Year 8 and 10 Mentoring Program
Throughout this term, Year 10 House Captains have been involved in leading a mentoring program with Year 8 students. The main focus for this program was to assist and provide strategies which can be implemented to encourage learning habits, social life, health/wellbeing and spiritual being. These programs happened during pastrol time every Wednesday. It involved two leaders and a pastoral class of Year 8 students. Each week there was a focus on themes and topics relevant to early adolescence that provided assistance and guidance to Year 8 students. Each team of House Captains were responsible for planning the presentation for one week each and then this was shared amongst the Captains. This was achieved through the discussion of everyday situations and events that a young person is likely to encounter. Below are images of some of our Year 10 Captains presenting along with an outline of each week:
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Presentation 1 Howard |
This week marked the commencement of the program, Howard prepared the presentation which went into depth about the importance of various strategies and methods that can help year 8s with assessments and studying habits. |
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Presentation 2 Murray |
This week Murray prepared a presentation focusing on providing advice on how to manage friendships and relationships. We discussed ways on how individuals could deal with breakups and how they can also expand and talk to others outside their normal click/group/bubble. |
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Presentation 3 MacKillop |
This week Mackillop (the best house) showcased many ideas and helpful tips relating to health and wellbeing. The main focus was to guide Year 8’s to an understanding of the importance of health and wellbeing and how sleep, screen time, exercise and stress could influence their overall wellbeing. |
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Presentation 4 Avila |
This final week was impacted by the new directives which meant we could not interact with younger students during class time. Avila were creative in delivering and planning a video mode of the presentation which Year 8 pastoral advisors presented. This weeks presentation was based on spirituality and faith, we expanded on ways we can improve and be better Catholics/Christians on a daily basis and how we can improve our relationship with God and ourselves. |
As Captains, our hope was that Year 8 would gain many strategies that they could adopt to improve their contributions as a student, friend, peer or member of the church and to tackle the challenges that they are likely to face throughout high school. Beyond this, the Captains also were eager to learn and connect with our younger peers to better understand how we can support their needs. It was also a great opportunity to improve our speaking and presentation skills. Throughout the program the Year 8 students were respectful, engaged and comfortable. They listened attentively to the information delivered. If a student needed to ask questions they were given the opportunity to and were able to get a helpful answer. The topics were identified by the Year 10 Captains as areas they wish they had known more about when they were in Year 8.
On behalf of the Captains, we would like to thank the Year 8 students for the opportunity to come into your pastoral classes each week. We really enjoyed presenting and appreciated that students were respectful and excited to listen. The highlight was that we had the opportunity to spend some quality time with students of our house and form a bond and friendship with many of our younger peers. We also each appreciated the new things that they taught us as leaders and hopefully the many points and advice we presented over the weeks taught them something new and can help apply to their everyday lives.
Angelene Finau and Charbel Sghaby
Year 10 MacKillop Leaders