Student Wellbeing

Goals & Intended Outcomes

“The Catholic School is committed to the development of the whole person since in Christ, the Perfect human, all human values find their fulfilment and unity”. (The Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education).

This implies the following objectives:

That Mazenod College seeks to develop the individual character and personality of each student, his sense of dignity and self-worth by promoting in each student:

• Self-reliance and self-discipline; • Personal initiative and capacity for leadership; • Reliability, honesty and integrity.

That Mazenod seeks to promote in each of its students:

• Tolerance and respect for others and others’ opinions, beliefs and cultures and especially those of their fellow students who come from diverse cultural backgrounds; • Sensitivity to other peoples’ needs and respect for their rights and property; • Responsiveness to the call from every part of the world for a more just society; • An appreciation in students of their total environment, physical, cultural and spiritual with its accompanying responsibility to safeguard and promote it.

Mazenod College will cultivate the development of our young students into confident young adults with a sense of compassion, initiative and wellbeing.

Mazenod College will also continue to promote and strengthen student leadership from Years 7-12.

Mazenod College will maintain its progress to resource and develop programs that help identify and extend our gifted students, as well as developing the Special Needs Program and ESL.

Student Wellbeing Achievements

In 2020 Mazenod College introduced visible wellbeing as a whole school approach. This commenced with a partnership with Professor Lea Waters starting with staff training and the introduction of the SEARCH Framework. The visible wellbeing approach complements our existing student wellbeing programs which are delivered at Mazenod College in a variety of formats including extended homerooms, seminars, personal and social learning timetabled classes, retreats, camps and dedicated personal development days. All wellbeing programs are designed to address age and stage wellbeing issues.

Visible Wellbeing will be our approach to creating resilient, happy and successful young men. The goal of a Visible Wellbeing approach is to make wellbeing visible so that we can proactively intervene and make changes in our students’ lives and our own. We do this through acknowledging the negative, but specifically working to amplify the positives and increase overall wellbeing with students and staff consciously thinking about what they SEE, HEAR and FEEL in all situations.

Visible Wellbeing is how we will support every student at Mazenod College to strive to reach their potential by being intentionally aware of his own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.

A major achievement of note in 2021 was our purposeful and structured approach to remote learning that saw all teachers meet their students via Google Meet in all lessons and homerooms. We maintained as much as possible a consistent routine and a positive connection with our students to support their wellbeing during lockdown periods.

Each Year level is under the care of a Coordinator and each class has a Homeroom Teacher whose role is primarily pastoral. In addition to our Priests and a supportive group of teachers, Mazenod College has the benefit of two full-time Counsellors and a Careers/Pathways Coordinator.

Mazenod College has established a Peer Support and Pastoral Care Program which promotes a caring, supportive and friendly environment across the year levels. The program allows senior students to further develop their leadership skills and was also introduced to extend the pastoral care network within Mazenod College Community.

Value Added – Student Wellbeing – What we did in 2021

• A very well-developed instrumental music program, with hundreds of students receiving weekly individual music lessons on orchestral instruments and participating in a full range of orchestras, bands and ensembles. Lessons continued in remote learning. • Every student in the school participates in 100 minutes of organised sport each week. • Participation in every ACC Inter-School Sport that was conducted. Many others were cancelled for 2021. • The vast majority of students represent Mazenod College in at least one ACC event (Association of

Catholic Colleges). • Many students participated in our comprehensive Volleyball program, training and playing weekly, dominating the ACC competitions. • 60 students participated in the Chess club, receiving weekly tuition, and recording record breaking wins in the ACC. Our open chess team won gold in both the State and National Championships. Our middle years team won silver in the State Championships. • Outstanding debating success at ACC level, and at the Debating Association of Victoria’s (DAV) state finals. Mazenod College won the Junior ACC Debating & Public Speaking Competition, and our Year 10 debaters also came first. • Our public speakers usually competed with success at the VCAA’s Plain English-Speaking competition, the annual Lions Club Youth of the Year competition and Rotary Club Public Speaking

Competition. • The Performing Arts Department held an online Performing Arts Festival in the evening featuring music, dance and film items from all levels. • The Music Department held various evening events online, with many students participating. • Years 10, 11 and 12 also participate in Mazenod’s Social Justice program which includes; Rosies

Street Mission, RE days, retreats and Community Service. • Student driven initiatives to highlight inclusivity and mental health such as RUOK? Day and World’s

Greatest Shave. • Peer support Year 11 with Year 7. • Our senior badminton team placed second in the ACC Badminton Championship. This sport is one of the fastest in the world and the team can be very proud of their achievement.

Value Added – Student Wellbeing – What we usually do

• Our highly successful annual musical production, held at the Besen Theatre, was cancelled for 2021. • Our highly successful Volleyball program participation at State and National level was cancelled. • A group of music students usually travel to Mt Gambier for the Generations in Jazz Music Festival with students from across the region. • The Stage Band, the Founders’ Ensemble and other groups usually represent Mazenod College at the

Victorian Schools Music Festival, receiving awards. • Our musicians usually compete in the annual Boroondara Eisteddfod. • Groups of students usually travel biennially to Japan, Italy and China for two week cultural exchanges. • A group of 19 Year 10 and 11 students usually participate biennially in a two week cultural tour to

Central Australia. • A group of Year 10-12 students usually participate biennially in a two-week program involving personal development, STEM and group simulations to NASA. • Many usual social justice activities were cancelled, including Red Cross door knock, St Vincent de Paul

Winter Sleepout and the Special Olympics.