Focus on

STUDENTS at Berwick Secondary College swapped their textbooks for yoga mats and meditation this week during a daylong conference focused on personal wellbeing.
Jeff Kennett, former Victorian Premier and chairman of Beyond Blue, a national organisation working to raise awareness of depression in Australia, was also a guest speaker during the day-long event.
Mr Kennett spoke to the school’s 230 year 11 students about the need to create more community awareness about mental illness and de-stigmatise depression.
Student welfare coordinator Manfred Horn organised the event in which 30 presenters talked to students about their physical and mental health.
Mr Horn said students faced a lot of decisions in their senior years and found themselves dealing with relationship issues as well as extra stresses.
“Students are facing a lot of decisions about careers and other choices and it is important that they make the right ones.
“Days like this might help students to stop and think about how to deal with their own lives and do something positive for themselves and their friends by making contact with the community and focusing on their physical and mental health,” he said.
Students took part in various workshops through out the day and also enjoyed yoga, aromatherapy and meditation.
Berwick local and Hawthorn footballer Travis Tuck also visited the school, as did players from the Dandenong Rangers basketball team.
Mr Horn said this was the second year the school had run the wellbeing day and they would continue to make it an annual event.