“Sometimes you can feel like the only person in the world to have struggled in a certain way and there is a shame around that. The way we deconstruct it all is by talking about it … making sure that if someone is going through something, they have someone to talk to.” Arlo Parks.

Throughout Te Ohu Atawhai, the HBHS HEART Initiative’s fifth year, fostering increased awareness of mental health and increasing support for queer students at HBHS has been at the forefront of our goals. We are thrilled with the outcome of our efforts towards these goals this year.

This year Te Ohu Atawhai, the HBHS HEART Initiative, strived to continue our mission of promoting diversity, inclusivity, and mental health. Our understanding of diversity is promoting all types of identities, whether sexuality, gender, or culture. To us, inclusivity means making HBHS a safe place for everyone, regardless of their identity, so they feel safe and welcome at our school. Mental Health is an aspect we started to hone in on recently by promoting healthy mental health practices. This year we have focused on all of these aspects to broaden the reach of HEART in order to connect with those who need support most.

One of our proudest achievements this year has been what we have labelled, “The Rainbow Room Renaissance.” Following on from the Rainbow Room's establishment last year, the Rainbow Room of 2022 has had a range of activities from our “Heartstopper movie interval”, to “Who wants to be a TimTamMillionaire”, to “Jackbox game intervals”. We’re thrilled with the participation in these activities and the growth of the Rainbow Room’s membership. Next year we hope to further continue the sense of community in our safe space for HBHS’s rainbow students, as well as further destigmatise the space and be more available to allies within the school. Going hand in hand with this accomplishment is the organisation of Professional Learning and Development with regard to inclusive practices for HBHS staff. This was largely thanks to the efforts of Assistant Principal Dr David Williams in coordinating the PLD.

Another way we have continued our mission this year is the multitude of campaigns we've launched to spread awareness for diversity, inclusivity and mental health. On International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, we created posters to help spotlight queer artists. These included the likes of Arlo Parks, SOPHIE, Hannah Gadsby, Kenny Ortega, Alice Oseman and Jojo Siwa. These posters are still up on our Instagram page @hbhsheart (Obligatory Instagram Promotion.) During New Zealand Mental Health Awareness Week, we displayed posters in key areas around the school providing helplines that dealt with specific issues around mental health, such as eating disorders and anxiety. We also created a mental health survey to gather data as part of a wider plan to improve mental health in our school moving forward. One of our largest-scale projects this year took place during Pride Month in June. We had envisioned having pride flags around the school to demonstrate the school community’s support for the LGBTQIA+ community. With permission from our Headmaster, Mrs Susan Hassall, we flew a pride flag at the front of the school for International Pride Day. Alongside this, HBHS staff took up our challenge and request of showing support for our rainbow students by putting up pride flag posters which we provided in their classrooms all over the school. We are so grateful for the support from staff in this initiative as we were able, as a school, to show our support for the Rainbow community, as well as encourage the conversation around breaking the stigma around it.

Being the first Year 12’s to lead HEART, we were faced with a difficult position and task. This is part of the reason why we are so thankful for the support we have received from HEART’s incredible staff supporters: Mrs Kate Bower, Miss Kim Van der Toorn, Ms Wendy Moffitt, and Mr Barney Killian. They have been instrumental in providing the group with their expertise, experience and encouragement, thereby allowing us to carry out our ideas and visions at a higher level. This was furthered by the support we received from Mrs Susan Hassall and Dr David Williams, who have been incredibly encouraging and supportive of our ideas and initiatives. Of course, this staff support would not have had any value for our student-led initiative, if it were not for the fantastic members of the HEART Initiative who brought their own intelligent, unique takes and experiences to every HEART meeting. We are looking forward to having Rainbow speakers at assemblies, further expanding the Rainbow Room, and HEART’s participation from the student body next year.

From the Laptop of Josef Gillgren and the 2002 Dell PC of Wyatt Winke, 2022 HEART Co-Leaders.