On Wednesday, 21 April, the St Columba Anglican School leadership team had the honour of hosting the Hastings Student Leadership Forum. In attendance were special guests Port Macquarie-Hastings Mayor Peta Pinson, State Member Leslie Williams, Federal Member Pat Conaghan, and Lucilla Marshall from Port Macquarie-Hastings Council. We also had the pleasure of welcoming passionate representatives from four other schools from throughout the region.
This amazing event led to the discussion of measures and funding for natural disasters like the recent floods, social services discussions on youth homelessness and the long waiting times to access mental health services in regional NSW, and a discussion on how Port Macquarie should represent its culture and history respectfully. The event was a wonderful learning experience both from our team in learning how to research and pitch questions, and from the information we gleaned from the various guest leaders in how they led and snippets of what actually goes on being the scenes of the roles such as multidisciplinary work for disaster relief. These leaders emphasised the importance of registering via Council Flood Recovery Centres if you need assistance for flood damage. Do not be afraid to ask for help in other aspects of your life.
We had the wonderful opportunity to engage with our community and schools across the Hastings area as a student body united for change. On behalf of the Student Leadership team, we would like to thank Ms Watters for the wonderful opportunity.
By Nicola Awad and Jinuki Senanayake
Year 12 Prefects
