Principals and teachers from schools from around Stawell have been given a "confronting" insight into the mental health of students, especially after the effects of a challenging 2020.
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The Resilience Project schools program manager Antony Keely held a seminar in Stawell to discuss the data and strategies collated from surveys of students in Grade three to Year 12 to help implement positive mental health practices.
Stawell Secondary College principal Carlos Lopez said the session gave teaching staff an understanding of the mental wellbeing of students in the region.
"It was quite a revealing session. It was data that was quite confronting but not surprising," he said.
"The data will guide how we focus programs from now and it was a really insightful look into how we can target our programs to improve the resilience of our students.
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"One thing that came across quite strongly, was the gap between the anxiety experience by female and male participants.
"We found that while the schools are aligned with the national trends, the impact on girls has been quite strong in terms of the impact of last year."
Mr Lopez said the data, which was collected via student surveys, would be used to help guide the schools' approach to improving students' wellbeing.
"We all feel anxiety and The Resilience Project is about upskilling students and allow them to understand that it is a normal process," he said.
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"At times, as parents and teachers, we can want to shield kids from these feelings, but we need to let them be involved in these things because it will allow them to learn lessons that will teach them about life and their resilience.
"This was our first workshop this year, and we have access to digital resources that the schools can access. We will also be continuing to collect data and outlining activities we can put in place to help students."
Earlier in 2021 the Northern Grampians Shire Council announced they had contributed a total cost of $50,136.90 to fund this program through the Community Bushfire Recovery Event funding program.
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