Heathmont Gazette

Year 9 Health Days

Our amazing Year 9 team have ensured that the social-emotional development of our students has been well supported through a series of "Health Days" Please read below to find out what powerful and incredible sessions our students have experienced:    

Pat Cronin Foundation

Pat, was a gentle natured 19-year-old killed by a Coward Punch in 2016 while helping a mate who was being attacked. The force of that punch fractured his skull, causing an inoperable bleed on his brain which tragically led to his death.

 

.In a thought-provoking interactive presentation, students hear real and relatable stories about social violence, exploring:

  • Anger and aggression
  • Choices and consequences
  • Strategies to defuse conflict

On 18th October, Aidan from the Pat Cronin Foundation, shared Pat’s story to illustrate the worst possible outcome of social violence, and help students make wise choices.

 

Health Day 1

On Wednesday 25th October, we organised external providers to help support our students as part of the Respectful Relationships initiative. The Man Cave was focused on empowering boys with preventive mental health tools and providing them with the opportunity to create their own unique version of healthy masculinity. The sessions were spoken of highly by students and staff alike.

 

 

moxie (noun) 

– definition: courageous spirit and determination

 

Moxie - Year 9 Girls Empowerment Day was a fun and engaging experience focused on the themes of knowing yourself, making your voice heard and having the information you need to make good choices for yourself. The day began with an inspirational guest speaker, Ashleigh Streeter-Jones. Ashleigh is the Founder of 'Raise Our Voice Australia' - a not-for-profit encouraging young people to engage in politics. She was named one of the AFR ‘100 Women of Influence’ and in the Forbes ‘30 Under 30’. She was also ACT ‘Woman of the Year’ in 2018, has worked for Defence Australia and was a delegate to the UN! The remainder of the day involved rotations through 4 different sessions across the remaining periods of the day:

  • 'Respectful Relationships' run by Heathmont College Wellbeing staff
  • 'Belonging and Connectedness' activity run by the Project Lead for the Maroondah Positive Education Network Edwina Ricci
  • 'Let's talk about relationships with eating and exercise' run by The Butterfly Foundation
  • A cooking session where students will make a smoothie and/or healthy wrap run by Heathmont College staff.

Health Day 2

The students also were presented to by our very capable, experienced and dedicated Wellbeing Team. Students got to experience "Love Bites" presented by Amelia, Yvette, Fiona and Mel. "Love Bites" supported the "Respectful Relationships" initiative. Additionally, Heathmont College School Nurse, Phillippa Vander Linden and external nurse presenter talked to the students about Sexual Health.

 

In the last session of the day, we invited "Elephant Ed" to talk about the elephant in the room....sexual consent

 

Consent Education

Consent Education’ presented by Elephant Ed.  Elephant Ed send young, relatable and highly trained facilitators to deliver fun and engaging sex education workshops. Their evidence-based, age-appropriate workshops are tried and tested across all relevant age groups and are mapped to State and National curriculum guidelines. Every year, they empower tens of thousands of young people to make informed, positive and safe decisions about sexuality, relationships and growing up.

 

 

A huge thank you to all staff involved and another big thanks to all our students for showing such maturity. The biggest thanks must go to the Wellbeing team and our Year 9 Coordinators, Marijke Graham and Tim McClare for making it all happen!

 

Shane Hunt

Community Relationships & Connectedness 

 

Student Perspective

On the 25th of October, the year 9 students had a health day. We were separated into our genders and there was the option if you identified with a different gender to go into the one you’d prefer. 

 

Girls one:

The female one had a few different things, we had two AFLW Hawthorn players come in, they were Tilly Lucas-Rodd and Aileen Gilroy. They told us about what it is like to play AFL as women in this society, and it was pretty cool to hear it from them. We also had a belonging and connectedness activity run by Edwina Ricci, values and affirmations with the wellbeing team, where we made bracelets with our main values on, a cooking session where we had the option to make a healthy wrap, which was run by a few of our staff members and Lets talk about relationships with eating and exercise, run by the butterfly foundation.

 

Boys one: 

In the boys one, they were split into two groups with 3 Mancave leaders each group. They talked about issues of anxiety and depression in men and more personal issues and gave statistics about deaths related to male suicide and other things like that. The leaders talked about their personal issues and it was a relief to the students to hear issues that they share with other boys their age and men who are older than them. The leaders let them play games in between the serious things they talked about so there was a bit of a break from the serious things they talked about. 

 

Lillian Davis

Year 9