Clontarf Academy

Our Year 8/9 boys enjoyed a camp to the surf coast recently. After a session at Bounce Geelong, we hit the surf with the crew from Surfing Victoria for some lessons in somewhat sloppy conditions. The instructors were amazing with our boys and ensured they all had the chance to catch a few waves, everyone coming away with a big smile.

We set up camp at Anglesea and enjoyed some yarning time over a BBQ dinner cooked by the boys before settling into swags for a good night's rest. We were up early to watch the sunrise from the beach the next morning, running the boys through a stretching and mindfulness session. This was a perfect way to start a day and with everyone in the right frame of mind, we broke camp and headed into Geelong for a tour of the facilities at the Geelong Footy Club. 

Indigenous welfare manager Brett Goodes took us for an in-depth look through the underbelly of the ‘Cattery’ with a chance to meet a few players and watch a training session in the lead up to their postponed game against Brisbane. The boys loved the experience and found the players and coaching staff very generous with their time in signing a few autographs and posing for selfies.

While on the topic of footy, it's now less than a week away for the Vic Clontarf Cup where our boys will challenge Clontarf Academies from all over Victoria for bragging rights. It's been really pleasing to see the boys take charge and demonstrate leadership in this space. While we all want to win the conversations have been all about how we play the game and how we want to be perceived. This has been self-driven by the boys and buy-in has been immense. I look forward to reporting on the day of the next Crest.

We were lucky enough to be joined by Egan Bevan from Headspace on Tuesday. The important of a healthy mind cannot be understated and it was great for our boys to learn a bit more about the support services that are available to them. The boys had a chance to have some input into what some of these services should look like and the types of supports that they feel are needed. 

One of our great supporters in BADAC set up the makeshift ‘Clontarf Clinic’ last week to start putting our boys through their 715 health checks. These health screenings are vital in early intervention and across the nation, Clontarf gives their boys an opportunity to get a health check. As well as the obvious positives of a health check, the ‘normalising’ of seeing a doctor and having conversation is about your health is vital for our boys moving forward. We will continue with these screenings through BADAC as the year progresses.