Traveller’s Group

Our first Traveller’s Group completed their journey and earned their Traveller’s passports.  We celebrated our final group session with chocolate cake.  Our year 10 dean (Jess Lach) and I (Mary Milne, school counsellor) had the pleasure of bringing this well-established programme to our school.  It equips students with the resiliency skills to take in the “suitcase” to support them through the tough times.

Traveller’s Programme is a New Zealand based programme through Skylight Trust that launched in 2001. Through the small group format (8-10 students), middle schoolers are supported to build resiliency as they explore their own stories to help them along the way. The programme uses the metaphor that we are all Travellers on this journey of life and sometimes the road can be more challenging than others. Group members are carefully chosen through an online survey completed by all year 10 students. The survey then highlights students who are likely to get most benefit from the programme. Then students are interviewed by me to explore if they will be a good fit for the group. We hope this becomes a regular part of what our pastoral programme offers to support students to navigate those critical teen years.

By Mary Milne, M.S.W. School Counsellor