throughout the State, Monday marked the start of a

new school and a new beginning.

Those first few weeks and sometimes months of

secondary school can be both difficult and confronting.

However, Nambucca Heads High School’s peer support program works towards alleviating some of those obstacles.

This year’s program has been extended to a two-day

camp at Hat Head where students will be taught a

variety of life skills.

Each of the Year 7 group of students will be assigned a Year 10 ‘mentor’ to guide them through their experience.

The two-day exercise will take the students bushwalking and canoeing, teach them how to surf, cook and pitch a tent.

“But, more than anything it teaches them to know each other,” year advisor Matt Gilbert said.

He explained some of the students may have come from schools or areas outside Nambucca Heads.

The camp will also teach them lifestyle skills, give

them self confidence and how to deal with bullying, he said.

“The main thing is to get all the kids in a cohesive and collegiate group so they are all happy.

“If they are happy they will be friends and happy at school.”

Macksville High School introduces the next generation of Year 7 students to secondary school with a series of transition days in the months leading up to the

new school year.

Community engagement officer Lynette Howle said

students from feeder schools attend a variety of

information and introduction days at the school from

mid-way through the year.

“We speak to both students and parents from schools in the area about secondary school,” Ms Howle said.

Many of the students already know one another because they come from local schools such as Macksville Public or St Patrick’s Primary, she explained.

While Year 7 students are not ‘buddied-up’ with older students, they get to know their peers at roll-call.

Students from all years are in the same roll-call class for the duration of the school year, she said.