A Formative Journey Through the Middle Years
Our Year 7–9 Challenge Program is designed to support the wellbeing, formation, and development of students through one of their most significant life seasons. These "becoming" years are when identity, resilience, relationships, and character are actively forming.
Across these years, students are intentionally guided to understand themselves, their relationships, and the world around them. They are supported to engage with their own thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and choices, while learning how to live well alongside others. The goal is not simply success at school, but the development of young people who carry a grounded sense of purpose, kindness, and responsibility into life beyond the classroom.
Each year builds on the one before it, helping them grow into confident, grounded young people who understand that life is meaningful, demanding, and worth showing up for.
Throughout the program, students are invited to stretch themselves. They encounter challenge, practice perseverance, and learn that growth often comes through effort, discomfort, and reflection. Through shared experiences, service opportunities, and guided learning, students develop a stronger sense of self, a growing awareness of the needs of others, and a deeper understanding of how faith can shape and support everyday life.
The program spans Years 7, 8, and 9 and is embedded within the school timetable and calendar. Learning experiences are intentionally designed to foster resilience, responsibility, respect, and wellbeing, equipping students with skills and mindsets they will draw on throughout their lives. The framework is informed by contemporary wellbeing and educational research, including principles from positive psychology associated with the work of Martin Seligman, alongside best practice in adolescent development.
Through a combination of relational learning, skill development, challenge-based experiences, and service, students are encouraged to grow into young people marked by confidence, curiosity, empathy, and compassion. The program is grounded in Biblical wisdom, helping students understand that God is not separate from their everyday lives, but present as a guide, source of strength, and companion as they learn, grow, and become who they are created to be.
Year 7 – Gather
Belonging, friendship, and social foundations
Year 7 is a year of connection. As students transition into secondary school, the Challenge Program supports holistic growth and fosters intentionality in relationships and contribution.
Students will learn to:
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Build strong, positive friendships
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Grow in social awareness and responsibility
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Learn healthy ways to manage negative interactions and emotions
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Understand the value of journeying alongside others rather than going it alone
Guiding Scripture:
"Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble." - Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 (NLT)
Year 8 – Grit
Resilience, perseverance, and learning through challenge
Year 8 invites students to discover their capacity to persist. This is a year of developing resilience, learning how to stay committed, and understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, but part of the path toward it.
Students will learn to:
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Develop resilience and perseverance
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Learn a new skill and stay committed through challenges
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Become confident in failing, learning, and trying again
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Serve others by sharing their skills and experiences
Guiding Scripture:
"We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed." - 2 Corinthians 4:8–9 (NLT)
Year 9 – Grow
Maturity, character, and stepping into responsibility
Year 9 is significant year where students move beyond childhood patterns and begin stepping intentionally toward adulthood. This year focuses on character formation, personal responsibility, and discovering meaning through perseverance, service, and care for others.
Rather than shielding students from challenge, the Challenge Program helps them understand that difficulty is part of a worthwhile life, and that growth often comes through discomfort, responsibility, and commitment.
Students will learn to:
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Grow intentionally as they move from childhood toward adulthood
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Step beyond their comfort zone to discover their true potential
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Recognise that life is challenging, but deeply worthwhile
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Build meaningful, lasting relationships and learn how to maintain them
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Find real joy through caring for and serving others
Guiding Scripture:
"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation." - Romans 5:3–4 (NLT)
Together, Gather, Grit, and Grow form a deliberate journey of becoming. Across Years 7 to 9, students are supported to build strong relationships, develop resilience, and step into maturity with confidence and purpose. The Challenge Program recognises that character is formed over time, through challenge, encouragement, responsibility, and care. Our hope is that students leave the middle years grounded in who they are, able to persevere when life is difficult, and ready to contribute thoughtfully and compassionately to the world around them.