Foodbank is Australia’s largest food relief organisation, operating on a scale that makes it crucial to the work of the front-line charities who are feeding vulnerable Australians. Foodbank provides more than 70% of the food rescued for food relief organisations nation-wide.

https://www.foodbank.org.au/?state=vic

Epping Secondary College has a long-standing relationship with Foodbank. We use this service to assist many families and students daily.

So far this year Foodbank have provided Epping Secondary students and families with the following:

Loaves of bread: 72 Apples: 420kg Oranges: 273kg

Pears: 52kg 200ml milk: 984 cartons Fruit cups: 720 cups

1lt milk: 36 Home packs: 2 Tuna and rice: 120

Tomato & vegie rice: 24 Bites Burger chips: 18 Soup: 48

Carrot bags: 18

Foodbank provides food relief to more than a million people each month. We are the pantry to Australia’s charity sector, providing food and groceries to 2,950 frontline charities.

We know one in three people are struggling to get enough food for their household.

There is no shame in asking for help. Life happens to us all and Foodbank are here for everyone.

Please contact Foodbank if you require assistance for your family or if you would like to find out about the type of assistance that Foodbank can offer:

https://www.foodbank.org.au/homepage/who-we-help/individuals/?state=vic

Support Foodbank:

Foodbank couldn’t exist without our huge family of supporters, donors and volunteers. Find out below how you can get involved or how to make a donation to Foodbank

https://www.foodbank.org.au/support-us/?state=vic

Suzanne Pollard

Leading Teacher for Student Wellbeing

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YEAR 8 THE BIG SISTER & THE MAN CAVE (INCURSION):

On Friday 2nd June, the year 8 cohort experienced two different incursions: The Big Sister Experience & The Man Cave.

The Big Sister Experience:

The Complete Big Sister Experience is an ongoing experience for girls and gender diverse students that begins with building on the foundations of exploring self, followed by exploring connections to others and finishes with exploring health.

The students participated in the Session 1 - Exploring Self program that investigates the following programs:

- Self-Love & Self Care

- Social Media

- Mental Health & Anxiety

- Body Image

- Supporting The Sisterhood

The Big Sister Experience explored and dug deep into real-life issues and assisted the students in developing skills to handle them. The program provided students with a safe and open conversation space, strategies to seek help & information and support students with any challenges they are facing.

The Man Cave:

The Man Cave are a preventative mental health and emotional intelligence charity that empowers boys to become great men. They provide a place to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities of masculinity, and they welcome young people of all gender identities and sexual orientations. They are committed to inclusion and acknowledge that we too are on a journey of continuing to understand how to navigate and empower men and young people to healthily express their identity.

The purpose of their programs is to fill this gap. 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 he can become a healthy young man. This is how were redefining the journey to manhood.

The male students of the Year 8 cohort participated in Workshop 1 Realising my Potential.

Boys created their own unique version of healthy masculinity by understanding how gender norms have shaped their perspectives to this point, before being given the choice to grow beyond that. Exploration of personal identity, their unique strengths, how to care for themselves and what their values are, all add up to them understanding how they can reach their full potential. In the full-day workshop, boys will:

- Learn how gender stereotypes impact their attitudes and behaviour

- Meet our diverse male and non-binary facilitators

- Learn to constructively express their thoughts and feelings

- Connect to their values and strengths

- Leave with tools and resources to support their personal wellbeing

- Define values-based vision for the man they want to become

Overall, the programs were a huge success where all students participated and allowed themselves to express themselves in a healthy and safe space.

We look forward to running these programs with future year levels and continuing the year 8’s journey into year 9.

Bianca Walker

Year 8 Leading Teacher

&

Leanne Halsall

Year 7-8 Wellbeing Coordinator

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Last Friday, 2nd June, the year 8 boys took part in a program called ‘Man Cave’. It ran the whole day and I was fortunate to witness two facilitators in action for one of the sessions with about 30 boys.

Through activities and discussions, the boys were provided with skills to become self-aware of their emotions; how their emotions impacted others around them; how to self ‘check in’ emotionally with their male friends and also support their friends when they ‘checked in’ emotionally. I witnessed 13-14 year old boys talk openly about their personal issues (some becoming emotional in the process) and how these issues made them feel and how it was affecting them.

I saw the session empower these boys and a few of them admitted that they had never done this before and never knew how to. The year 8 boys responded encouragingly well and the facilitators made the room and environment a safe place to talk openly without judgement or judging others.

Ms Zorzan

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On 1st June 2023 Brainstorm Productions presented their student wellbeing performance ‘Wired' for Years 7 & 8. The performance followed the journey of two students who were struggling to manage their mental health, relationships and online experiences. When their worlds collided, students helped them find a different path.

Wired was an interactive theatre experience that tackled some of the big issues affecting

Australian students, including social isolation, anxiety, stress, depression, (cyber)bullying, online safety, school stressors and pressure from social media. It addressed barriers to help-seeking and provides strategies for resilience, problem-solving, goal-setting and positive mental health.

‘Wired' is part of our student wellbeing curriculum and has been developed by education and mental health professionals. This engaging live show used humour, audience participation, relatable characters and real student experiences to spark conversations and facilitate further learning in the classroom.

Leanne Halsall

Student Wellbeing

Whittlesea Tech School

Year 9