Year 8 Wellbeing Day

This week our Year 8 students took part in full day workshops facilitated by the Man Cave, Big Sister Experience, Headspace and Department of Education’s Secondary School Nurse Program. The programs looked at the various elements to enhance the social and emotional wellbeing of our students. 

By all accounts, our students enjoyed the programs and small group learning activities provided throughout the day. A student attending the Man Cave program described the workshop as “awesome” while others said the program was “better than we expected – we didn’t know we’d enjoy it so much.”

Throughout the day, the male students were encouraged to dig deep, thinking about a life-defining moment or simply a time where another peer or person had made a positive impact on their life. The students then shared their experiences, which made for an uplifting discussion and demonstrated the power of positive reinforcement. The students spoke about how they had never thought about or said some of these statements out loud, and how such a small act of kindness or positivity can have such a big and lasting impact.

The Man Cave program, held onsite at GSSC, aimed to provide boys with a safe, healthy and contained rite of passage into manhood. The programs are designed to be transformational, and to support the psychological and emotional development of a boy, so they can become a healthy young man.

Offsite at the McIntosh Centre in Shepparton, our female students took part in the Big Sister Experience. These workshops were aimed to provides a holistic approach to students, providing tools to become capable, resilient, and empowered young people of tomorrow.  

Additional workshops from Headspace and the Department of Education Secondary School Nurse Program provided students with tools in regard to, social connections and mindfulness.

From beanbags and mindfulness, to yarning circles, yoga and arts, the workshops were thoroughly enjoyed by the students. Staff attending the event described the Big Sister component of the day as “uplifting” and said the workshops covered key topics for Year 8s and provided a safe space to have open conversation as well as strategies to seek help and information.