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Delivered free throughout the Port Macquarie, Laurieton, Wauchope and Kempsey regions • Phone: 6583 9088 • Thursday 16 April 2015
Hope and happiness
By NIKALA SIM
HAPPY and hopeful students achieve better
academic success.
This finding is the result of research by global
performance-management consulting company
Gallup.
Port Macquarie’s Heritage Christian School
eagerly turned to the organisation for help when
they acknowledged all their good intentions were
falling short of the mark.
Principal Geoff Brisby said they knew there
was a problem but didn’t have the evidence.
“We realised there were major problems that
our kids were walking into school with but we
didn’t know how to address them,” he said.
The school participated in the first Gallup
Student Poll in 2012 and just got the results from
the third poll.
Hope increased by 50 per cent and wellbeing
by 25 per cent but engagement stayed the same,
so it is now the focus of improvement.
Gallup management and education senior
consultant Peggy Jasperson said the student poll
was not a device of measure between schools.
It was a tool to be used by schools to improve
the wellbeing, engagement and hope of their
students.
Pupils from years 5 to 12 complete a ten
minute survey with questions that can be
quantified and actioned.
The confidential results highlight hope,
engagement and wellbeing on an individual, year
and school level.
Continued Page 3
A happy Mitchell Turner, Liam Barker, Bianca and Jye Vanderzee are hopeful their futures will be bright.
Page 3: Youth Week Reigns
Page 5: A 60-year love affair
Page 10: Charities aren’t rubbish tips
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Your Local Independent - The Hastings
Thursday 16 April, 2015
3
Great start to Youth Week
SUNSHINE, fabulous music and
relaxed teens made for a great
start to the 2015 Youth Week.
This season’s Waves and
Melody festival, at Town Beach
green, was enjoyed by hundreds
of Hastings youth.
Young talent from across our
community entertained the crowd
even after the rain hit in the early
evening.
Port Macquarie High School
student Jaxon Pollard played
two of his original songs and five
covers of blues-style acoustic
music.
The 16-year-old said the Port
Macquarie-Hastings
Council
event was a great opportunity and
had the potential to really “grow”
the area’s young talents.
“Everyone here is really
talented and it’s great to share
around ideas.”
“It’s been really good, a nice
atmosphere with everyone just
chillin’,” he said.
Friends and school mates
Olivia Cutting, Bridget Unthank,
Michelle Pirnie and Sunshine
Slater really enjoyed themselves.
The 16-year-olds said there
was not much for teens to do in
Port Macquarie and that they
would love to see more music
festivals.
Headspace service manager
Nicole Kosseris said she loved
being involved in Youth Week
events on behalf of her youth
mental health and wellbeing
support organisation.
“The talent at Waves and
Melodies has been extraordinary
and it is a massive thing for the
performers to play in front of
friends and family,” she said.
Festivities continue with
Saturday night’s Laneway Party
at the southern end of Hay Street
between 5pm and 10pm.
Lost Lambs didn’t let the rain dampen crowd spirits.
Photo: Nikala Sim
Happy, hopeful students are more successful, according to new research
From Page 1
“Hope drives attendance and is a robust
indicator of future academic success,” Ms
Jasperson said.
Engagement pointed to involvement and
enthusiasm for school, and wellbeing measured
how students thought and experienced their lives.
Heritage Christian School was a “culturefocussed” environment but the results from their
first poll showed much work could be done.
The unique position of head teacher student
support was created and Linda Lenord put in the
role.
She brainstormed a strategy map with Ms
Jasperson, ran workshops with year 11 and 12
students and listened to the information students
had provided within the poll.
“The kids simply said what they think and
feel,” Mrs Lenord said.
“The data from the poll is child-driven and is
a wonderful tool.”
Students felt like they didn’t have more than
one way to solve a problem so staff began to talk
about “when you try something and it doesn’t
work it isn’t failure”.
A focus was put on hope and what it meant for
each student and teachers made mindful tweaks
in their language.
One solution to student dissatisfaction
was even as simple as changing the furniture
around in a classroom, which resulted in better
engagement.
Senior students Bianca and Jye Vanderzee,
Mitchell Turner and Liam Baker have all seen
improvement in their school culture since its
involvement in the Gallup Student Poll.
“I didn’t use to be hopeful,” year 12 student
Bianca Vanderzee said.
Mum Karen concurred and said the one-
on-one tutoring teachers offered after school
had helped her 17-year-old’s grades “improve
dramatically”.
Fifteen-year-old Jye said the approachable
attitude of his teachers made him feel hopeful.
Mitchell Turner, 13, and Liam Baker, 14,
agreed the school gave them confidence and
made them want to learn.
“I’ve definitely increased my academic levels
and persistence in doing the work,” Liam said.
Mitchell had seen an increase in his grades
because the teachers taught in a way that gelled
with how he learnt.