With the start of the Winter Sports season, the hive of activity at St Edmund’s always amps up. Boys get excited about their training and games, and the rivalry between codes, teams and who are the better NRL players always makes for interesting banter around the corridors and playground (sometimes even the staffroom).
It’s also an interesting time of year when we start to see a different side to the resilience of our students. It has been a tough start for some of our teams, getting beaten each week and how they manage handling this. Injuries for a number of our boys comes into play and for some, their season ends before it even starts. It has become evident, that assisting our young people to build an inner sense of resilience is an ongoing need, and all the adults in their lives have a role to play in helping them develop this resilience.
Resilience has been one of the topics we have covered this term in the College’s Formation program for some of our Year groups. This week, Year 7 will be focusing on one of Dr Seuss’ all-time great stories – ‘Oh The Places You’ll Go’. It’s a great story with a message of resilience and overcoming obstacles and is worth having on the family bookshelf.
The College Formation program occurs every week for one period and has a Year group focus. This term we have had many guest speakers come to the College and run a wide variety of programs that target various aspects of social and emotional development. Below is an overview of some of the programs that were run at the College this term:
Mental Illness Education ACT (MIEACT) visited and delivered their No Labels: bullying presentation program to Years 7 and 8. This program takes and three-pronged approach that identifies behaviours that drive bullying, develops skills that empower people to manage bullying behaviours, support others and practise positive help-seeking.
Menslink have been an integral part of the Formation program at Eddies and once again this term they came and spoke to Years 7, 8, 10 and 11 around topics that focus on mental health and seeking support. Their focus on young men is particularly important at the College. The Year 8 cohort participated in the first two workshops of the Pride program. These workshops focused on values, positive relationships, self-awareness and positive coping skills. In Semester 2, the second half of this program focuses on anger management, communication skills, risk management, body image, digital footprint and bullying. All of these topics are highly relevant for our teenage boys.
The Canberra/Goulburn Archdiocese also came in to run their Healthy Relationships program for Years 9 and 10. Presenters from the Archdiocesan Healthy Relationships Team worked with students around the positive place sexuality has in building a meaningful future, positive relationships, impacts of pornography and developing a positive decision-making framework. Emphasis was given to the importance of students thinking ahead about romantic relationships and being prepared to make positive decisions in view of their own life goals and personal values.
Year 11 participated in the Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y) workshop, where they heard about the impacts of risk-taking behaviours on young people and ways they can avoid trauma and injury associated with risky behaviours.
Mr Masters did a lot of work with Year 10 this term in Pathways planning and preparing Year 10 students for their senior school. This culminated in an exceptional Careers Expo and information evening on Tuesday the 6th June.
Throughout the term, many of the Year groups also participated in a Year group Mass as well as a lesson on spirituality. These moments help to develop the spiritual side of our young men and allow an opportunity for them to connect with God and take time out from their everyday schedule.
Finally, the senior cohorts ran the Buddy program with the Junior School to help develop positive relationships throughout the year groups. The Junior School enjoy working with the seniors and it is a good opportunity for the seniors to exercise acts of service, develop patience and put into practice leadership skills.
Throughout all these programs, workshops and everyday lessons, we constantly encourage our students to think about the values they find important in being a good person, what personal attributes they need to develop to become a better version of themselves, what skills they need to practice wellbeing and a positive mindset and how they can put these into practice in their everyday actions. One specific lesson a week doesn’t feel like enough, but it gets a conversation going and hopefully each individual can take something away from each lesson and talk about what they hear at home.
“When we learn how to become resilient, we learn how to embrace the beautifully broad spectrum of the human experience.”
― Jaeda Dewalt
Monica Day-
Assistant Principal Student Wellbeing