Girls’ Day June 2022

After our last session, in Term One, we asked the girls for feedback about that particular day, as well as any ideas for future days. Some girls were keen to be more active as a way to assist with their worries and health generally. We tried to incorporate a physical focus for the Term Two Girls’ Day.

Dr Caroline Mooney visited the grade 5/6 girls today to discuss worries and answer any questions. She spoke about categorising our worries into things that have happened and those that might happen. From there we can assess whether the problem is something we can solve or if it is a worry we just keep thinking about. She provided some techniques we could use to cope with our worries, including breathing, the ‘worry time’ app, and animal alphabet. We learnt that it is important to see our bodies as vehicles, not objects. They require fuel (food and water) to run, come in various shapes and sizes, and need to be looked after.

We appreciate the time she put in to answering our questions and allowing us to air any worries or concerns we had in a safe environment.

The middle session involved a visit to the Bee Bop Dance Studio, where the girls were divided into two small groups. Everyone experienced one hour of yoga and one hour of dance. The yoga teacher, Ruth, took a wonderful workshop where the group participated in movement through yoga, controlled breathing, relaxing our minds, being conscious of our bodies, taming our thoughts and even chanting.  The girls expressed feeling calm, relaxed and even sleepy. Meanwhile the dance class involved Mel leading everyone to learn a complicated set of groovy moves in hip-hop style. The culmination was both groups coming together to dance successfully and with enjoyment. The level of participation for both activities was 100% even though some students may have felt out of their comfort zone.

In the afternoon, Jodie Clifford and Channy Clarke ran some team building games, which started with the largest tower built of shoes. Who knew that shoes could be so much fun? All games and activities had a team focus:

Talk

Encourage

Appreciate

Mindful

Again, great participation, sportsmanship, communication and a positive vibe was seen. Channy and Jodie had hoped to incorporate some football, but the weather put a stop to that.

Quotes from the girls demonstrate the positivity felt for this day:

“I enjoyed yoga because I haven’t done it before. It made me happy.”

(Many reported yoga made them feel calm)

“I used the animal alphabet strategy and it really helped me calm down.”

“I think the worry time app will help.”

“I think everything was great and I can’t wait for the next girl’s day.”

“I give it a 10/10 because I’m really energetic and we did active stuff.”

“I got to learn new things and have fun”

“Dr Mooney, especially, helped because she talked about our mental health.”

“It was good to be myself without the boys being there.”

“Yoga helped me feel relieved.”

“10/10. Loved it. Amazing.”

“I definitely think that it worked because it really cleared out my mind and I had heaps of fun.”

If you have any ideas or thoughts or would like to be involved in our Term Three’s Girls’ Day, just let us know.

A big thank you to Dr Caroline Mooney, Ruth, Mel, Jodie and Chantelle for helping to make this day so successful.

Asked to rate the day out of 10, the average score was 9.6!