Student 

Leadership 

Group

Community Engagement Project

On Monday 18th October, Amira Dika, one of our Year 9 Student Leaders delivered approximately 260 letters to the Village Glen Retirement Home in Rosebud.

As part of the R U OK? Day Week in Term 3, Amira came up with the idea for students to write to residents at a local retirement home to let them know someone was thinking of them. Amira contacted the retirement village, collated a list of first names and attended a number of staff meetings to organise this project. Amira worked with myself (Alex Woolley), Nicole Greer and the English Domain to coordinate with some of the junior English classes to write the letters. 

From the feedback received, the residents were thrilled, and the letters were much appreciated. 

We congratulate Amira on the leadership and compassion she has demonstrated through this initiative which highlights the importance of connections within our community. We also thank everyone who helped support Amira on this project. 

R U OK? Day 2021 

During Term 3, R U OK Day on 9th September 2021 was recognised by the Dromana College Student Leadership Team via a number of week long activities. The Student Leadership Team worked collaboratively to create a range of activities such as mindfulness art online sessions, photography, recipe sharing and a podcast discussing the importance of mental health. All of this vital work was completed online during Lockdown 6 and made the collaboration between students significantly challenging. Despite these barriers, our Student Leaders yet again stood up and performed impressively through their inspiring dedication to help others. 

During this process the Student Leaders were also supported by former students Kayla Wilson (Year of 2018) and Tyler Leach (Year of 2020) who kindly gave up their time to be interviewed about the importance of R U OK? Day. The Student Leaders also organised a guest appearance with Claire Goodall, National Education Manager, from the R U OK? Day organisation who spoke with them regarding the importance of the day. Equally, the Student Leadership Team would like to thank Kristie Oates and Daryl McKinlay in the Wellbeing Team and Christian O’Toole, Jacqui Rodden and Jessica Andrews for their support of the students and creation of resources. 

Finally, as a gesture of appreciation for the hard work of the Dromana College staff during 2021, the Student Leaders put together a video that was distributed to all staff members. Overall, the message of mental health awareness that goes beyond one day a year, was successfully achieved by the Dromana College Student Leaders. As the Student Leadership Coordinator, I was immensely proud of the students and their efforts. 

Alex Woolley

Student Leadership and Community Engagement Coordinator