M.EG.A.R Week Reflections

During the last week of Term 2, all Year 9 students were involved in M.E.G.A.R Week, which stands for Mindfulness, Empathy, Gratitude, Acceptance and Resilience.  All activities throughout the week were based on these principles.  Thank you to all staff involved in making the week such a great success.  A big thank you to the M.E.G.A.R Week organising team, including Ms Paige Jessulat, Ms Emma Manks, Ms April Ewing and Mr George Jolly.

The community engagement opportunities that nearly half of our Year 9 students were involved in and thoroughly enjoyed, would not have been possible without our brilliant partnership with Impact Volunteering.  We would like to thank Sue Dunn and her team for all their time and effort in helping to coordinate all the experiences.  Our students gained so much from the wonderful opportunities they received during MEGAR Week.

Mrs Sarah Bahramis, Ms Suzanne Caldwell

M.E.G.A.R Week video

Here are some reflections from students' experiences:

MUSIC PERFORMANCE

"The music performance held was a very exciting and fun experience. Spending quality time with friends is helpful to your mental wellbeing as it releases happy hormones.  This event was enjoyable, as it was cleansing to a happy mental mind set. This very talented band performance kept the audience engaged, therefore students were up dancing before they knew it.  Activities like this music performance certainly bring people together, as spending time with positive people makes a person happy. My personal experience was unforgettable as the environment I was in felt exciting and comfortable - students and teachers were dancing and having fun. To conclude, I’d like to thank all the band members that gave us an outstanding performance that I guarantee every student enjoyed, and the teachers and staff that organised this special occasion for the students."  Dana Kent

MICHAEL WEISER PRESENTATION

"During M.E.G.A.R Week we attended a presentation called the Micheal Weiser presentation.  During this presentation Michael Weiser came into the school and told us about his life.  He has been through some major rough patches, but he has come through.  He is extremely inspiring as he told us all how he pulled through his tough times and he showed us all how to create our own happiness.  The main things we took away from this experience are how to create happiness, how to pull through tough times, and how to create and return to a happy place."  Brianna May and Chantelle Helwig

HIGH RESOLVES

"Is it smart to be selfish? When posed with that question you have to think twice; on one hand, getting something for yourself for once could be nice, on the other, if you break a trust barrier through selfish acts it can be very difficult to rebuild.  In this High Resolves session participants were subjected to theories regarding the impact of being selfish and how smart it truly was to break that trust barrier.  A video and activity (which included donuts) helped explain to us that, ultimately, if you share rather than be selfish you'll end up with so much more."  Emma Lewis

SELF-ESTEEM EDUCATION and DEVELOPMENT (SEED)

"SEED workshops took place on Monday 25 June. Separate workshops were undertaken for both males and females which helped us to talk about issues that occur to us.  In the girls group we explored different topics and issues like the pay gap, modern feminism, and some signs of manipulative relationships and how to leave them.  We discovered that we are all going through the same things, and that we can always turn to our peers and talk to them about how we feel. Overall this was definitely a highlight of M.E.G.A.R week and an awesome experience."  Amelie Halfpenny and Zoe Meo

MONASH UNIVERSITY

"On Wednesday 27 June, Frankston High School students from Year 9 adventured to Monash University and Chisholm.  First came a talk about our future when we leave school and what opportunities we have at Monash.  Monash gives you a variety of options from Science, Teaching, Tech, Law, Engineering, Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Business, Art, Design & Architecture to Humanities and Social Sciences. They also toured us around the campus and showed the buildings for certain subjects.  After a while of looking through the area, we left the campus and went to Chisholm."  Josh Lean

"The excursion to Monash University really gave me an insight to my future, what course or courses I would like to consider and how to go about starting those courses with Monash.  The campus we visited in Clayton showed us the environment we would be studying in if we were to take a course at the campus.  Overall, I believe this excursion was a great activity to put in M.E.G.A.R week."  Cadyn Howden

HEALTHY AND FITNESS

"During M.E.G.A.R Week, a group of guys and girls from over at Virtus Human Performance came to talk to us about their line of work, then did some exercise with us.  Virtus Performance taught us about the different forms of health trainers, including doctors, physical trainers and the likes. They help people to improve their physical fitness, kind of like a gym that has personal trainers and goals.  They explained the difference between what they do versus what doctors do, which helps you recover from illness or injury. They then explained how they start with clients, by stretching, and helped us through a series of stretches to help start a workout.  I learnt that some people are more flexible than I thought they were, and I'm not as flexible as I thought I was."  Jackson King

LIVING CULTURES

"We were privileged enough to have an Aboriginal man who has lived through and personally experienced some of Australia’s biggest cultural changes.  He told us about his life going from home to home and how he and his mother suffered abuse and racism.  He gave us an insight to the harsh reality of the Stolen Generation.  He uses his own experience to help and educate other aboriginal children.  He gave us a look into his culture, telling us about plants that are used for medicine and bush tucker, as well as the special connection that they share with the land.  To add to that, he showed us vibration energy that he says can help with healing and mindfulness; he did this by playing the didgeridoo.  When he did this we felt as though we were connected. Overall, this was an amazing experience that taught us not only about the history of our land but about the spiritual and direct connection aboriginal people have to this country."  Maegan Loader and Bella Bailey

ECO TEAM

"During M.E.G.A.R week the ECO team had the amazing opportunity to run an environmental session with some of the Year 9 students.  It was a great way for the ECO team to educate the students and get more involved within the school.  The ECO team students took the initiative to fully create the lesson plan, activities and run the session with little help from the teachers. I think it is safe to say that it was a very successful session with students undertaking several activities to fully understand where their rubbish ends up and the issues we are facing with plastic pollution.  It is important that young people understand the impact they are having on our planet and how they can improve their ways to help save it.  Overall, it was a very fun session with students coming away with a new perspective about how they impact on the environment and with new skills on how to save it."