Teachers and students discuss the Peer Support Program and the impact it has made at their primary and high schools. Students build their confidence, learn new skills and enjoy interacting with students across grades.
David MacVean, Relieving Principal, Oxley Park Public School: The Peer Support Program is exactly what our school needed. It covered all of our grades and all of our Stages. Peer Support has become one of our rock-solid foundational skills and programs we run here at our school. It empowers the kids. It builds the confidence in our kids to manage life and to manage the complexities of school life. I’ve seen many students at our school when they’re having difficulties – when they’re having problems regulating their emotions – putting the skills of Peer Support into their everyday practice.
Nick Briffa, Dean of Students, Mamre Anglican School: The Peer Support Program is a really good opportunity for our younger and older students to form some really positive connections. For our younger students it means that out in the playground, they’ve got someone else that they can talk to. For our older students, it just gives them a sense of responsibility that they’ve got another person that they know in the junior school. They’ve got another person that they can look after and it’s kind of like a sibling relationship at the end of the program. They have a really close bond. And I think that’s a lovely thing moving through high school.
Gordon Parrish, Principal, Robertson Public School: Well, the Peer Support Program works really well at our school. It fits right into our whole-school approach to student wellbeing and with Peer Support, the students then get a chance to take control and it’s more student-centred. And it allows our school leaders, our student leaders, to take a bit of control and build their capacity as student leaders and work with all the other students.
Elisamae, Year 6 Peer Leader, Oxley Park Public School: What I love about Peer Support is being able to communicate with the kids and I love teaching the little kids how to make friends and not bully each other.
Ruby, Year 6 Peer Leader, Oxley Park Public School: I love that I can make new friends that are younger than me, and I love that I can be in a big group with lots of people that enjoy like spending time with other people. Everyone’s got a voice. No matter if you’re shy or outgoing. Everyone’s got a voice.
Fiona Flavell, Classroom Teacher, Oxley Park Public School: I guess what they take from the Peer Support Program is a whole bunch of values and skills such as empathy, listening skills, resilience, a big boost to their self-confidence and self-esteem, and a willingness to bounce back and have a go when faced with challenges. One of the really surprising outcomes I think we’ve seen is some kids that weren’t so willing to have a go, will have a go when they’re with their peers, and have that encouragement of the Peer Support Program.
Chris McKenzie, Year 10 Coordinator, Mamre Anglican School: So the different skills in the Program that you get to learn are things like communication, understanding things like resilience, understanding how the machine of school works, and so how I can fit in and use my abilities, use my gifts, but also to unlock gifts and abilities I didn’t know I had, to be able to get through this thing called school.
Javier, Peer Support Leader (Year 10), Mamre Anglican School: School for me, before I took on this position, was a bit difficult I guess because I’m not very good academically. I was able to help some Year 7s, I think, build confidence and build connections with other students. And it’s really, really important for me, I guess, for my own sake to try help them to be better. Because I know what I was like in Year 7 and I wasn’t the best to be honest. So it’s really nice because they know they can come to me for whatever – whatever they need.
Wolfie, Peer Leader, Roberston Public School: We’re learning about how to be more positive – like, instead of saying I’m useless, instead, you can just say I just need to try harder. I think it helps kids understand their emotions and feelings in such a way that they can deal with them better and learn to live more positively. It helps me cope with stuff – (it) just helps me cope a lot more than if I didn’t know how to do that stuff.
Olivia Winterton, Year 7 Coordinator, Mamre Anglican School: The Peer Support Program provides an opportunity for our Year 7 students to be involved with some older students in the school. And it gives them a chance to learn, adapt — gives them skills for life. (It) gives them the opportunity to form new relationships and feel supported within that school community. So I guess there’s this sense of belonging and comfort in knowing they have connections with some older individuals.
Harper, Peer Support Participant (Year 7), Mamre Anglican School: The Peer Support Program helped me adapt to high school because they helped me get around the school when I was lost, and I knew I could always go to them when I had a problem or I was struggling with maybe studying or being organised. I just felt like I could talk to them about anything. And if I was really struggling a lot in school, I could always go to them.
Kristen Wilson, Assistant Principal, Robertson Public School: Running a Peer Support lesson you’ve got to be really well organised. And I think as they go into high school they’re going to need those organisational skills – skills on an everyday basis there. It gives an opportunity to learn to communicate with other people and communication in a high school, especially for our students who come from a small rural school, to give them an opportunity to communicate with other people, so when they get to a high school, they have more confidence to talk to other teachers, the other students that are around them.
Kiera Borg, Relieving Assistant Principal & Learning and Support Teacher, Oxley Park Public School: We have found that Peer Support and the enjoyment from all students across the school – not just our leaders, our students with additional needs, everyone – has made great boosts for that sort of camaraderie and wanting to come to school to be involved with that program.
Blake, Peer Support Participant, Oxley Park Public School: When that Woody song goes, I know it’s Peer Support time. And then the Peer Support Leaders come pick you up from your class. So sometimes they help me write my name or do some maths. I have so much fun at Peer Support. That like everything I do, makes me feel happier because it’s my like, my heart is feeling happy. And then it’s like punctuation. It’s like going around it.
Holly, Peer Leader (Year 10), Mamre Anglican School: It really brings the school together, as a whole, rather than it just being separate cohorts. It really just unifies the school into a greater community than what it already is. And I think the Peer Support Program has been really beneficial in that.
Javier, Peer Support Leader (Year 10), Mamre Anglican School: It has impacted my schoolwork a lot actually. My grades have improved. My focus and work ethic in class has definitely improved. I think nearly all of my teachers have seen a good improvement and they’ve told me that I’ve been doing really good and how I’ve improved.
Ruby, Peer Support Participant, Robertson Public School: Being a good friend is like when you like be kind to other people who you know, as a friend. Like being a kind friend and being nice to one another. And I learnt it in Peer Support.
