Volume 26 Issue 9 31 Mar 2017 4 Nisan 5777

High School Leadership and Wellbeing Program

Tina Greenhill – Head of Szenes House

Generation Next Leadership and Wellbeing program –  Livestream Event

Generation Next fills a critical gap, working towards preventing mental illness and encouraging improved management by adopting a holistic approach that focuses on key stakeholders.

This is an excerpt of their approach:

  • We engage with professionals who work most closely with young people and thus are ideally positioned to have a positive impact on their mental health, providing education, interventions and resources to increase the understanding of mental illness and treatment options.
  • We work with young people across Australia, providing them with skills and knowledge to increase their mental health literacy and better position them to look after their mental health and prevent the onset of mental illness.
  • We inform the community, increasing awareness of mental illness in young people and how they can better support them to recovery and maintain good mental health.
  • We undertake research to support our activities, ensuring that our work is underpinned by a solid evidence base.

Generation Next enables our youth to become resilient, mentally healthy and actively involved in furthering the wellbeing of our communities.

On Friday 17 March, students were given the opportunity to attend wellbeing and leadership presentations that were streamed live around NSW, which link to our Tutor Programs.

The topics that were discussed by the speakers are listed below.

Year Groups

  Topic

  Speaker

  7 and 8

 Healthy Technology Use

  Dan Haesler

  9 -11

 Helping a mate – Mental Health First Response

  Dr Claire Kelly

  11 and 12

 Consent and Healthy Relationships for Teens

  Michelle Mitchell

  11 and 12

 Unlocking Your Inner Genius: 

 Resilience, Learning and Wellbeing

  Andrew Fuller

Healthy Technology Use

The Year 7s and 8s enjoyed the experience of learning how to use technology positively. Given the opportunity to watch this informative broadcast, we have been informed about healthy technology use and tips for sleeping well in an engaging and positive manner about the subject matter. We also learnt how particular websites and software can help innovate and provide both children and adults with educational content, which helps pique their interest in certain fields. We would highly recommend it for both younger and older students in future.

Year 8 students Hannah Corke and Ariella Tracton

 

Some other responses included:

‘I learnt how to be safer online and the effects that technology can have on your everyday life.’

‘How to use technology in a healthy and motivational way.’

‘I learnt that many people use their phones before and after they wake up and that is not healthy for you.’

 

After watching the presentation students said:

‘I will limit the amount of time spent on technology before I go to sleep.’

‘I will start making a good online footprint.’

Consent & Healthy relationships for Teens

The topic is extremely relevant to teenagers but unfortunately the presentation was somewhat controversial; some students disagreed with the presenter’s comments, whilst others less so. Students were asked to provide feedback to Generation Next, the organisers of Livestream, as well as in an Emanuel School survey, which will assist with further planning.

Some student responses about the presentation include:

  • I learnt ‘how to be more aware of this topic on a general basis.’
  • I learnt ‘to be more cautious of my surroundings.’
  • ‘The presentation was sexist… because 1 in 10 people believe that women who dress promiscuously are partially responsible for being sexually assaulted, we should not have to change the way we present ourselves, and dress more modestly.’

 

Unlocking Your Inner Genius: Resilience, Learning & Wellbeing

According to Andrew Fuller, ‘Young people are more intelligent, informed and aware than any previous generation. To capitalise on this, we can help them to develop the skills necessary to build and express their genius. These skills include concentration, planning, decision making and motivation.’

Eitan Meshel wrote:

‘I found the talk quite good, and his recommendations were well thought out and phrased. The lessons were mostly ones I had heard before, but it was interesting to understand the science behind what he said. For example, the idea of writing notes on paper hands, to make an association between our notes and our physical hand is an interesting way of viewing the ideas of making mnemonic, and works with the way our brain associates thoughts rather than in a more artificial way. His ideas on study breaks are ones I already knew, but specifically why and when they were needed I had not known, and so it was interesting to see. Furthermore, he establishes an overall system of studying, giving a more ‘complete’ view on how to study well, rather than featuring a few tips that don’t necessarily combine well together. His explanations were cohesive and clear, providing information that was insightful and understandable.’

Amy Altman wrote:

‘In what was a very rewarding experience, Year 11 and 12 were privileged enough to tune in to a live stream of ‘The System – how to do well in the senior years of school!’ by Andrew Fuller. 

Here are some of the study tips/tricks that can be incorporated into our study routines, especially in the lead up to our Half Yearly Examinations. 

  • Identify your ‘down’ time where retention of information is at your lowest. Make notes during this time.
  • Ideal work time is done in 20 minute bursts.
  • Record and play back your work before bed.
  • The highest level of learning is to teach someone else.
  • Have glucose approximately 15 minutes before an examination. 
  • Testing yourself increases your memory by 80%.
  • To increase retention, point to what you want to remember.
  • If you do 24 reps of something you will get 80% competence.
  • Complete past papers under examination conditions, with no music.’ 

Tina Greenhill

Head of Szenes House