Breakfast club
The Breakfast club provides students with a healthy start to their day. It is held Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8:10am in the common room. The club is run by teachers and offers students a variety of breakfast food options, as well as an opportunity to socialise with staff and peers. All students are welcome to attend.
Crossroads
This 25-hour course for Year 11 students examines issues related to relationships, drugs and mental health. The course is run as a part of a camp.
Homework club
The Homework club is run on Tuesdays between 2:38pm to 3:45pm in the student centre. The club allows students to get support with their homework and assignments. The club is open to all students.
Literacy, numeracy and English as second language
All teachers monitor students' progress throughout the year, and as a result students in need may be given additional assistance to improve their skills by the support teacher learning assistance and teachers' aides.
Peer support
This is a program in which trained Year 10 students assist Year 7 students in the process of settling into secondary school. It involves a transition program run by the peer support leaders early in the year.
Raise mentor program for Year 9 students
Selected Year 9 students are offered the chance to work with an adult mentor for one period per week for two terms.
Raise mentors help the students selected to raise their voices, improve their relationships, advance in their well-being and coping strategies, increase their self confidence, identify and achieve their goals, and engage in further education and employment.
The ethos behind the Raise mentoring programs is to provide a community of support around young people. Mentoring from a positive role model during the critical teenage years provides a nurturing pathway for young people to feel supported. Learn more about the Raise organisation on their website.
Youth frontiers mentoring program for Year 8 students
Selected Year 8 students work closely with a community mentor to explore special interest projects on topics like youth homelessness, supporting victims of domestic violence and the creation of a sports coaching website.
Positive peer relationship program
We encourage a positive peer relationship in our school. If a student feels he/she is being bullied or harassed by another student, the student should report the incident to his/her year adviser or the deputy principal so that this situation can be assessed and addressed.
If a parent or caregiver believes that a student is being subjected to bullying or harassment, he/she should report this to the principal or deputy principal who will organise for the matter to be assessed and addressed.
Prefects
Prefects perform an important role as leaders and role models for the other students. Students apply in Years 10, 11 and 12 for a leadership position. Interested students are trained in public speaking and interview skills which prepare them for a panel interview and a speech to their year group. Positions are then appointed after a student and staff election.
Rock and water program
We are excited that South Sydney High School started the Rock and Water Program in 2016. This program is designed to provide students with self-confidence and self-control through self-awareness activities and personal strategies against bullying, and was delivered across all Year 8 classes.
Students will develop, through a self-defence format using physical exercises and strengthening drills, a growing awareness of themselves on their path to adulthood. They will develop self-control, self-reflection and self-confidence.
Parents and caregivers are encouraged to discuss Rock and Water lessons at home with their children.
For more information on the Rock and Water Program, please visit the Rock and Water Program website.
Please contact Ms A Maynard (the Student Support Officer) or Mr B Benischke (Head Teacher Welfare) if you have questions about the program.
School camps
These are run in Years 7, 9 and 11. They provide for the development of social skills, physical challenges and opportunities for a mixing of all the students in a year so they may get to know each other better.
South Cares - Indigenious leadership program
The Schools to Work Transition program ('Nanga Mai Marri' - dream big) focuses on Year 11 and 12 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island pupils and works alongside them to identify and develop their own education and employment outcomes.
The program is underpinned by a greater understanding of culture as a way of building self esteem. Once this cultural base has been established, sessions are conducted which include employability skills training such as career exploration, resume building, goal setting, interview technique, grooming and etiquette. This leads to either employment or continuing education outcomes through a range of corporate networks or education institutions with which South Cares has built strong relationships.
The uniqueness of this program is that it will bring together students, parents and caregivers, corporate partners, education institutions, community groups and Rabbitohs NRL players in collaboration to support students on their journey.
The primary aim is to encourage and support students to stay at school and complete their HSC. Mentoring and a case management strategy are key components of the program and continue well beyond the school gate.
The Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) support and resource this program. There are currently five high schools in the South Sydney region taking part in the program:
- South Sydney High School
- Alexandria Park Community School
- Matraville Sports High School
- Tempe High School
- JJ Cahill Memorial High School.
Student representative council
The Student Representative Council is an elected body of students across Years 7 to 12 who organise a range of whole-school activities for student enjoyment and fundraising for various charities.
Transition program
In 2010 the Government raised the school leaving age to 17. As a response to this the Department of Education trained transition advisers in the schools.
The role of the transition adviser (a teacher) is to work with the careers adviser and transitions team to give individual support to disengaged or under achieving students in transitioning them from school to a career, or helping them to re-engage in school and continuing their education.
The hope is that by personally mentoring these students on Personal Learning Plans and giving them TAFE and workplace experiences, it will help to reengage them in the school and lessen the likelihood of them having to rely on welfare in their future.
There are many benefits of this program. Students are given:
- a personal mentor
- help to organise themselves
- help to complete assessments
- work placement opportunities
- workplaces to visit
- links to Youth Connections and Community support
- TAFE tasters.