This term was an especially busy term for our Student Leadership Board. Between running events to gathering data for feedback on our school environment to celebrating student successes on our bulletin board, the SLB always had something to work on.

Our first event for the term, was Do It For Dolly Day on the 9th of May. Dolly’s Dream, the foundation behind the event, are committed to changing the culture of bullying through raising awareness of the devastating impact bullying can have on an individual. The main activity was a information and trivia session in the PAC which focussed on the topic of bullying and being an upstander not just a bystander. It was really good to see students from Year 7 all the way through to Year 10 participate, taking the first steps towards changing the culture of bullying through education. A Dress in Blue Day along with a best dressed at recess 2 supplemented our trivia session. From our gold coin donations, we managed to raise a total of $215 for the cause.

Following Do it for Dolly Day, we began planning and advertising our very own Big Freeze held on the 13th June to raise money and awareness for MND, which is a disease that affects the nerves in the brain and spinal cord affecting communication in the body. For this event we hosted an Ice Bucket Challenge and dress up as your favourite character or in blue with a gold coin donation. For the Ice Bucket Challenge each class nominated a homegroup representative to be dunked and if they reached their target donation amount, they would be dunked. The SLB held a BBQ for students to enjoy while watching the main event of the Big Freeze. As a school community, we managed to raise over $1500 for the cause and we are very proud of our school’s efforts and we would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped us in our fundraising.

In the middle of the term we ran a Student Voice Survey about possible improvements to our school and every student was given the opportunity to participate in this survey. We are in the process of collating the results that we have received from our fellow peers and working closely with the school association to see which changes would be feasible for our school community. So keep an eye out for more news in this space.

To round off our events for the term, we asked our fellow school mates to brave the cold and don shorts on the Friday 20th June in conjunction with Speak Up Stay ChatTY’s shorts day. Speak Up Stay Chatty is an organisation that aims to promote positive mental health and suicide prevention. We encouraged students to check in with each other and brave a conversation about mental health the same way they braved the cold as speaking about mental health can be an uncomfortable topic for some. It was really good to see so many of us pull on our shorts in support of the day, reinforcing the importance of positive mental health and we hope that you continually check in with those around you through the highs and lows.

Looking forward to next term, we already have a few plans in the works with the first being National Daffodil Day. National Daffodil Day is an initiative run by the Cancer Council and it is their most loved and iconic fundraising campaign. The money we raise from this day will go towards people impacted by cancer and cancer research. We have so many near and dear who are impacted by cancer and we look forward to being able to contribute to such a meaningful cause. More details about the day will be available soon but this is something to look out for.

I speak on behalf of my SLB members when I say we are looking forward to bringing you more events throughout the year so stay tuned to see what we are up to. You can check out our bulletin board through the PAC windows to stay updated with what is happening. Your SLB members are also committed to making the school a better place for you so do not hesitate to speak to us about changes and we will see if we can assist in any way.

Thank you and I wish everyone a safe and restful holiday after a great effort this term!