Student voice leads to skills for life at Bourke High School

The Bourke High School GRIT team – front l-r: Brittany Robb, Pheobe Beaven, and Taylah Barker. Back l-r: Bailey Waller, Jillara Weston, Kayce Kiley, Savannah Bates, Ruby Bates, Taneah Knight, Lakayla Leahy, Taylor Robb, Jac O’Brien and Rozaria Suckling. Photo Twh

When Bourke High School asked their female students what they wanted from their new Girl’s Program, the results were powerful and enlightening.

After giving the student voice survey, several programs have either been rolled out or are being planned for Term 3, to inspire students, build resilience, healthy habits, and life skills to see them through their teen years - and beyond.

One of the programs that came about following the survey is the GRIT program – Growth, Resilience, Intervention for Teenagers - and is run over a ten-week course in partnership with the Bourke PCYC.

Bourke High School Executive Principal, Murray Cronin, said GRIT was part of a wider strategy to empower the girls with effective strategies for life.

“The GRIT program is just a fraction of an overall program in the school following on from what we started at the beginning of Term 2 with a student voice survey,” Mr Cronin said.

“We value what our students tell us, and we used their views from that survey to identify what it is that challenges our girls and what they want support in improving.

“It gave us their pillars, their views on what was important to them - their culture, relationships, learning, healthy minds, bodies, and habits.

“They also told us what makes their lives challenging and what school could do to strengthen those pillars, so the GRIT program fits in by teaching skills for improving their minds and bodies,” Mr Cronin said.

The GRIT program runs for two hours every Friday morning over a ten-week period at the Bourke PCYC.

“It’s a PCYC program and they provide all the engaging activities and resources,” Mr Cronin said.

“When students can share their perspective on schooling it is a powerful insight into what can be done.

“The ideas for this program are 100 per cent from the girls and the voice of that survey - what they want and need, and everything we do pivots off that. […]

Read more in the printed edition of The Western Herald.

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