Year 11 Encounter Day

On Wednesday 24 July, the entire Year 11 cohort spent the day together, away from normal classes, participating in sessions and activities focused on Resilience, Leadership and Peer Dynamics. Below are reflections by students on the various aspects of the day.

Ms Ashlee Burke and Mrs Karen Lichnovsky, Year Level Learning Leaders – Year 11

“The Year 11 cohort was given the opportunity to participate in an Encounter Day, which focused on the building of leadership skills, being vulnerable with one another, bonding as a year level and how important culture and spirituality is.”

“Guest speakers Brady Cooper and Luke Murray from the Korin Gamadji Institute of Richmond Football Club opened the day with an inspirational and moving presentation. They spoke about their Indigenous Culture and how that is incorporated into the AFL world.”

“Four facilitators from REACH Foundation took the students through a workshop that focused on the stressors of school, the significance of expressing your emotions, future endeavours, the pressure surrounding school, friendships and family.”

“Overall, it was a fantastic day full of many chances to connect with one another and get an insight into the lives of our peers.”

“It’s important to realise that people that you may not always speak to can have a lot more in common with you than you might think”

“Don’t judge people without knowing who they really are”

“Everyone has their own struggles and races.”

“The Reach session allowed us to be vulnerable and open up in ways to each other that comforted us, as we felt we weren’t alone with any problems we were experiencing. Overall I think everyone felt better after the session and we were very connected afterwards.”

“The activities such as the leadership games and Reach brought everyone out of their comfort zone.”

“As Year 11s – and next year’s Year 12s, we need to all be friends and be able to chat with each other – not keep to ourselves and our own specific friends all the time.”

“Everyone can be a leader. It is important to have leaders so that we have people to look up to as role models and set an example for their peers.”

“The leadership activities allowed for everyone to express their own way of leading and having the leadership activities early on in the day created a really comfortable group to be a part of.”

“We had two people from the Richmond FC Institute of sport deliver a leadership, culture and social and emotional wellbeing program that was called the Korin Gamadji Institute. The program gave us advice and guidance/direction on real life scenarios and tools to better our leadership skills and making others better around us including ourselves.”

“The conversations included lots of emotion and at times were uncomfortable for some but beneficial at the same time, with lots of authentic words which were respected widely by every person in the group.

My highlights were the Reach and the Korin Gamadji leadership sessions as I took a lot out of the programs regarding leadership, communication, culture, and future endeavours.

On Wednesday the 24th of July, The Year 11 cohort were given the opportunity to participate in an encounter day, which focused on the building of leadership skills, being vulnerable with one another, bonding as a year level and how important culture and spirituality is.

“We had guest speakers Brady Cooper and Luke Murray from the Korin Gamadji Institute of Richmond Football Club come to open our day with a very inspirational and moving presentation. They spoke to us about their Indigenous Culture and how that is incorporated into the AFL world.”

“In separate groups across the day, four different guests from the Reach foundation took us through a workshop that focused on the stressors of school, the significance of expressing your emotions, future endeavours, the pressure surrounding school, friendships and family.”

“In our Advocate groups we participated in a 25-minute meditation session, which guided us through balanced breathing and positive affirmations. This allowed us to be in touch with our spiritual connections and become grounded within ourselves. “

“In mixed groups we were also given the opportunity to participate in some fun trivia, with questions about sport, music, pop culture and name the celebrity, with prizes distributed to the top three winners!”

“We appreciate all the hard work put in by the teachers, guest speakers and students that attended who made this day possible – thank you!”