The Peer Support Team is a group of Senior students, representative of the St Laurence’s community in its diversity, connectedness and spirit. The underlying principle of the team is to recognise that when young people have difficulties, they frequently turn to people closer in age in the first instance rather than approaching an adult.
To be selected on the team, students are given the opportunity to apply in Year 11 and then participate in a ‘Peer Skills’ workshop over two days. Kids Help Line (KHL) originally developed the Peer Skills workshop in 1994 in response to the number of calls from young people concerned about their friends, and requests from schools for students to do work experience at KHL. Since that time the Peer Skills workshop has trained 14,000 young people across Australia and it is now sponsored by LifeLine.
Peer Mentors make a promise to the College each year to provide help and support for the younger students of SLC by joining in with them in activities at year level camps, Home Classes and lunch times, to greater strengthen our bonds with them. The 20 seniors that are selected for this position of responsibility look forward to and are enthusiastic about getting to know the younger students of St Laurence's. They present themselves as positive role models in order to make a student’s experience at St Laurence’s as enjoyable as possible.
Following selection, Mrs Michelle Martin (College Counsellor) supports the students in fulfilling their role in the College.