Eltham Term Week 8 2018

Its graduation week and spirits are high!

This week started at our local hub, Eltham Leisure centre. On Wednesday we met Jordan and got stuck into our last gym session. Spirits were high and we were all pumped to give 100% to this final sweat session. We played some basketball, did some cardio and used the gym machines to target our muscles. We also retested our specific areas of fitness and we all saw results in some way or another. After this we said goodbye to Jordan for the day and headed to Jets studio for our second visit. At Jets we met with the Jets crew and Candice from YSAS to make some music and write our rap. In the session is was inspiring to see the young people be brave enough to rap on tape. The girls in particular stepped up to explore and pick the theme, write the music and rap the versus. Together everyone worked together to sing the chorus which made for a great result. After some music magic we grouped up to hear the end results. Although some of us found it 'cringy' to hear ourselves on tape, we all enjoyed and bopped along to the end results. We finished the day feeling accomplished and ready for our second last day.

Thursday saw us preparing for our graduation and enjoying our last day together. We started the day back at Eltham leisure centre with the tasks of reflection and writing our speeches. We started the reflection by discussing some of our favourite memories from this term. Surfing and the canoe camp was a real highlight for this group. After this we completed some evaluation forms and got stuck into planning our speeches. Throughout the term we focus on character strengths and how they are are important in each activity. To plan our speeches the young people selected three strengths related to an activity and formed their speech around that. After our drafts were finished we headed to Strike bowling in Bundoora to celebrate our efforts and the end of this term! We hit some pins, has some laughs and left feeling excited for our graduation tomorrow.

Friday - Graduation day! This is one of the most exciting days on the program as its all about celebrating the young people and how hard they've worked this term. We met at Eltham Leisure centre for the last time this year and got ready for the celebration. With the room full of parents, teachers, wellbeing staff and service providers the young people did an amazing job at their speeches. Each one of them spoke clearly and gave everyone a great insight into the term. We saw some photos, watched a movie about the term and enjoyed the final moments together. With credit to the young people they all worked really hard on their individual goals and achieved a lot. Their resilience, mindset and courage is something to be celebrated and they should all be really proud of their efforts this term. A big thank you to all the services provides, schools and parents for their constant support this year and throughout Newstart. Without each of you none of this could happen. A big thank you to past student Georgie who came out to speak about her Newstart experience. Georgie graduated Term 4 2016 and did an amazing job at sharing her experience and what life after Newstart has been like.

Thank you all for a wonderful term and have a great holidays!