What is REALskills High Schools?

REALskills is all about Relationship Education and Life Skills. It provides a suite of programs across the high school years, which address the relationship and life skills needs of students, parents/carers and school staff. The programs involve and utilise the expertise of local community and health service providers. They also allow for the sharing of specialist knowledge and facilitation skills amongst service providers and school staff. Through partnering with REALskills schools can enhance their capacity to increase the wellbeing of all their students.

Who is it for?

Students in the five Public High Schools in the Tweed Shire, their parents/carers and school staff.

How does it support young people and families?

• 7 UP – Year 7 – boys and/or girls groups for students who are identified as finding the high school setting challenging and may be at greater risk, due to low resilience or challenging family and peer relationships
• Being REAL – Year 8 or 9 – boys and girls groups for students who require support regarding family relationships, peer relationships, self esteem, resilience and risk taking, selected by school staff, attending on a voluntary basis, within school hours.
• Take a Stand – Year 8 – one-day program for the whole year level focussing on self respect, values, personal boundaries, peer pressure, staying safe around alcohol & other drugs, sexual expression, violence and bullying. The Year 10 Peer Leaders program forms part of the Take a Stand program and is for select group of year 10 students who participant in pre-program training, support the Year 8 students on the day and provide input directly into the continuous improvement of the Take a Stand program
• Switched On! Respectful Relationships – Year 10 – one-day program for the whole year level focussing on respectful intimate relationships, sex and sexuality, gender issues, domestic violence and sexual assault.
• REALskills for Parenting – parents/carers of teenagers –
• Getting Connected – school staff – one-day program for school welfare teams from across a number of local high schools. The day is broken into: skills workshop focussing on an area determined by the schools; networking and sharing experiences; service provider panel where school staff meet local support services, getting to know and understand the services they can link students & families into.