expression and normalizes individual differences within the group as they share their experiences of high school so far. It builds awareness of behavior and its impact on others, and how it can affect individuals in different ways. They also focus on building awareness of the impact of ‘crossing the line’ both online and in the ‘real world’. It explores the reasons behind negative words and behaviours to identify the impacts upon others. The workshop aims to build empathy, support connections and create positive impacts on the group as a whole.
Year 9 – On Wednesday 19 June, our Year 9 students attended the Peer Dynamics workshop delivered by the Reach Foundation. The workshop explores judgement, confidence and group dynamics and the impact judgment has on individual confidence and peer dynamics. By recognising the need to create safe environments, this workshop empowers individuals to ask, “What role do I play in creating the class environment?” “Am I making it better or worse through the choices I’m making?”
Gambling harm reduction program from Gambler’s Help
This week our Year 11 and 12 students attended workshops delivered by EACH. There are over 1300 sports betting TV on free to air TV every day, the Gambler’s Help education sessions are an opportunity for students to understand the risks and realities of betting. Young people are overrepresented statistically and with the increase in online sports betting they are starting to bet younger than ever before. Statistics suggest 1 in 4 year 10 boys are currently betting on sports and it’s important to help them understand Australians lose more betting and gambling than any other country partly due to the normalisation from a young age.
Push-Up Challenge
The Push-Up Challenge is a free mental health and fitness event focused on pushing for better mental health for all Australians from the 5th to the 28th of June. You can complete 3,249 push-ups (or alternative exercises) over 24 days, representing the 3,249 lives lost to suicide in Australia in 2022. You can also adapt the challenge to your abilities and do half the amount, 1625. Make sure you download the app to keep track of your push-ups. There are many alternative exercises that you can complete such as squats, sit-ups and tricep dips, so don’t feel pressured to only do push-ups! Good luck to all of those participating, let’s push for better mental health together! Many students and staff at MWSC are participating in the Push-Up Challenge and we wish them well for the rest of the campaign.
Mr Paul Graham
Student Support and Resources Manager