Influence – Year 10 Pastoral Care

At Mercedes College we take great pride in our programs crafted through over 175 years of nurturing, educating and empowering our young ladies during their journey towards becoming Women of Mercy. One example of this is the influence program, the third of our personal development programs that are part of The Rite Journey (TRJ).

The Influence Program is undertaken by our year 10 students after completing the Year 9 TRJ, and excitingly introduces a focus on leadership and the development of skills that will give them the strength to be influencers in the College community.

On our reflection day, Thursday the 24^th of February, the homeroom teachers introduced some key aspects of this program to our students:

“What is a good leader?”

“My learning strengths.”

“Learning strengths in action.”

These aspects were explored through interactive activities as well as a combination of both individual and group sharing, with one of the girls’ favourite activities being the discussion of leadership qualities centering around images of figures that the girls considered to be good or bad leaders.

Throughout the year the program will continue within pastoral care, with the emphasis being placed on three main areas of leadership:

1. Within yourself.
2. Within the School.
3. In the Community.

The final aspect, Leader in the world has an emphasis on sustainability development and is integrated into Religious Education and Service Learning.

We view these stages as the beginning of the leadership journey for all our girls, with those students who want to pursue and develop leadership skills further being encouraged and empowered to do so in upper school.