Wellbeing activities for students

By Aaron Hodges, Assistant Principal of Wellbeing

Student wellbeing activities and resources at Macquarie College have been designed to support the mental health, personal wellbeing and academic development of each student. Our vision is to support our students to flourish for life.

Learn about our wellbeing activities for students – as well as our underlying principles and supporting resources – below.

Why are student wellbeing activities and resources important?

Supporting student’s mental health and wellbeing is key to their holistic development. Wellbeing is far more than the absence of mental distress or disorder and is essential to a student’s learning, personal growth and academic success.

Scientific research has identified that learning and wellbeing are inextricably linked. With this in mind, each Macquarie College staff member is dedicated towards providing personalised care for every student, with the aim of authentically integrating wellbeing into their academic and classroom experience.

Our foundational wellbeing principles draw from the research of Dr Martin Seligman (Positive Psychology) and a number of other leading academics, the NSW Wellbeing framework as well as our Christian heritage and beliefs. This ensures that our approach to student wellbeing in the classroom and beyond is both evidence-based and philosophically robust.

Student wellbeing activities and resources at Macquarie College

The Wellbeing team

The Wellbeing team comprises a multi-tiered approach to the monitoring, guiding and caring for each student. The team includes homeroom teachers, year and stage leaders, Chaplaincy, Counselling and MC Learn teams, as well as the Assistant Principal for Student Wellbeing. This team works proactively within relevant Student Wellbeing Policy, to support the whole person.

We aim to ensure that each student is equipped and supported to flourish physically, emotionally, socially, mentally and spiritually, taking into account their individual needs and circumstances.

Invictus Wellbeing Institute

The Invictus Wellbeing Program is a mental fitness and resiliency course that has been recognised Internationally with our homegrown program being rolled out in over 25 schools in Australia, New Zealand and Vanuatu. It is a long-term multimodal wellbeing experience that is integrated at Macquarie College over a four-year period.

Students are given a practical experience of positive psychology, combined with ongoing outdoor education and regular memory events that have been custom made in order for students to harness skills and ways of thinking that will promote resilience and wellbeing for the rest of their lives.
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The program is built around four elements: Network, Master, Journey and Serve – each thoughtfully created to cover a wide range of issues and build the global competencies of the future. The program combines outdoor education, skill mastery, soft skill acquisition and service learning to encourage participants to develop the type of outlook that enables them to live lives defined by self-confidence, curiosity, empathy and compassion.

During each element, students are invited to take part in a significant memory event that epitomises the life lessons learnt in the corresponding segment of the curriculum.

Camps and Outdoor Education

Outdoor Education at Macquarie College focuses on programs that develop student’s communication, decision making, problem solving, mental toughness, team building, leadership and a sense of self confidence.

The College’s Outdoor Education program is developed, managed and run by Macquarie College staff, which facilitates relationship development between staff and students. Each camp is designed to positively enhance a student’s education through the promotion of relational and social development, experiential learning opportunities, the facing of one’s fears through challenge by choice activities, the enrichment of community within their cohort, as well as an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of Christian values and teaching.

By fostering connections with God, the natural world, one another and the wider community, the Camp and Outdoor experience seeks to instil the skills and values necessary for human flourishing. Through increased wellbeing and life skills, the Macquarie College Camps and Outdoor Education Program seeks to equip students for adult life in an increasingly complex world.

Homeroom

At Macquarie College, the provision of a strong pastoral approach is seen as an integral part of each student’s experience. Every student is allocated a Homeroom teacher who connects with them on a daily basis and knows each student individually. Homeroom teachers help our students to reach their full potential – intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.

Individualised support for students

Student wellbeing is focused on providing individualised care, to support students’ mental health, personal wellbeing and the academic development of each student of the College.

Macquarie College is committed to providing a safe, inclusive environment as well as student wellbeing activities that support the development of the student holistically. Wellbeing research has identified that learning and wellbeing are inextricably linked and, as a result, it is the College’s aim to authentically support the mental health needs of our community.

If you would like information about mental health concerns, please click here to be directed to community-based fact sheets that provide a valuable starting point in understanding what may be going on for a loved one and support you in deciding whether you should reach out to seek external support.

Mental health support for students and their families

With learning and wellbeing being inherently linked, it is the College’s aim to authentically support the mental health needs of our community. As a College, it is our hope that we can support families through providing reliable and psychologically accurate information.

These fact sheets  are a valuable starting point in understanding what may be going on in your child’s life and may support you in deciding whether you should reach out to seek external support.

Learn more about student wellbeing at Macquarie College

If there is anything we can do to support you as a family, or if you have a question about student wellbeing activities at Macquarie College, please feel free to reach out.

Our contact information can be found here.