Wellbeing - Middle School

What does it mean to be a man?

Leading on from the guest speaker that engaged Year 11 last week (as written in the Especean), in our Years 7 and 8 Pastoral Care lessons (PCL’s) this past Friday, we explored positive masculinity. Promoting positive masculinity creates a safe space for men and boys to reflect on what it means to be a man and encourages them to redefine masculinity to be more emotionally expressive, inclusive, empathetic, and compassionate. There is much we can do and continue to strive for in this regard.

As such, we challenge our young men - what are you moving towards, and how do you want to contribute?” At a time of so much global transformation and issues surfacing throughout the media around gender and social roles, we need to continue to educate our young men and that was a distinct focus this past Friday. Involving you as families, we also need to create safe spaces for boys to come together to talk, without judgement about the challenges they face, the anxieties they have and to talk about the positive male identity.

Here are some reflections from our students from Pastoral Care Lesson:

In PCL we have been learning about masculinity and how to treat women as we grow up to be gentlemen. Furthermore, we spoke about how you are not expected to be physically big and strong, but we are expected to be kind young men. 

Nosh Boumelhem - Year 7

This week in PCL we learnt about Masculinity and Resilience. We learnt that masculinity is a set of attributes, behaviours, and roles associated with men and boys looking deeply into the stereotypical idea of being strong. Resilience is the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties. 

Oliver Sproule Year - 7

By equipping our young men with the tools and knowledge to cultivate positive masculinity in and within our College community, they will have the freedom to show emotion, seek help when needed, and enjoy fruitful, loving, and peaceful relationships with their teachers, peers and family.  

The message around accountability was reinforced at assembly last week again. Accountability fosters responsibility, prepares our young men for the real world, enhances their relationships with teachers and is a lifelong skill. I left them with a powerful statement of our faith:

 Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards good deed and love”. 

Hebrews 10:24.

Alexandros Sinadinos

Director of Middle School