General News
1 June, 2023
Students are ‘good enough’
STUDENTS at Camperdown College were recently given a special talk by personal coach Jayne Robinson.
STUDENTS at Camperdown College were recently given a special talk by personal coach Jayne Robinson.
Ms Robinson presented the Good Enough Initative to students, a program designed to build self-esteem and resilience.
Student Wellbeing officer Kathryn Robertson said the school was approached by GRIT Legal’s Ann Cunningham and Ms Robinson, and students have been giving positive feedback.
“We brought to the students an outside voice to build their self-esteem and resilience,” she said.
“It was a positive.
“When funding came from the Bendigo Bank, we put our hand up to give the students a new, different experience.
“We had lots of students say they got good tips and strategies to help them, if not now, in future life.”
Ms Robinson said the Good Enough Initiative teaches students they are born inherently, whole, worthy and extremely good enough as they are despite their background, experiences or challenges by providing them with the necessary emotional and mental techniques and tools to deal with difficult situations.
“I think it went well; students were engaged for the majority of the time,” she said.
“It was a Friday afternoon, so it’s always a bit of a challenge when it comes to engagement at the end of the week.
“I’ve received great feedback from the students’ parents already, and also the principal told me at break-time how much they were enjoying it and they were having a good time.
“They learnt a lot.”
Ms Robinson said students walked away with tools they can use to help with anxiety or stress they might have through situations such as bullying.
“Usually what we get in life comes down to our beliefs, good, bad, false or otherwise and we are limited by what we think we cannot do rather than what we think we can do,” she said.
“What the program also does is helps students to check their beliefs and question them.
“A lot of the time what happens is that people in different situations, whether we think we can or can’t do something, is not necessarily whether we actually can, but it’s based on our previous experiences in life and how that actually shows up for us.
“We tend to not put ourselves out there again for fear of rejection.”
Ms Robinson said what actually happens when students question their beliefs and actually understand that, just because they experienced it a long time ago and they made that experience mean something about them, it does not mean they have to make it mean that for their entire lives.
“For example, in life when they didn’t think they were good enough or they didn’t think they were capable of doing what they wanted to do or they, or they failed instead of believing that as their truth, they can rewire their brains to realise this is not the whole picture, their past does not equate to their future and they do not have to accept that as something that defines them, rather try again from a new perspective that empowers them,” she said.