Yesterday I had a fantastic day with our Year 10 students learning about Love Bites. Now before you think, “What on earth are you teaching our kids?!?“, let me explain the clever play on words….
Love Bites is a social awareness program developed by NAPCAN’s, (National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect), ‘Growing Respect’ education campaign which focuses on the development of respectful relationships and violence prevention for 15-17 year olds.
First and foremost this program focuses on preventing sexually related violence towards women & men. It was at times pretty confronting. We watched some harrowing footage of a real life incident which had caused serious harm to a 16 year old girl; leaving her unable to walk, talk and live a normal life – all resulting from a relationship which had started as a loving one with her boyfriend. This reality struck a chord within our community here at IFS. Students were left thinking, “that could happen to me”.
On a positive, the IFS students were great ambassadors for the college, conducting themselves with maturity, asking relevant, open and honest questions. They decided what respectful relationships are – what they look like, what they sound like. By the end of the day their awareness had grown. Armed with new knowledge about how to avoid negative relationships, deal with uncomfortable situations and where to find help if you need it. By the end of the day, our students were left realising, “I won’t let that happen to me”.
The photos show the students interpretations of their day. It always blows me away to see the artistic talent we have here at IFS and makes me proud to be immersed in this unique learning environment. We are shaping our students into successful, compassionate and creative learners. I’m so happy to be a part of their journey.
Well done Year 10. Love Bites was a success thanks to you.
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