Angelique Sanders, Director of Student Wellbeing

Dear parents and carers,

The SWP program this week ranged from academic to wellbeing, engaging students in years 7 – 12

Year 7 spent time thinking about the impact (positive or negative) their interactions within the school environment can be with a focus on by reducing derogatory language and practicing uplifting behaviours.

Year 8 and 10 are in the process of subject selections. Year 8 had a session with Mr Harrison and Year 10 had the opportunity to explore further both IBDP and HSC streams.

Our Year 9 students participated in workshops focused on memory and mnemonics facilitated by Elevate Education.  We often hear that many of our students didn’t know how to study effectively, so this session was designed to explicitly teach them memory skills that they can use during their revision time. Year 8 will take part in the workshops in Week 9. 

Our Year 11 cohort took part in a pilot program with Dr. Victoria Rawlings from USYD and Consent Labs. The session focused on gender and sexuality stereotypes and was being trialled for the first time. Our students provided valuable feedback to the researchers, contributing to the development of the program.

Some of our Year 12 students, who have been part of the Future Proofing Study, a longitudinal study with the Black Dog Institute, were surveyed for the last time. The voice of young people is crucial in shaping government policy, and it’s fantastic to see our students actively participating in this important research.

There has been a lot of research into the impacts of sleep on mental health of young people and the evidence is quite clear how important sleep is for physical and mental health. If you are interested in reading further about this , there is an interesting article on Repetitive Negative Thinking Mediates the Relationship Between Sleep Disturbance and Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety, Social Anxiety, Depression, and Eating Disorders in Adolescence: Findings From a 5-Year Longitudinal Study.

The sleep habits of our students are surveyed on a term basis and this has allowed us to gather data over time.  When we compare hours of sleep to how the students rate how they feel, you can see the correlation. In good news most of our students are getting between 8 and 9 hours.

Angelique Sanders
Director of Student Wellbeing