Global Youth Forum

Global Youth Forum 

Last week Amelia, Sasha, Maddie, Cheyenne, Felix and Charlie completed their final session of the Global Youth Forum. The students participated in several cool workshops to develop their intercultural awareness, critical and creative thinking skills and develop their leadership skills. They were then required to create a ‘course of action’ relating to one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and present this to an international group of students.

Our students worked collaboratively to create a strategy to reduce litter in our school and community.  They have started to implement the plan and we hope it will continue into next year. 

Their action plan includes:

▪️Advertising to defend against ignorance of the consequences of littering. 

▪️Creating a roster system allocating one area of the school to one homeroom to clean a specific area.

▪️Encouraging students to bring containers instead of single use packaging like plastic sandwich bags using posters and a reward system.

▪️Allocating a school environment captain.

▪️Promoting anti-littering days like ‘Clean up Australia Day’

▪️Reducing the number of single use plastics available in the Canteen.

▪️Providing more biodegradable options.

▪️Promoting composting.

▪️Advertising online for the school & wider community to see the problem that’s happening.

Look out for the posters and promotional material in 2025.

Here is what some of the students said about the program:-

Sasha (Yr. 9) .... I really enjoyed the Global Youth Forum and all the different things I learned from it. My favourite part was meeting all the different people from all over the Asia Pacific region, though sometimes it was a little scary, I liked to listen to what they thought was important and seeing the differences but also some similarities that were unexpected. The GYF helped me step outside my comfort zone and helped me become a bit braver and willing to try new things. It was a great experience and I hope others in the future will enjoy it too.                                                                          

Amelia (Y.r 9) ...  I really enjoyed experiencing the Global Youth Forum. I found the GYF to be a really interesting and surprising experience, the way it was laid out and what we got to do throughout the time we had the GYF. Some of the things we got to do were fun little ice breakers to get to know each other and getting to meet people from other countries was the most interesting. My favourite part was getting to spend time with people and make a presentation. I also enjoyed meeting new people from other countries. What I have learned about myself is that it's quite nerve racking to speak in front of almost 200+ people from around the world, it really put me out of my comfort zone. I would recommend for anyone wanting to experience it!                                    

Cheyenne (Yr. 9) ... I found the Global Youth Forum to be a wonderful experience. Between socialising with my peers and interacting with students from schools in completely different countries, the GYF was an amazing opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and build on my abilities as a young leader. Helping me grow as a person in a fun and enjoyable way. 10/10 would recommend.  

Felix (Yr. 10) ... The youth forum gave us the opportunity to speak with and grow to understand our peers from the region and to listen to their ideas on the future. It was an incredible experience that I was honoured to take part in and would be happy to participate in again in the future. .

We would especially like to thank Ms Devenish who supervised the sessions and presentation.

Angela Molinaro  & Shona Maskelyne