Hastings Secondary College school leaders talk about their goals for 2019

Destiny Thomson, Caitlin Axelby, Jennifer Cooper and Tegan McCauley are the leadership team at the Westport campus and say the are excited about leading the school this year.

“Being a leader to me means setting the expectations of the school, meaning wearing the proper uniform and being safe and respectful in class,” Caitlin said.

“This year I hope to get a recycling program going and do a lot of fundraising for Mr Ross who is competing in the Stars of the Hastings dance competition raising money for Cancer Council.

“The other thing I want to work on this year is about school cohesion and trying to get all the students to work together no matter if you go to Westport or the Port Macquarie campus.”

“This is my second year being a leader at school and I think it has been so good for me because I have gained a lot of confidence from it,” Destiny said.

“I feel empowered to help others now that I have the confidence in myself and I really hope that I can help others feel more confident.

“I also want to try and raise school spirit so that everyone finds coming to school a positive experience.

“One piece of advice I would give to new students is explore all your options because you might excel at something you have never even though about doing.”

The students also believe that there is a lot of pressure put on young people in today’s society to do certain things or act in certain ways.

“I think one of the biggest issues facing students these days is identity and having a sense of belonging. We have all these expectation from social media, our friends and even ourselves that we will never be good enough and I think that has to change,” Tegan said.

“I hope I will be the kind of leader that all students feel like they can approach and talk to about anything.”

“For me I hope to show people that doing the unexpected can be cool,” Jennifer said.

“I am passionate about helping others and making a difference in the community and I plan to show students that it is a cool thing to help people in the wider community and not just at school.

“I want to show students that stepping out of your comfort zone to help others is a good thing and great things come from doing hard and difficult things.

“My advice to all students is to say yes to new experiences and get involved in something new.”

Georgia Bell, Bridget Flint, Tina Nguyen, Towa Henry and Kingsley Marks are some of the members of the Student Representative Council at the Port Macquarie campus and say they believe leadership is all about helping other students and them a voice.

“To me leadership is all about making it easier for the younger students at school,” Towa said.

“Some students might not feel comfortable talking to teachers about their problems but I want to be the kind of leader students feel like they can come and talk to.”

“Leadership is about representing the students as school and in the wider community,” Tina said.

“I think one of the biggest issues facing young people today is mental illness because people don’t think that young people can have problems.

“Some young people are really struggling and I think it is important that talking about mental illness is okay and necessary. Students should not be afraid to ask for help.”

The SRC meet up to three times a week to talk about how they can make improvements at school to help their peers.

“Lots of kids struggle with feeling like they are not good enough and that is something that I really want to focus on this year,” Bridget said.

“In a world where everything is on social media I think we think we need to be perfect at everything and that isn’t the case.

“Everyone should be celebrated for the things they can do well and we should be looking at sharing our skills more.”

“For me lots of people build barriers around themselves to protect them from bad or hard things and I really want to see what I can do to help those people,” Georgia said.

“We should be trying to give those who don’t feel heard a voice and help them feel included at school.”

“If I had one piece of advice for incoming students it would be to give everything a go and take advantage of every opportunity, because you never know what can happen when you try,” Kingsley said.

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