Wesley students reach global audience on Grow Your Mind podcast

Wesley students advocated kindness and used their voices to stand up for racism when they recently hosted two episodes of the Grow Your Mind podcast.

Grow Your Mind is an award-winning social and emotional wellbeing program which plays a key role in Wesley College’s wellbeing curriculum. This acclaimed podcast, which champions social and emotional learning, has listeners tuning in from over 140 countries.

In March this year, five Year 7 students from our Elsternwick Campus - Lucy, Mia, Lucian, Christopher and Yvette - had the opportunity to share their voices with a global audience through two brand new episodes in Series 5 of the podcast - Episode 1, titled Invisible Sam and Episode 2, titled Belonging and Inclusion are BFFs.

These episodes explored powerful themes like kindness, inclusion and standing up to racism, encouraging listeners of all ages to be active upstanders in their communities.

For Mia, participating in the podcast provided a meaningful opportunity to advocate for taking action - a core value of a Wesley education. She reflects: ‘No matter who you are, or where you are, you can be an upstander against racism by calling it out.’

Working closely with podcast producer Alice Peel, the students wrote and recorded the episodes at school, supported by professional sound technicians.

The project formed part of their Primary Years Program (PYP) Exhibition, one of the major projects to conclude the International Baccalaureate PYP, which is undertaken by students from ECLC to Year 6.

Throughout the term, students had reflected on the idea that 'The information we are given can influence what we think about communities'. Through this project, the students turned learning into meaningful action, using storytelling to promote empathy, inclusion and social justice.

‘It’s important to stand up for what is right in your community,’ adds Lucy, highlighting the courage it takes to lead with integrity.

Tune in to Grow Your Mind Series 5, now streaming, featuring Wesley’s inspiring young changemakers in Invisible Sam and Belonging and Inclusion are BFFs.