Maturing in the modern world

Mother and son watch the online puberty program

A puberty and personal development program for year 5 and 6 students has moved online thanks to COVID – with positive results.

A number of school-run programs that were once presented face-to-face have turned to online platforms.

‘My Body My Life’ was delivered to students and parents at school, but COVID-19 prevented this. This year children have sat down with their parents at home and discussed the topic.

Mother of four Bernadette Rayner took part with her first three children through the schools face-to-face puberty program.

This year she went online with her youngest and they both got a lot out of the experience.

“I found that as a result of having to go through the chapters of the program together, at home without being in a large group, my daughter and I were able to be much more engaged, candid and open,” she said.

The Archdiocese Marriage, Family & Relationships team put together the online program which includes a self-paced, six-part video series. It features a number of presenters including team manager Lara Kirk.

Lara said that the team always tries to involve parents in this area of their child’s personal development to help them start and continue conversations together.

“By putting the content online, it has given parents more freedom to decide when and how to engage with their child around the material, and critique it according to their own family values,” she said.

“The result has shown a noticeably more confident and positive shift in the way the children engage with the material in the classroom.

“Bernadette agrees the resources are age-appropriate and are presented in “a very comfortable, warm, joyful, informative and relatable way that was respectful of my belief in the Catholic Church teaching”.

• For more information about the new online puberty program, ‘My Body My Life’ contact Cathy Madsen, Primary School Coordinator mfr.adminsupport@cg.org.au