Peer Support

Peer Support Program Training Day 

A handful of students from Year 8 and 10 were selected to be part of St James Peer Support Program. This program was designed to teach students valuable leadership skills and to help Year 7s with their often difficult transition to Secondary school. Today we were taught how to design, organise and run our own sessions.  

In the morning, we were given an introduction to how the program would be run. Then each Year 10 was randomly partnered with a Year 8 to work with for the duration of the program. After being paired, we were taught a few icebreakers. This got everyone active and it was a great way to not only teach us the games but to feel more comfortable with the rest of the team. Later in the day, we discussed the different aspects of leadership that we are going to strive to use throughout our sessions. We watched videos, drew from real-life experiences and learned from the program’s history to grow our understanding of what it really means to be a leader. In groups, we brainstormed the various ways the Year 7s transition will be made easier. From this, we could then form our session planners. This taught us how to efficiently utilize our time with Year 7s.  

Today was an incredible experience and I hope the Year 7s transition will now be easy! 

Fred 

Year 8