I take this opportunity to welcome all students back to the College for Term 4; I trust that boys and their families enjoyed a restful break, even though the time went by rapidly. As always it will be a busy Term as we head towards the end of another school year. Students are encouraged to ensure that they have a clear understanding of what significant College events are coming up and how they are involved. It is important that students are actively present at tutor group each day to ensure they receive all necessary information for the events of the term.
We begin Term 4 with the launch of the College Movember Campaign. During Weeks 1 to 5, in the lead-up to November, there will be a series of events and activities for students to get involved with, regarding awareness of and active promotion of Men’s health. The reason we are running Movember during October is due to the Year 12 ‘Rites of Passage’ week occurring in Week 5. Mr Zavone has asked that students be free from Moustaches’s for official College photos during this week.
The Movember idea was initiated by two friends in the suburbs of Melbourne in 2003. The campaign was started to address Men’s health and the fact that on average men die 5 years younger than women, with many of the causes being preventable. The two main focus areas of the campaign are Mental Health and Suicide Prevention as well as addressing Prostate and testicular cancer. “A growing number of men – around 10.8M globally – are facing life with a prostate cancer diagnosis. Globally, testicular cancer is the most common cancer among young men. And across the world, one man dies by suicide every minute of every day, with males accounting for 69% of all suicides”.
During the first four weeks of term, Year 11 and 12 students only, are invited to grow Mo’s in support of this cause. The ‘Grow a Mo’ campaign is part of our fundraising for the term and will take part in two sections. Students who wish to grow a Mo will firstly donate $20 to the College Vinnies appeal (our main fundraiser for Term 4), secondly, students are asked to register with the official Movember Campaign online and seek individual contributions from friends and family. A link will be provided to students who register. Only students who have registered are permitted Moustaches at school and to indicate who has registered, students will receive a badge to wear.
In conjunction with this campaign, two competitions will be running to see who grows the best Moustache and who can raise the most money through their Movember promotion. We encourage all male family members to get involved by growing Mo’s and for those of us who can’t, there are other ways to become involved. Please visit https://us.movember.com/get-involved/moustaches to register your support for Movember. We would love any dads, granddads, uncles or brothers who get involved to please send in photos to promote here at the College.
During the term, there will also be a series of physical, creative and mental challenges running during lunch times on Wednesdays and at other times. We encourage all students from Years 4 – 12 to get involved with these challenges and put their various skills to the test in support of Men’s health.
We are looking forward to the various styles of Mo’s being grown and hope that by doing this at the College we can raise awareness of the importance of Men’s physical and emotional health.
Ms Monica Day
Assistant Principal – Student Wellbeing