Pastoral Care and Wellbeing
Peer Support
This week students who nominated to be Peer Support Leaders in 2017 undertook Peer Support Training facilitated by our 2016 Peer Support Leaders and Mr Steve McCormack.
This year we invited students in year 9 and 10 to nominate for this leadership opportunity. The students were exposed to a variety of activities utilised in the new program ‘Strengthening our Connections – anti-bullying.’ This program has been developed to empower young people to take responsibility for their relationships and interactions. It adopts a strengths based approach to reducing harmful behaviours and increasing strategies to strengthen and repair relationships.
House Leaders will now slected the final group of Peer Support Leaders for 2017 who will go to lead the program with our new Year 7 students. The Peer Support program is an integral part of our overall Year 7 Transition Program to ensure our new students have a strong foundation to set them up for success as they begin their journey at Mater Dei.
CSU Student Leadership Conference – Year 10 Students
On Friday 2nd December, Charles Sturt University (CSU) in conjunction with Halogen Australia, HOSTED the National Young Leaders Day Leadership Master Class. Year 10 Students Grace McLachlan, Tom McLachlan, Anna Ryan, Bridget Griffin, Lara Plum and Tahlia Ryan were fortunate to be selected to attend this event aimed at educating and nurturing student leadership skills through a day of inspirational guest speakers and interactive workshops which helped develop leadership potential. Some of these students have shared their insights below.
The morning started off with everyone together listening to the Vice Chancellor, Andrew Vann who was talking to us about his journey and the role of leadership that plays within his day to day life. He showed us a quote that he has lived by a lot of his life “You should have a cool head a warm heart and clean hands”, this means that having an open mind is always an important part to being a good leader, he also showed us different examples of how people misuse power and their role in leadership. (Bridget Griffin – Year 10)
The next part of the day involved us being split into workshops centred around leadership and positive impacts within the community. Tom, Bridget and I attended the “Key Skills and Qualities of Leaders” where we participated in many communication, cooperation and trust building exercises. I thought one of the main highlights from this workshop was learning that effective leaders should:
- Give context
- Set goals
- Give feedback
- Explain clearly, making intentions clear
- Be less ambiguous
One thing I will not forget from the conference was when Vice Chancellor Vann told us that everyone is a leader, as their actions impact all people around them, but it is just whether you decide to make your impacts positive which determines if you are a good leader.
(Anna Ryan – Year 10)
The CSU young Leaders conference that we attended was a great experience in which we participated in a couple different seminars and workshops to enhance our leadership capabilities. The speakers were very inspiring, genuine and determined young people who encouraged us to persist at becoming a good leader. We learnt many key parts of leadership such as skills, leadership types and characteristics of a good leader. A stand out for me was listening to one of the first responding officers to the Lindt Cafe siege and his experience of leadership. (Tom McLachlan – Year 10)
Final Message
It has been a huge year in the area of Pastoral Care and Wellbeing. I feel very privileged to be leading this area and fortunate to have the support of a strong team who on a daily basis strive to ensure that all students are cared for, nurtured and have the opportunity to flourish.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Virgina Baggio (Carroll House), Mr Peter Simpson (Kennedy House), Mrs Ruth Fraser (Rosarie House), Mr Steve McCormack (Sherrin House) and Mrs Amelia Bright (Webber House) for their hard work, passion and determination in meeting the needs of all students throughout the year.
Thank you to all families for your ongoing support and contribution to the Mater Dei Community.
Wishing you all a safe, happy and blessed Christmas.
Ms Emily Paul
Assistant to the Principal – Students