Wellbeing News

This week as a school community we have joined together to take a stand against bullying and acknowledge the significance of “Do it for Dolly Day 2025”. 

Friday May 9 is "Do It for Dolly Day" and it was created as a legacy by the parents of Dolly Everett who was a victim of ongoing bullying and in 2018, aged just 14, she died by suicide. Her parents founded "Dolly's Dream" in her honour. They aimed to start a conversation around bullying, to encourage people to be kind to one another and to educate young people about the supports available to them and positive steps they could undertake. 

The idea of MCC being involved with the campaign was suggested by one of Year 11 Wellbeing Team members, Assunta Marando who has been a driving force and along with her team members has worked with all year groups encouraging them to participate in small activities throughout this week that aim to promote kindness. 

On Friday students were asked to wear a touch of blue with their usual uniform - such as a hair ribbon or a wrist band. And staff were encouraged to wear blue as a small gesture to start a conversation. 

The activities have been rolled out of the last few days and next week the team will create a range of visual displays and photos of these will be included in the next newsletter. 

Not only were activities conducted during homeroom but there were 2 MCC community activities available during the lunch break. 

Students were invited to add their handprint as a symbol of unity that they are saying “Bullying, No Way” and to create friendship bracelets to share with their peers or wear, carrying a message that supports and promotes kindness. 

Both activities were well supported and the feedback from students was extremely positive. 

The Wellbeing Team will continue to look for initiatives that challenge our way of thinking and start conversations so that as a community we can reduce the impact of bullying and promote inclusion, wellbeing and a sense of belonging for our entire MCC community. 

Preparations are well underway for the team to commence their Push Up Challenge and they are looking forward to the opportunity for a bit of friendly rivalry between year 11 homerooms to see if, as a group, they can reach the identified goal 3,214 push ups which sadly represents death by suicide in Australia in the most recent year of available data. 

We are extremely fortunate at MCC to have amazing young people who are prepared to reduce the stigma associated with mental ill- health and start conversations to ensure that everyone is well supported and has the information needed to either access support or support someone in need. This would not be possible without the support of all staff who encourage the students to take action and be the catalyst for change.

Mrs Sue Hone