Pastoral Care and Wellbeing
Mental Health in the Spotlight
World Mental Health Day falls on the 10 October each year. NSW and many other states around Australia celebrate Mental Health Month during October. To coincide with this there are a number of activities on offer, many of which Mater Dei Catholic College will be involved with.
Riverina Bluebell present ‘Tough and Up’
On Thursday of this week our twelve Year 10 Mental Health Ambassadors attended this amusing, poignant and creative talk delivered by Matthew Johnstone. Matthew works closely with the Black Dog Institute as an author/illustrator and is an outstanding presenter. Matthew’s presentation includes the following:
What is resilience? How do we build it?
Resilience is only really forged when we deal with issues that challenge us, mentally emotionally and physically. These can be both good and bad events in life. What can be learnt from these experiences? How do we do we turn a negative into something positive and meaningful and grow from it? How can we develop skills to help us to maintain resilience, an inner toughness and a better sense of wellbeing?
The presentation is on offer to parents and the wider community tonight and is a free event. Details are as follows:
Batyr Presentation – Years 9 and 10 Students
After the overwhelmingly positive response from students after last year's presentation, we look forward to welcoming back the Batyr organisation to present to Year 9 and 10 students next Wednesday morning.
Batyr@School offer a unique form of education that hopes to see a happier, healthier generation of young people by removing the stigma around mental health and social issues by engaging, educating and empowering young people to get help.
Batyr Speakers share their personal stories of difficult times, educating students about the first hand benefits of reaching out, the avenues which are available to them and how best to help themselves or someone else facing similar situations.
With the 5 steps; Look Out, Get Talking, Listen Up, Reach Out and Taking Charge as the foundation of their talks, Batyr educate young people about the existing organisations which provide help such as Kids Helpline, Youth BeyondBlue and BiteBack (Blackdog Institute). Batyr also promotes the internal school processes of point-of-support available to the students.
Batyr Speakers are all young people (under 30 years) with success stories to share. By having a relatable, young person openly discuss their own struggles, they aim to empower students to get help themselves, knowing that they are not alone. We look forward to listening to how students respond to these engaging speakers next week.
Mr Joe Williams Advocates for Mental Health
Many of you may be aware of the positive and much documented work our Aboriginal Education Worker, Mr Joe Williams, does with Mental Health around the countryside.
Last Wednesday Joe travelled to Sydney to be filmed as part of Mental Health week for the ABC show Lateline.
Please view the link below to view the 5-minute story, which aired last Friday evening:
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2015/s4329035.htm
Supporting Year 12 Students during the HSC Exams
This week Year 12 students sat their first HSC Exams. There is no doubt that this is often a stressful time for both students and their families.
This week reachout.com launched ‘There’s Life After Year 12 Exams’, a national campaign raising awareness of the wellbeing of students sitting their final year exams, helping them with information and tips on dealing with stress and anxiety, and sharing stories from those who've been there before.
You can find valuable information, tips and resources to help your child manage stress and anxiety during exam time through viewing the link below:
http://thereslifeafter.reachout.com/3/
Other tools from reachout.com include:
· Fact sheets like "5 study habits that are good for the body" or "Beating exam stress"
· E-mental health tools (like ReachOut Breathe and ReachOut WorryTime) that can help them manage stress and anxiety.
Ms Emily Paul
Assistant to the Principal - Students