Peer Support

As our first semester comes to an end, sadly so does our Peer Support Program. This semester, the Year 10's have done a fantastic job welcoming the Year 7's to the College and helping them transition into high school. They have accomplished this through their weekly visits, during which they ran the activities they had planned and organised. It has been an absolute pleasure to witness the development of their leadership skills throughout this process, including their confidence, flexibility, collaboration and resilience. Although the class has concluded, these Year 10's will remain a friendly face in the yard and serve as role models for our younger students.   I want to extend my congratulations to each of the Peer Support leaders this year for their tremendous efforts and positive attitudes. I am excited to observe their ongoing growth as leaders during their time at the college!

Sophie Dunn-Famularo – Peer Support Teacher

Peer Support is a Year 10 subject where, once a fortnight, we take a Year 7 class during their SELF time and run activities organised by the Year 10 students. These activities range from team-building exercises to fun games aimed at brightening the day for the Year 7 students.  We also organised a trip to Phillip Island while the Year 7's were on camp, where we spent three hours conducting activities with them on the beach.    You build many skills as a Peer Support leader, including resilience, confidence and responsibility. This class not only benefits the Year 10 students but also allows the Year 7 students to become comfortable at school, get to know each other and sets them up for the rest of the year.     Something valuable from this experience is all the skills we learnt when handling different situations, as you don’t know what’s going to hit you in life, but you need to find different ways to handle it and get around it.  I am proud of how well our group did especially at the start of the year and how well we handled everything even under pressure.    One of the highlights of Peer Support for me was going to Phillip Island and organising beach activities for the Year 7's. These activities included the Spartan challenge, treasure hunts and relays.     I will miss my Year 7 class as they were all fun and contributed to making the experience enjoyable for us as well.

Jake 10E

Peer Support has helped me to develop my communication skills, to be more responsible when it comes to planning activities and to be more organised. Some things I will miss are the memorable activities, creating a lot of memories with the Year 7's and not seeing their amazing smiles when we enter their classroom.   My biggest highlight was when we told them that it was our last Peer Support with them and everyone was so upset because they didn’t want it to be over!   I will never forget all the memorable moments I had just laughing and having a great time with them all. I mostly loved creating such an amazing bond with each of the students.   

Carmel 10E

The highlight of my time in Peer Support was definitely the Year 7 Camp where we all got to go down to the beach and run our activities for the afternoon. My group played volleyball and by the end everyone was involved, even the teachers!  The challenge in Peer Support was getting used to running the sessions by ourselves and coming up with fun ideas for every session. Something that I will miss is spending time with the Year 7's and getting to know them while doing different activities. Something valuable I've learned is teamwork and being able to communicate effectively in a group. Some proud moments were the first sessions with the Year 7's, covering what they like and enjoy in life. Other memorable moments were seeing them smile, have fun and being themselves. I have gone into every session with curiosity and learned how to be put in challenging situations and come out of them really positively.  Through Peer Support, I believe I have helped the Year 7's to work with new people and develop skills outside of the classroom. 

Ella 10C