WELLBEING

VOICES OF HOPE

Here at MAC, we put our students’ wellbeing at the centre of our educational approach because we know that when young people feel valued and supported, they are able to feel confident in who they are, engage with their learning, and feel optimistic about the future. Prioritising student wellbeing by building a safe, caring and inclusive environment, is central to our approach in preventing and responding to bullying.

As part of our commitment to supporting our students’ wellbeing, we have invited ‘Voices of Hope’ to visit the college to talk to students on Thursday 14 March. Founders of the mental health charity Genevieve Mora and Jazz Thornton will speak to students about their personal stories and raise awareness of general mental health, encourage help-seeking behaviours, and promote anti-bullying messages.

If you would like more information, please see the flyer attached to this article or please contact Carys Overton via email at: overtonc@mtaspiring.school.nz. 

STICKS N STONES - Y7 SESSIONS

Session Three: Dealing with Drama

In this session we explored what types of behaviours contribute to drama and how quickly and widely it can spread. We discussed how drama can be like a germ, spreading quickly and in different ways. We followed up by thinking about how we can either stop it spreading or help it spread. We then used scenarios to better understand how we can respond to drama or conflict and how we can react like a bulldozer (aggressively), doormat (passive) or a doormat with spikes (passive aggressive). If you would like to read more about this, check out this great article from the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/well/family/how-to-help-tweens-and-teens-manage-social-conflict.html 

Session Four: Standing up and Asking for Help

In this session we talked about ways we can stand up for ourselves and how often the other person is testing how we will react and trying to find things we are sensitive about. We practiced the 'brush it off' strategy and how asking for help is something strong people do. We also practiced ways we can ask for help and created a personal help plan to help work out what support we have around us and what support works best for us. Parents are such an important source of support and this could be a great time to connect with your child about asking for and offering help.