Wellbeing

Student Led initiatives

Our 2024 student leadership group lead by our College Captains and Vice Captains continues to celebrate the achievements of our students, and to introduce new initiatives through our student led assemblies. In our last student led assembly, the following initiatives were presented. 

Captains and Vice Captains initiative 

Together with Mr Abbey, our College Captains and Vice Captains are encouraging more active participation in our Liturgies. They taught our students some actions to the song “God will Reign”. Our student body participated with enthusiasm at the assembly and then had the chance to actively participate again at our Easter liturgy. This is something that they will continue to encourage at all future liturgies.

Academia

First ever rubiks cube competition

The competition was held in Week 10 during Break 2 in the library.  

A range of students participated in the fun. 

Winners:

1st place - 20 seconds - Noah G, Year 8

2nd place - 24 seconds - Rylan B, Year 9

3rd place - 42 seconds - Sam S, Year 7

Writing competition

Chev will be participating in the “What Matters?” Writing Competition! 

Students are invited to respond to the question 'What matters?' and express their views on any matter they care deeply about. It's an opportunity to empower young writers to share their perspectives, knowing that their voices are valued, regardless of their age. 

Entries can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry or prose of up to 600 words, so there are plenty of options for you depending on your interest and style of writing. 

Return of the SILC study Competition

This is a team competition which involves collecting study points by going to pi shop or SILC. 

For this competition:

• There are teams of 4-6 students.
• Hours are logged outside school times, so study periods won’t count towards this. 
• You can go to morning or afternoon SILC or pi shop.
• Hours will be recorded in the passport which is also stamped by a teacher. 
• 30 mins will be half a point. 
• If all members are present points will be doubled. 

This will start early next term, so make sure you get plenty of practice before hand.  

Sports Captains

Leaders v students games

A new initiative for the end of this term, the ‘Students vs Students Winter Sports Competition’.

The first games were held this week and last week and have been a  great success. 

Student care

On Monday 4 March, four leaders had an opportunity to attend a Wellbeing seminar at the Bowral Memorial Hall. This was conducted by Dr. Kristy Goodwin and focussed on the importance of managing the time spent on screens. During the seminar, Dr. Goodwin explained a range of strategies to help students navigate the online world and help support our wellbeing - but all without proposing ‘digital amputation’, such as banning the phone or gaming.  

With the increasing use of digital devices, there’s very little doubt that technology plays a fundamental role in our lives. But are we in control of technology, or is technology controlling us? Research tells us that the average person can spend just 6 minutes on their focussed work before a digital distraction such as an alert or notification diverts their attention. Even the smallest distractions can decrease our productivity, and it takes us almost 24 minutes to get back on track to a focussed state.  

Our digital habits and behaviours can have a profound impact on our physical and mental wellbeing. Digital habits, such as enabling the alerts of distracting social media notifications, instantly reduces our productivity, and late night scrolling on the socials compromises our sleep schedules more than we realise. It is important that we become aware of how much time we spend online as well as how we are using devices. 

Giles

Do it for Dolly Day

Dolly’s Dream was created by Kate and Tick Everett following the shattering loss of their 14 year-old daughter Dolly to suicide, after ongoing bullying. Kate and Tick’s goal is to prevent other families walking this road. They want to change the culture of bullying by addressing the impact of bullying, anxiety, depression and youth suicide, through education and direct support to young people and families. 

Do It For Dolly Day is a day where local communities across Australia come together to remember Dolly and raise awareness. 1 in 5 students report being bullied in the school year. No-one should feel like they are alone in this situation, and there are many support options you can access through the school such as talking to friends, going to teachers and school counsellors. 

By raising awareness as a school, we can support the anti-bullying work that Dolly’s Dream promotes and share the message of the foundation – to be kind and speak, even if your voice shakes. It is important that as a school, we foster a safe and supportive environment where students feel comfortable to speak up and get help if being bullied, and to stand up for others when faced with these situations.  

What we are doing as a school: 

• Blue was Dolly’s favourite colour, so students are encouraged to wear a splash of blue on Friday 10 May  
• Leaders will be outside Student Services on the morning handing out blue string bracelets, reminding students of Dolly’s story. 
• During Home Room, affirmation cards will be handed out to write to people in your lives to promote kindness and inclusivity. We encourage you to write them not only to your friends, but also to people who you think may need a bit of encouragement and support who you may not necessarily be close to. 

Sustainability

Our sustainability captians, working closely alongside Chev’s Property Manager and Miss McCoy, have introduced new recycling bins to the College, and have ensured that recycling bins will be correctly collected by an external recycling service and will from now be properly recycled.  Recycling isn't just about tossing items into separate bins; it's about conserving resources and reducing pollution. Posters of recyclable items will be placed near or on the new recycling bins to assist students make the right choices. The sustainability captains will be tracking our recycling volume monthly, compared to our general waste, in the hope that we can reduce how much waste is going to landfill and increase our recycling for better purposes. These updates on our bin collections will be put up on our student-run instagram page @chev_today, as a reminder for each month to continue to improve our sustainability measures.