From Year 10
On Wednesday 3rd of September, the Year 10 students participated in their Reflection Day with the theme “Strength in Struggle: Advocating for Ourselves and Others.”.
The day was filled with a variety of activities that enabled the students to reflect on their personal strengths and explore the advocacy work of the Mercy Sisters. The highlight of the day for all the students was listening to the inspiring story of our guest speaker Michelle Newland, who shared her experience of overcoming significant trauma. Her story of resilience and recovery was incredibly moving and inspirational. The students were also able to ask some insightful questions of both Michelle and her support workers, Cindy and Belinda, in an extended Q and A session.
The day continued with the creation of personal strength symbols, and a beautiful liturgy led by the students and Mr Valladares. It concluded with an energetic display of student participation of a ‘Just Dance’ routine.
This Wednesday, our year 10 cohort gathered for our annual reflection day. We participated in a range of events that helped us develop our sense of advocacy and resilience, and in particular we listened to Michelle Newland who was an extremely inspiring speaker who spoke about her journey and touched on our theme of 'from struggle to strength'. Thank you to everyone involved in the day for creating a memorable experience.
Olivia Sutherland
Michelle Newland's story is definitely an incredible story that everyone should hear, it truly shows how resilient she was during her recovery. As she goes on to present at different schools and public meetings, she has to retell her story over and over again which could be nerve-racking, but she does it with pride and she's happy to tell her story because she knows that she helped herself, she knows that she had great faith and stayed resilient.
Sofia Do
I really enjoyed Reflection Day this year. We had Michelle Newland come in and tell us her story, which was really inspiring. The day was centred around 'From Strength to Struggle' and we worked on pinpointing our strengths and how we display them.
Olivia Thaus
Marie-Claire Anastasiadis
Religious Education Learning Leader