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Student-led MHAW

Waiheke High School is running a student-led Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW) to ensure it has a lasting impact on their students.

Usually the school’s MHAW celebrations are run by school staff – but this year is different.

Their mid-week MHAW is being run by the school’s Peer Sexuality Support Programme (PSSP) students and senior student peer mediators.

“A student-led MHAW means it’s going to be more effective,” says Waiheke High School nurse Maggie Lethwaite. “If I was leading this, it wouldn’t have as much impact – student-to-student is powerful.”

Celebration underpinned by Te Whare Tapa Whā

On the Wednesday during MHAW, students will set up a billboard with a diagram of Te Whare Tapa Whā.

The point of the activity is to encourage students to explore their way to wellbeing, learn more about Te Whare Tapa Whā and test their knowledge of Te Reo Māori.

Te Whare Tapa Whā is a Māori health model which underpins MHAW. It describes wellbeing as a wharenui/meeting house.

“Te Whare Tapa Whā is ingrained in our school culture. I talk about it all the time – and most of the students know about the health model and most of the teachers understand it,” says Maggie.

“Students will be asked what each element of Te Whare Tapa Whā means to them. They can also attach post-it notes on the billboard explaining what has made them feel good in the last month. Each student that participates will receive a MHAW sticker.”

Making MHAW work for the school

While MHAW is a week-long campaign, Waiheke High School students have tailored their plans to suit the needs of their school.

“With exams coming up, we’ve decided to run MHAW on one day rather than the full week. In order to achieve real change, I think you need to keep it simple,” says Maggie.

Maggie says taking part in MHAW helps spark conversation about wellbeing between students and normalises the conversation.

“MHAW helps students feel comfortable to come forward for help early, and this is really important.”

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