This week has continued to see many activities occurring within the wellbeing space here

at MCC.

Students from year 7 who successfully completed their kindness activity as part of our “Do It for Dolly Day” event were presented with their certificates. Over 50 students completed a range of activities within a limited time period completing random acts of kindness both at school and within community. The students are to be congratulated for their commitment, enthusiasm, as well as being upstanders by taking an active stand against bullying.

In the early hours on what was a chilly Tuesday morning 10 students representing the Year 11 Wellbeing Team along with their Pastoral Leader, Ms Reynolds and myself made the journey to attend the annual “Wagga Wagga Youth Mental Health Forum”. This event is organised through headspace Wagga and MLHD and invites students from the wider Riverina community to be part of a full day of activities facilitated by Burn Bright. Whist the focus is on youth mental health; through a range of activities, workshops and a Q&A session with specialised service providers the students had the opportunity to step outside of their comfort zone and network with not only students from other schools but professionals from a range of agencies and services.

Students were asked to complete an initial submission for a project that they would like to implement at their respective schools and then deliver a short proposal of this idea to the wider audience at the forum so that everyone could be inspired by some of the great work happening by young people across the region. It is certainly exciting to hear the thoughts and goals of the students and I look forward to watching our own group develop their initial concept and bring the project to life. The team will initially present an overview of the day to the remainder of the team next week and then create an action plan to present to school leadership.

Activities such as the forum not only increases the participants knowledge and understanding of the complex world of mental health but also gives tools, strategies and opportunities to develop leadership skills, increase confidence and are capacity building but can also launch our young people on a career pathway. All attendees enjoyed the experience and the feedback has been extremely positive.

This week the students in Year 11 also commenced the “PUSH UP CHALLENGE” with an opportunity for a bit of friendly rivalry between homerooms students will complete a set target each morning push ups (or push outs, lunges, sit ups or similar). The goal is to complete as a group 3,214 push ups which sadly represents death by suicide in Australia in the most recent year of available data. All homerooms have commenced the challenge with enthusiasm, team spirit and the numbers so far are inspirational. Each morning when the challenges are sent through from the organisation there is also information, strategies or recommendations for supporting positive mental health. The activity will run until 26th June.

The first challenge that the group received was to complete 120 push ups. This number reflects the recommended time (120 minutes) per week for an individual to spend outside to promote positive mental health. This reminded me of an Anna Frank quote that reflects this sentiment exactly “The best remedy for

those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.”

This weekend as we head into the long weekend, I hope that you take the opportunity to follow the advice of both Anne and clinical studies and spend some time outside and with nature.

For those who are travelling please be safe, and for many of our MCC community who are involved in the 2025 Griffith Shaheedi Games I wish you a wonderful event and hopefully perfect winter weather.

Sue Hone

Student Wellbeing Support Worker

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