Middle Years

Setting yourself up for a great year

Welcome to 2023.

It has been nice to have the Middle Years Positive Education Centre busy with students again. Last week, the Year 7s High Ropes Day, although cold, was a success and they enjoyed working together to challenge themselves. The Year 8s Surfing day at Port Fairy allowed them to work together in Houses and small groups. This will be an ongoing theme for the Year 8s this year. Grampians Retreat offered a fantastic start to the Year 9 Micah program, with the students getting into the head space of understanding other people in the broader community. A busy and exciting year awaits the Middle Years students!

Andrew Fuller, a clinical psychologist, therapist, author and speaker, outlines that for students to set themselves up for a great year he advises them to:

Make friends with everyone they know – this reduces stress levels and ensures many positive relationships throughout the year.
Acknowledge your inner genius - you are much, much smarter than you know. Practice doing your best in life and you will succeed far more often.
Know that geniuses make mistakes – learning often involves making a mistake and then figuring out what went wrong.
Prepare yourself for learning - thinking positively isn't enough, you have to focus and do things differently and find ways to reduce distractions, at least while studying.
Get enough sleep - sleep helps you to manage stress, be happy and also increases your marks. You need at least 8 hours and sometimes as much as 9 and a quarter hours a night.
Eat breakfast - protein helps to feed your brain. A lack of protein can actually cause headaches, concentration problems and low energy.
Do the most important things first - write a to-do list each week.
Use your time well – being focussed and listening well while at school you can save yourself endless hours of homework.
From little things big things grow - do a little bit, often. Succeeding at school can be easy if you do a little bit each day.
Be curious - look out for and learn things that you find fun and interesting.
Be active - exercise makes a massive difference to your stress levels, happiness and sleeping.
Decide to be happy – and do something about it. Have a look at the things in your life you can feel lucky that you have. Appreciate the people who like you and love you. Make the most of the moment and seize the day. Help and encourage other people. Be a really good friend. Laugh and have fun.

I hope all of the Middle Years students can use some of Andrew’s advice…. and have a great year!

Middle Years key dates for Term 1 can be found here.

Ben Hawthorne

Head of Middle Years