Wellbeing
ILLY (I like, like you)
In term two all Year 10 students will be involved in the ILLY (I like, like you) program.
The ILLY program, which has a mental health promotion and violence prevention emphasis, integrates contemporary and evidence-based knowledge about healthy minds and healthy relationships. It is delivered in four double periods by Relationships Australia, Victoria (RAV)
ILLY aims to:
- Promote the connection between healthy relationships and emotional health and wellbeing.
- Provide students with an opportunity to consider the kinds of relationships they want to experience in their future.
- Provide practical skills for maintaining good mental health and healthy relationships
- Promote attitudes and behaviours demonstrated by equitable and respectful relationships.
The program has four main themes: knowledge, skills, attitudes and integration.
Students are introduced to knowledge and practical skills and then actively encouraged to think about where they stand (or where they wish to stand) in relation to this knowledge, by reflecting on their own experiences and influences around them.
The program helps students to focus on how we experience ourselves and our relationships, what our bodies can reveal about our emotions, how our thoughts can influence our actions, and how ideas and beliefs can influence our identity. By learning how to have a better relationship with ourselves, we can learn how to have a better relationship with people who are close to us.
Topics explored in the program
- What is intimacy
- What a safe and healthy relationship looks like
- How to identify when a relationship is not safe for you
- Attitudes that support and harm relationships
- Practical ways to maintain good mental health
- How to manage the negatives and repair after conflict
- Technology safety and relationships
- How to help yourself after a breakup
- How to help a friend who is in an unsafe relationship.
In term 3, all Year 9 students at McGuire College will complete the ILLY program. If you have any questions or concerns about ILLY, please don’t hesitate to contact me at school.
Mentoring and Engagement
In an article in the Melbourne Age recently, Dr. Kelly-Ann Allen, an educational and developmental psychologist at Monash University, argues that there is a ‘…global trend signalling a decline in a sense of school belonging for secondary school students’ and that ‘…feeling a sense of belonging to school is central to short and long-term outcomes related to psychological and physical health’.
In 2019 students at McGuire College will have the opportunity to be involved in mentoring and engagement programs which aim to develop greater student connectedness, increase student engagement levels, provide students with educational experiences out of the norm and develop positive relationships between students and teachers.
At the moment over 60 students have taken the opportunity to be involved in eleven activities in small groups (no more than six students). These activities include: pottery, soccer skills, weight training, tournament of minds, aerobics, mindfulness, mural painting, my kitchen rules, healthy cooking on a budget and leadership.
Mentors are encouraged to form a close relationship with their students and be an advocate for them.
If you have any questions or concerns about the mentoring and engagement program, please don’t hesitate to contact me at school.
Vince Branigan
Wellbeing
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