Spotlight: Healthy Harold Heroes

Heroes Emerge from Oakleigh Grammar During Lockdown

In 2018, as part of our deeper dosage strategy, the ed team and I developed a term long program to focus on years 5 and 6 to encourage children to authentically express their student voice and agency. Healthy Harold Heroes was released and ever since then we have been blown away with the unbelievable feedback and support from schools.  

Check out some video testimonials and more about the program here.

Students learn how to research, develop and implement a campaign for their school which is based around a health and wellbeing issue relevant to their school community. As a result, students develop leadership skills and act as agents of change within their local community and showcase their work in front of their peers. (with Harold appearing!)

I started working with the student leaders at Oakleigh Grammar in Term 2 this year and not even lockdown could stop these ambassadors from tackling mental health issues within their school. 

As we entered another lockdown in Term 3, myself and the school were eager to continue our workshops to further their campaign which was all done virtually. 

I was so impressed with their level of agency throughout the whole campaign, you could tell that this was a topic close to them and they wanted to make a real change. 

Their Vision Statement was:

“Our Healthy Harold Heroes campaign will promote great mental health by engaging Oakleigh Grammar students in positive actions.”

To achieve their vision, the HHH Students Ambassadors chose to post mental health tips on their school socials everyday to engage kids in wellbeing activities.

Here is what their month of October looked like - chock full of positive actions to achieve change.

Now that the students are finally back on campus, I am very excited to be able to revisit the HHH student ambassadors in person so we can review the outcomes and actions from their campaign. 

Whilst this program works best face to face, I was delighted that we were able to adapt quickly and continue the program virtually.

The addition of the Healthy Harold Heroes program, which consists of 10 regular weekly visits, complements and adds value to the existing programs by allowing us to work and tailor the experience with the future leaders.

Ange McIntosh
LEV, Healthy Harold Heroes Facilitator