A DECADE of student peer support and wellbeing was celebrated at Woolgoolga High School on Thursday 24 November as the school marked ten years of its award-winning SMILE Program.

The student-led SMILE (Support, Mentor, Inspire, Listen, Encourage) Program is a peer mentoring program founded by senior students at the school in 2011 and implemented in 2012.

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Since then, SMILE has become an integral part of the school’s wellbeing program and hundreds of senior students have been trained in the last decade to become SMILE mentors who have supported and mentored hundreds of junior students.

Some of these students, including Jason Brommell (founder and SMILE student mentor) and Patrick Mullan (SMILE student mentor), have now returned to Woolgoola High School as staff members, further reinforcing the success of the program now as teachers at the school.

The momentous occasion was celebrated by some of the SMILE founding students including Olivia Monk, Jason Brommell and Jasmine Thorpe, former SMILE student mentors, current and past school staff, current and future student SMILE mentors and local organisations including Headspace Coffs Harbour, Woolgoolga Lions Club, Coffs Harbour Quota Club and Mission Australia that have supported the program at a 10th Anniversary Luncheon at the school, which was catered for by the school’s Year 11 Hospitality students and staff.

Woolgoolga High School principal Guy Wright (currently on leave) who was part of the program’s establishment attended the celebration and reminisced on the past ten years of the program with students and staff.

Woolgoolga High School Welfare Head Teacher Ian Cook, who has overseen the program at the school alongside Student Support Officer Daniel Sweed and his predecessor Alison Fenton, said the program was recognised and valued within and beyond the school.

“SMILE is a grassroots program that has an impact, there is a daily presence of SMILE in our school,” Mr Cook said.

“It has been my privilege to have been part of SMILE since its inception.”

The wellbeing program has traditionally seen Year 11 students support and mentor Year 7 students and other junior students at the school, however next year will see Year 10 students taking on the mentoring challenge to free up the Year 11 students to focus on their senior studies.

Incoming student SMILE mentors participate in training days at the school to prepare them for this important new role.

SMILE mentors not only act as support for students who need it daily but also assist with school events and activities including the school’s annual Year 6 Orientation Day, Kindness Day and the SMILE Photo Booth.

The successful program has not only been embraced by the school and its students, with eighteen SMILE mentors in its founding year of 2011 expanding to up to 90 mentors in following years, but other schools have also initiated the program in their schools following its success at Woolgoolga High School.