News

Posted on August 09, 2017

The Big Brogram

Over the past six months a team including the current Head Boy, Tal Weiner, the ex-Morgan House Captain, Ben Palmer (2016), the School Counsellor Mr Sean Panambalana, along with the support of the Head of Grammar, Mr Mark Trollope and other key staff have been working on a ground breaking program aimed at changing the way masculinity is perceived by boys at Pittwater House - The Big Brogram.

The Big Brogram is a program designed to buck this trend and show boys that "it's not weak to speak", with this being its motto. The underlying goal of the program is to create a culture of support seeking and support giving at Pittwater House, that encourages boys to express their emotions and personal issues, rather than bottle them up. We want to show boys that you can be both tough and vulnerable, you can be both strong and emotional and that you can be both independent and caring in order to better each for their lives ahead. 

Three times as many men than women take their own lives and suicide is the leading killer of men aged 15-44. Much of this problem is caused by the social construct of masculinity that so many boys try to live up to - the strong, tough, independent male. Now these attributes are not necessarily negative, but when they are applied to dealing with personal problems and emotional distress, they can become extremely damaging. But, this is a societal problem rather than a biological problem, so it can be changed.

Next news

08/09/17

Pittwater House student finalist in NSW International Student Awards

Pittwater House Year 10 student, Tanya Da Costa, has been selected as a finalist for the 2017 NSW International Student Awards for her outstanding community and school based work.  Not only is Tanya a...

read more

Previous news

09/08/17

Da Vinci decathlon success

Pittwater House competed in the da Vinci Decathlon at Knox Grammar School. We sent five teams and each team competed against approximately 50 other schools, including Selective schools. The results ou...

read more