From the Deputy Head of Senior School – Wellbeing
I wish to extend a warm welcome back, to all of our MLC School community as we commence Term 3. I hope that you and your family enjoyed a restful and rejuvenating break and are excited for the learning opportunities and experiences ahead.
Celebrating Safety – Paul Dillon
Celebrating with friends is vital during adolescence, an adolescent brain is wired to seek independence and peer acceptance. Celebrating together is a great way to achieve this, create amazing memories and strengthen relationships. Having a good time does not have to come at the expense of our students’ health or safety. Risks and risk taking are a part of life, we can’t avoid risks but we can manage them and we can make positive choices to increase our safety. Risk taking is highest during adolescence and young people are reported as increasingly participating in risk-taking behaviours (DARTA,2021). A safe socialising environment ensures everyone can make positive choices, have fun and avoid potential harm.
With this in mind, on Wednesday next week we welcome Paul Dillon to present to Year 10–Year 12. Paul is a leading drug and alcohol presenter and founder of DARTA. Paul presents students with evidence based, relevant and accurate drug and alcohol education and information, equipping students with tools and strategies to make informed decisions regarding drugs and alcohol, devising strategies to help keep themselves and their peers safe when celebrating.
This P&F initiative will see Paul presenting to parents in the evening of the same day, full details and RSVP can be seen by clicking here.
Student Wellbeing Conference
On 26 June, the second last day of Term 2, we four students were given the amazing opportunity to attend the 2025 Ravenswood and Knox Grammar Student-led Wellbeing Conference. We spent a full day engaging with more than 260 student leaders from 31 different schools to explore this year’s theme, Mental Toughness – The Power of Growth.
What made the Ravenswood Student Wellbeing Conference so engaging was that every workshop was planned and led by students themselves. This made the sessions feel more meaningful and relevant. I took part in teamwork focused workshops, which were made engaging with unique activities throughout the workshops. For example one of the activities was feeding someone a doughnut on a string while blindfolded, which taught the importance of communication in teamwork. The lunchtime games such as decorating a glass jar were engaging and allowed us to discuss and share our thoughts with students from other schools.
A highlight of the Ravenswood Student Wellbeing Conference was listening to a guest speaker, Michael Crossland. It is difficult to summarise the emotional impact that this speech had on everyone in the room; Michael made us laugh, cry, and overall feel incredibly inspired in the span of one to two hours. Despite spending nearly a quarter of his life in hospital, battling various health conditions, struggling to make ends meet, and so many more challenges, he was able to find happiness and see the bright side in his life. To imagine that someone who had gone through unbelievable hardship could stand in front of us, smiling, successful, optimistic, was truly humbling and motivating.
Attending this day was far more than learning the importance of prioritising our mental wellbeing. 31 schools coming together proved just how powerful a collective effort within a school community can be. We reflected on what we can do starting tomorrow to make a difference, because as Michael said, we can’t keep waiting for our lives to change, or we’ll end up regretting the time we lost. If there was a main takeaway we took, it is how we find meaning in our lives through serving others around us and giving back to those who need it the most. And sometimes the people that need your support are the people sitting next to you. So, we’re excited for everyone to see the new initiatives planned.
– Elysse Diep (Year 11), Jordan Vo (Year 11), Elena Tulloch (Year 11), Allegra Chiang (Year 11)
– Andrew Taylor
Deputy Head of Senior School – Wellbeing