19 June 2025
Last Tuesday, I was fortunate enough to attend Healthy Relationships Day (HRD) alongside all my peers from SPSC, Walford Anglican School for Girls, St Peter’s Girls School, and Wilderness School; an eye-opening experience which is incredibly important in today’s society.
Earlier in the year, students of SPSC were welcomed to separate campuses of our partner schools (in our Houses) to familiarise ourselves with the groups for HRD, a new process which I felt helped the day flow better and encouraged better connection and communication within groups. Given this prior experience, when HRD began with icebreakers and discussion of group values, everyone in my group was very willing to contribute, and we came to an agreement about our values quite quickly.
We were incredibly fortunate to have Daniel Principe and Emma Tabacaru facilitate the day, both of whom are prominent youth advocators/educators and incredibly knowledgeable on the most relevant discourse in our society. They fostered a supportive, honest, and open environment, which in turn elicited mature and genuine engagement from members of all schools.
The day progressed through to group discussions of scenarios written by Year 11 students, based on their real-life experiences, where several students shared thought-provoking and incredibly considered responses. Personally, I quite enjoyed hearing different perspectives to my own, which often provided insight into many things I hadn’t considered, leaving me feeling far better equipped to support and communicate with others in potentially challenging or serious situations. During the lunch break, a barbeque fundraiser was run by leaders from the schools, with proceeds supporting Catherine House (which Walford is a key supporter of), a foundation supporting women experiencing homelessness and domestic violence.
Once lunch had finished, the groups were split and spread throughout the grounds to participate in some teambuilding games (such as charades and human knot), which provided an opportunity to develop teamwork skills and friendships within and between groups. I enjoyed spending time spread out from the other groups, taking a short break from the mature and serious nature of our conversation in the sports centre.
Upon our return to the sports centre, a slideshow on values and expectations in relationships was presented by the facilitators, based on a survey undertaken by members of all schools. This proved the most insightful and fascinating part of the day for me, as our group was tasked with determining what we and our peers valued the most and least in relationships, and found our conclusions to be slightly deviant from the results we were presented with.
Notably, many positive values including supportiveness and kindness were found at the top of the table, whilst aspects such as physique and income were ranked lowest, contrary to the misconceptions often being spread on social media.
The day concluded with a summary of the slideshow’s points from Daniel and Emma, and all students departed for the return trip to their respective campuses. SPSC students moved into House groups and debriefed on the days’ events, discussing what we believed went well, and potential improvements for next year’s cohort. Overall, I found the day to be an excellent opportunity to discuss prominent societal issues and conceptions with peers from other schools and truly enjoyed the overturning of common misconceptions towards the day’s end.
Quinn Murphy
Year 11 Student
